Gale's is a United Kingdom brand of

honey Honey is a sweet and viscous substance made by several species of bees, the best-known of which are honey bees. Honey is made and stored to nourish bee colonies. Bees produce honey by gathering and then refining the sugary secretions of pl ...

, currently owned by

Premier Foods Premier Foods plc is a British food manufacturer headquartered in St Albans, Hertfordshire. The group owns many well-known brands, including Mr Kipling, Ambrosia (food), Ambrosia, Bird's Custard, Angel Delight, Homepride cooking sauces, J. Lyons ...

. The former company had been established in 1919, remaining independent until it was acquired by Rowntree Mackintosh Confectionery in 1986.

History

The company was established in 1919, when Richard Westley Gale (born 1895 in Hendon) of Richmond and Sidney Thomas Rayner of Mortlake started their business as "Rayner & Gale" which was a partnership. The partnership was dissolved on 3 July 1926 and it became "R.W. Gale & Co. Ltd", based in the SW9 district of south London.

Reckitt & Colman

In 1948 Joseph Farrow & Company of the Carlton Works, Fletton near

Peterborough Peterborough ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city in the City of Peterborough district in the Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county of Cambridgeshire, England. The city is north of London, on the River Nene. A ...

, a subsidiary of Reckitt & Colman that made canned foods (green peas, later marrowfat peas), bought the company. In the early 1960s it introduced a peanut spread called ''Smooth'n Nutty''. In 1962 it introduced mincemeat. It was made in Carrow, Norwich. For many years Gale's were the UK's biggest manufacturer of honey.

Rowntree Mackintosh

On 28 November 1986 it was bought by Rowntree Mackintosh Confectionery for £11 million, and production moved to Hadfield, Derbyshire. The Norwich site was later owned by Unilever Bestfoods from 1995. The Hadfield Industrial Estate site, next to the River Etherow, had been bought by Rowntree's in June 1967. Rowntree Mackintosh was bought by Nestlé on 28 June 1988 in a

hostile takeover In business, a takeover is the purchase of one company (law), company (the ''target'') by another (the ''acquirer'' or ''bidder''). In the UK, the term refers to the acquisition of a public company whose shares are publicly listed, in contrast t ...

Premier Foods

In May 2002 it was acquired by

, when it also bought Rowntree's's ''Jelly'' and other

Nestlé Nestlé S.A. ( ) is a Swiss multinational food and drink processing conglomerate corporation headquartered in Vevey, Switzerland. It has been the largest publicly held food company in the world, measured by revenue and other metrics, since 20 ...

brands for £132 million. The Hadfield site was closed in the first quarter of 2004, and production moved to the desserts and spreads plant in Cambridgeshire which also made Hartley's jam. It is now made at Premier Foods plant at Histon, north of Cambridge. It sells around 4 million jars a year. The plant is next to the Cambridgeshire Guided Busway (former Cambridge & St. Ives Branch).

Marketing

In 1964, when owned by Joseph Farrow, it promoted the idea of stirring some of its honey into hot milk for a nightcap, or to help a sore throat by putting honey into hot water with some lemon juice. In the 1960s the account was handled by JWT. A jingle used to advertise the honey was: ''Gale's, Gale's pass the honey please, think about the honey, think about the bees''. It sells strongly in the winter months from November to February each year.

Varieties

* Gale's Traditional Set Honey * Gale's Traditional Clear Honey * Gale's Lemon Curd

References

External links

*
Grace's Guide
{{Authority control Rowntree's brands Nestlé brands Food manufacturers of the United Kingdom Premier Foods brands Food and drink companies established in 1919 Honey Companies based in Cambridgeshire Companies based in Norfolk South Cambridgeshire District