Mackintosh's was a British
confectionery
Confectionery is the art of making confections, which are food items that are rich in sugar and carbohydrates. Exact definitions are difficult. In general, however, confectionery is divided into two broad and somewhat overlapping categories ...
firm founded in
Halifax, Yorkshire
Halifax () is a minster and market town in the Metropolitan Borough of Calderdale in West Yorkshire, England. It is the commercial, cultural and administrative centre of the borough, and the headquarters of Calderdale Council. In the 15th cen ...
, England. It was known for
its toffee and the
Quality Street and
Rolo
Rolo (pronounced /ˈrəʊləʊ/), referring to the roll-styled chocolates, is a brand of truncation (geometry), truncated cone-shaped or conical frustum-shaped chocolates with a caramel inside. First manufactured in Norwich, Norfolk in the United ...
brands.
Beginnings
The firm was founded by John Mackintosh (1868-1920)
[ and his wife, Violet (née Taylor), who bought a pastry shop in Halifax with their joint savings of £100 in 1890, the year that they married. Violet, who had been a confectioner's assistant before her marriage, ran the shop and her husband continued to work at a cotton mill.][ To attract customers, they decided to sell a special toffee.][ Violet developed a recipe which blended the traditional, brittle English butterscotch with soft, American caramel,][ and they sold the toffee as Mackintosh's Celebrated Toffee. The toffee's success enabled Mackintosh to expand the business beyond Halifax by 1894. Indeed, it was so successful that it "ultimately transformed popular understanding of the term 'toffee', previously a description of any sugar or boiled sweet".][
Moving from retail to manufacture and wholesale, they first rented a small warehouse in Bond Street, Halifax, and in 1895, they commenced larger-scale production at bigger premises at Hope Street. The firm was converted into a limited liability company, John Mackintosh Ltd, in 1899 raising £11,000 and borrowing a further £4,000 to build a new works at Queen's Road. When the building was destroyed by fire in 1909, the insurance payout was used to purchase the vacant Albion Mills and the Queen's Road factory was rebuilt and 1912 expanded to begin chocolate manufacture.][Robert Fitzgerald, ‘Mackintosh, John (1868–1920)’, ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, January 201]
accessed 29 January 2011
John Mackintosh (1868–1920):
In 1904, Mackintosh established his first overseas factory at Asbury Park
Asbury Park () is a beachfront city located on the Jersey Shore in Monmouth County in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It is part of the New York metropolitan area.
As of the 2020 U.S. census, the city's population was 15,188 , New Jersey which, however, soon failed. Undeterred, a factory was opened in 1906 at Krefeld
Krefeld ( , ; li, Krieëvel ), also spelled Crefeld until 1925 (though the spelling was still being used in British papers throughout the Second World War), is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is located northwest of Düsseldorf, i ...
, near Düsseldorf. By 1914, operations had been established in Australia and Canada and John Mackintosh Ltd employed some 1000 people.[
The German factory was confiscated and the number of employees fell to 250 during the First World War.][ In 1917 a new line was developed, a chocolate covered Toffee-De-Luxe, but all chocolate production ceased that year when a wartime conscription tribunal refused an exemption for a key manager.][
]
Power of publicity
Mackintosh understood the power of marketing and publicity. He began with handbills advertising Mackintosh's Celebrated Toffee as a weekend treat targeting the Saturday afternoon market, when workers had a half-holiday and their weekly wage payment in hand.[Robert Fitzgerald, "Markets, Management, and Merger: John Mackintosh & Sons, 1890-1969" (2000) 74 (no. 4) ''The Business History Review'' 555-60]
accessed 29 January 2011
/ref> By 1896, Mackintosh was calling himself the "Toffee King" [ and his product "The King of All the Toffees".][ In 1902 the firm began consumer and coupon competitions and then national press marketing: the firm bought space in the '']Daily Mail
The ''Daily Mail'' is a British daily middle-market tabloid newspaper and news websitePeter Wilb"Paul Dacre of the Daily Mail: The man who hates liberal Britain", ''New Statesman'', 19 December 2013 (online version: 2 January 2014) publish ...
'', Britain's most popular mass newspaper, and it used story lines, graphics and cartoons, while his competitors still limited themselves to wordy descriptions.[
]
Postwar restructure and growth
After John Mackintosh's death in 1920, his eldest son, Harold Mackintosh took charge. The company was floated as John Mackintosh & Sons Ltd in March 1921. By paying the shareholders of the old company ordinary and preference shares in a sum greater than the issued capital of John Mackintosh Ltd., together with a substantial distribution, they controlled some 93% of the new firm; two of the founders' sons, Harold and Douglas, controlled over half the ordinary shares. To pay estate duties, the public were offered some preference shares.[
The family ownership was supplemented by some key management appointments: Harold Mackintosh, chairman and managing director, took charge of purchasing; (John) Harry Guy, a ]Quaker
Quakers are people who belong to a historically Protestant Christian set of Christian denomination, denominations known formally as the Religious Society of Friends. Members of these movements ("theFriends") are generally united by a belie ...
and a Price Waterhouse
PricewaterhouseCoopers is an international professional services brand of firms, operating as partnerships under the PwC brand. It is the second-largest professional services network in the world and is considered one of the Big Four accounting ...
trained accountant, became finance director (from 1922 until his death in 1955); Frank Bottomley, an old school friend of Harold, became works manager (retiring from the firm in 1966); and marketing was overseen by E. L. Fletcher, who joined the firm from the advertising agency T. B. Browne, where he had worked on the Mackintosh account.[
A series of surreal ]Heath Robinson
William Heath Robinson (31 May 1872 – 13 September 1944) was an English cartoonist, illustrator and artist, best known for drawings of whimsically elaborate machines to achieve simple objectives.
In the UK, the term "Heath Robinson cont ...
cartoons of "Toffee Town" began a memorable national newspaper marketing campaign in October 1921.[ As the headquarters of the growing concern, Halifax became known as "Toffee Town".][
Mackintosh re-entered the United States market but by 1931, it entered into an agreement with another Yorkshire company whose Toronto subsidiary manufactured its toffees on a royalty basis and exported them over the border to the United States.][
The North Kerry Manufacturing Company was acquired when the firm's sales in the new Irish Free State were affected by import duties in 1924 and, in 1931, they merged their interests, with Rowntree using a holding company: Associated Chocolate and Confectionery Company.][
Acquisitions were also made in the British market. In 1927, the purchase of two confectionery retailers, Meeson and Tuckshop, gave the firm direct access to consumers, some control over retail prices and diversification. In 1929, the Anglo-American Chewing Gum Ltd. (later renamed the Anglo-American Confectionery) expanded their product range and forestalled American entry into the British market with a rival chewing product.][
]
Caley acquisition
Albert Jarman Caley had begun selling a range of mineral waters and soft drinks in Norwich
Norwich () is a cathedral city and district of Norfolk, England, of which it is the county town. Norwich is by the River Wensum, about north-east of London, north of Ipswich and east of Peterborough. As the seat of the See of Norwich, with ...
in 1863. He diversified to produce cocoa (1883), chocolate (1886) and Christmas crackers (1898). The business was purchased in 1918 by the African and Eastern Trading Company and underwent expansion at Norwich and mineral water
Mineral water is water from a mineral spring that contains various minerals, such as salts and sulfur compounds. Mineral water may usually be still or sparkling (carbonated/effervescent) according to the presence or absence of added gases.
Tra ...
and cider
Cider ( ) is an alcoholic beverage made from the fermented juice of apples. Cider is widely available in the United Kingdom (particularly in the West Country) and the Republic of Ireland. The UK has the world's highest per capita consumption, ...
factories in London, Ipswich, and Banham. Caley's had become overcapitalised and unprofitable, and the new owner sought unsuccessfully to dispose of the business in the 1920s.[
In 1920, ]Lever Brothers
Lever Brothers was a British manufacturing company founded in 1885 by two brothers: William Hesketh Lever, 1st Viscount Leverhulme (1851–1925), and James Darcy Lever (1854–1916). They invested in and successfully promoted a new soap-making p ...
acquired the Niger Company and in 1929, the United Africa Company was formed by a merger of the Niger Company and the African and Eastern Trading Company. In the same year, Unilever was formed when Lever Brothers merged with Dutch Margarine Unie.[
As a result of a lunchtime meeting at the ]Savoy Hotel
The Savoy Hotel is a luxury hotel located in the Strand in the City of Westminster in central London, England. Built by the impresario Richard D'Oyly Carte with profits from his Gilbert and Sullivan opera productions, it opened on 6 August 188 ...
, Harold bought the A.J. Caley chocolate company in Norwich from Unilever
Unilever plc is a British multinational consumer goods company with headquarters in London, England. Unilever products include food, condiments, bottled water, baby food, soft drink, ice cream, instant coffee, cleaning agents, energy drink, t ...
in 1932, giving it access to chocolate production.
Whilst continuing in their roles at the parent company, Eric Mackintosh (Harold's younger brother, the managing director of Mackintosh's from 1929) became chairman of Caley's, with Harry Guy taking control of finance and Frank Bottomley as works manager.
Later developments
Mackintosh's went on to develop brands such as Quality Street (1936), Rolo
Rolo (pronounced /ˈrəʊləʊ/), referring to the roll-styled chocolates, is a brand of truncation (geometry), truncated cone-shaped or conical frustum-shaped chocolates with a caramel inside. First manufactured in Norwich, Norfolk in the United ...
(1938), Caramac (1959) and Toffee Crisp
Toffee is a confection made by caramelizing sugar or molasses (creating inverted sugar) along with butter, and occasionally flour. The mixture is heated until its temperature reaches the hard crack stage of . While being prepared, toffee is ...
(1963).[Toffee King John Mackintosh, 15 May 2008, Evening Courier.]
/ref>
In 1969, the company merged with Rowntree's
Rowntree's is a British confectionery brand and former business based in York, England. Rowntree developed the Kit Kat (introduced in 1935), Aero (introduced in 1935), Fruit Pastilles (introduced in 1881), Smarties (introduced in 1937) brands, ...
to form Rowntree Mackintosh Confectionery
Rowntree Mackintosh Confectionery was a British company formed by the merger of Rowntree's and John Mackintosh Co. The company was famous for making chocolate brands, such as Kit Kat, Aero and Quality Street. It was purchased by Nestlé in 19 ...
, which was itself taken over by Nestlé
Nestlé S.A. (; ; ) is a Switzerland, Swiss multinational food and drink processing conglomerate corporation headquartered in Vevey, Vaud, Switzerland. It is the largest publicly held food company in the world, measured by revenue and other me ...
in 1988.
In popular culture
The lyrics of George Harrison
George Harrison (25 February 1943 – 29 November 2001) was an English musician and singer-songwriter who achieved international fame as the lead guitarist of the Beatles. Sometimes called "the quiet Beatle", Harrison embraced Indian c ...
’s song "Savoy Truffle
"Savoy Truffle" is a song by the English rock band the Beatles from their 1968 album ''The Beatles'' (also known as "the White Album"). The song was written by George Harrison and inspired by his friend Eric Clapton's fondness for chocolate. The ...
", first recorded by the Beatles
The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960, that comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatles, most influential band of al ...
on their self-titled album is a fanciful listing of flavours, some real and others imagined, in a box of Mackintosh's ''Good News'' Chocolates.
References
{{Rowntree's
Rowntree's
Companies based in Halifax, West Yorkshire
Food and drink companies established in 1890
Confectionery companies of the United Kingdom
Nestlé brands
1890 establishments in England
Food and drink companies disestablished in 1969
1969 disestablishments in England