Spillers Ltd was a British company that owned flour milling operations, operated bakeries and also sold

pet food Pet food is animal feed intended for consumption by pets. Typically sold in pet stores and supermarkets, it is usually specific to the type of animal, such as dog food or cat food. Most meat used for animals is a byproduct of the human food indu ...

and equine feeds.

History

The business originated in 1829 from the establishment of a

flour mill A gristmill (also: grist mill, corn mill, flour mill, feed mill or feedmill) grinds cereal grain into flour and middlings. The term can refer to either the grinding mechanism or the building that holds it. Grist is grain that has been separat ...

Bridgwater Bridgwater is a large historic market town and civil parish in Somerset, England. Its population currently stands at around 41,276 as of 2022. Bridgwater is at the edge of the Somerset Levels, in level and well-wooded country. The town lies alon ...

, Somerset, by Joel Spiller. The business rapidly expanded to other parts of England and Wales. In 1855 Spillers began to manufacture

ships' biscuits Hardtack (or hard tack) is a simple type of dense biscuit or cracker made from flour, water, and sometimes salt. Hardtack is inexpensive and long-lasting. It is used for sustenance in the absence of perishable foods, commonly during long sea voy ...

. By 1854, Spiller opened a flour mill in

Cardiff Cardiff (; cy, Caerdydd ) is the capital and largest city of Wales. It forms a principal area, officially known as the City and County of Cardiff ( cy, Dinas a Sir Caerdydd, links=no), and the city is the eleventh-largest in the United Kingd ...

with his business partner Samuel Browne. The mill burned down in 1882 and was rebuilt in 1887 incorporating two other mills. In 1893 a mill was built in Cardiff that formed part of a complex of steam-powered

roller mill Roller mills are mills that use cylindrical rollers, either in opposing pairs or against flat plates, to crush or grind various materials, such as grain, ore, gravel, plastic, and others. Roller grain mills are an alternative to traditiona ...

s with a capacity of 100,000 tons per year. In 1889 the business merged with William Baker and Sons of Bristol to form Spillers and Bakers Ltd. At the beginning of the 20th century Spillers introduced the Turog brand of

brown bread Brown bread is bread made with significant amounts of whole grain flour, usually wheat, and sometimes dark-coloured ingredients such as molasses or coffee. In Canada, Ireland and South Africa, it is whole wheat bread; in the Maritimes and New En ...

. Spillers made the flour which was sold to bakers who were licensed to make Turog bread, which Spillers promoted by advertising. Turog was a competitor to

Hovis Hovis Ltd is a British company that produces flour and bread. The brand originated in Stoke-on-Trent and was first mass-produced in Macclesfield, Cheshire, in 1886. It became part of Rank Hovis McDougall (RHM) in 1962 after a succession of merge ...

, which used the same business model.

Winalot Winalot is a popular brand of dog food sold in the United Kingdom and Ireland. The name was first used in 1927 for dog biscuits by Spillers Ltd; they were initially marketed as a food for racing greyhounds, but soon gained popularity with domestic ...

dog biscuit A dog biscuit is a hard biscuit-based dietary supplement for dogs or other canines, similar to human snack food. Dog biscuits tend to be hard and dry. Dog biscuits may be sold in a flat bone-shape. The dry and hard biscuit texture helps clean ...

s were introduced by Spillers in 1927. They were initially marketed as a food for racing

greyhound The English Greyhound, or simply the Greyhound, is a breed of dog, a sighthound which has been bred for coursing, greyhound racing and hunting. Since the rise in large-scale adoption of retired racing Greyhounds, the breed has seen a resurge ...

s, but soon gained popularity with pet-owners and became a brand leader in the 1930s. After its acquisition by Nestlé 1998, the Winalot brand was expanded to include a range of dog foods and snacks. In 1947, Spillers acquired

Foster Mill Station Road is a road in southeast Cambridge, England.Station Area Conservation Appraisal', Quality Built Environments (QuBE), prepared for Cambridge City Council. June 2004. It leads from a junction with traffic lights on Hills Road ( A1307) ...

next to

Cambridge railway station Cambridge railway station is the principal station serving the city of Cambridge in the east of England. It stands at the end of Station Road, south-east of the city centre. It is the northern terminus of the West Anglia Main Line, down th ...

. In 1964, Spillers took over the

Kennomeat Kennomeat was a popular brand of canned dog food sold in the United Kingdom. Robert Wilson & Sons were an established manufacturer of pet foods, with canneries in Barrhead near Glasgow and at Malone in Belfast, Northern Ireland, and in the 1930 ...

dog food brand with its acquisition of a subsidiary of Robert Wilson & Sons, Scottish Animal Products Ltd. In 1978, Spillers acquired Modern Maid Food Products Inc, of New Jersey, USA. In 1979 Spillers was acquired by

Dalgety plc Dalgety plc—as Dalgety and Company—was for more than a century a major pastoral and agricultural company or stock and station agency in Australia and New Zealand. Controlled from London it was listed on the London Stock Exchange and Austr ...

, after a hostile take-over battle. The company's bakery business was spun off and sold to

Allied Bakeries An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an alliance are called ...

. In the late 1990s, following the BSE outbreak in the United Kingdom, Dalgety entered into a series of disposals and sold Spillers flour milling operations to

Kerry Group Kerry Group plc is a public food company headquartered in Ireland. It is quoted on the Dublin ISEQ and London stock exchanges. Given the company's origins in the co-operative movement, farmer-suppliers of the company retain a significant int ...

plc in 1997 and its pet foods business to

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 1998.

External links

References

{{Authority control Companies based in Surrey Animal food manufacturers Dogs as pets Flour mills in the United Kingdom