Farley's was a British food manufacturing company, best known for the baby product Farley's

Rusk A rusk is a hard, dry Biscuit#Biscuits in British usage, biscuit or a twice-baked bread. It is sometimes used as a teether for babies. In some cultures, rusk is made of cake rather than bread: this is sometimes referred to as cake rusk. In the ...

s but also for baby rice, cereals and breadsticks. The brand mascot was a

teddy bear A teddy bear, or simply a teddy, is a stuffed toy in the form of a bear. The teddy bear was named by Morris Michtom after the 26th president of the United States, Theodore Roosevelt; it was developed apparently simultaneously in the first deca ...

. The brand was started in the 1880s, but the company was taken over by and merged into H. J. Heinz Company in 1994.

Administrative history

Farley's Health Products Limited started life in 1857 as a baker's shop, run by Mr. Samuel Farley, but they were made by his wife Ann Farley. At 90 Cambridge Street,

Plymouth Plymouth ( ) is a port city status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in Devon, South West England. It is located on Devon's south coast between the rivers River Plym, Plym and River Tamar, Tamar, about southwest of Exeter and ...

. In 1862 he transferred premises to 7, Exeter Street and in 1912 Edwin Farley sold the business, including the secret formula for Farley's rusks to Mr William Bolitho Trahair, prior to emigrating to Canada. William Trahair, a well-known Liberal, and Methodist lay-preacher marketed proprietary lines, such as Globe Metal Polish and John Master's matches, from his shop Globe Stores, 58-59 Notte Street, Plymouth. In 1915 Trahair moved the Exeter Street bakery to 14 Notte Street and in 1919 the Trahair family formed Farley's Infant Food Limited. During the 1920s, the business transferred to Woolster Street and gave up its agencies to concentrate on rusk production. A new model factory was built in 1931 at Torr Lane, Peverell, Plymouth and the company expanded rapidly, until the

Glaxo Group GSK plc (an acronym from its former name GlaxoSmithKline plc) is a British multinational pharmaceutical and biotechnology company with headquarters in London. It was established in 2000 by a merger of Glaxo Wellcome and SmithKline Beecham, w ...

took over operations in 1968. In 1986 Boots The Chemist Limited bought the Farley's interest from Glaxo. Operations continued at the Torr Lane site until the factory shut in 1990. It is now the site of a supermarket. The company was taken over by and merged into H. J. Heinz Company in 1994 in a deal valued at £94 million.

References

{{Heinz Manufacturing companies established in 1881 Food manufacturers of the United Kingdom Heinz brands Baby food manufacturers 1881 establishments in the United Kingdom 1857 establishments in England