Famous Names Ltd

History of H J Packer & Carsons

Edward Packer founded the business in 1881 in Armoury Square, Bristol, with his sister and brother. In 1884 H. J. Burrows joined, forming H. J. Packer & Co, but the partnership dissolved within a year and Burrows became sole owner. Burrows sold the business for £950 to Caleb Bruce Cole the following year. Sales grew substantially from 1894, prompting a move to a new factory in Greenbank in 1901.

Between 1903 and 1912 sales rose 250%, helped by Two ounces per penny quality chocolates for children and lines like Packers Chocolate Mixers. In 1908 the company bought Glasgow-based Carsons and created the Bonds of Bristol brand for luxury chocolates. Carsons' Glasgow factory closed and production moved to Shortwood, near Mangotsfield. By the early 1920s the company was Britain's 4th largest chocolate manufacturer with over 2,000 employees, introducing Milk Crispets.

Carsons Chocolate was taken by Sir Ernest Shackleton on his expeditions. The company's fortunes declined by World War II. In 1955 the Packers brand was relaunched with Summit chocolate bars and penny sweets like White Mice and Sweet cigarettes. Carsons' production moved to Greenbank in 1961.

Carsons was the biggest British manufacturer of chocolate liqueurs under the Famous Brands name. In 1962 H J Packer was renamed Carsons Ltd. The company remained unprofitable, losing £39,000 by 1963. James Goldsmith acquired it in 1964 for Cavenham Foods.

History of Hollands of Southport

John Holland was making a new kind of creamy toffee by the 1890s, working out of 23a Cross Street in Southport. His uncle James Ford, a confectioner in Ormskirk where Holland had apprenticed, had given him the premises. Holland’s biggest seller was Everton Toffee. During World War I, the company opened a factory on Virginia Street.

John Arthur Holland took over as manager in 1927, and the business began trading as John Holland & Son in 1932. He assumed full control in 1936 and introduced the slogan “Best on Earth.” A fire hit the premises in 1940. After the war, the company grew and started exporting to the United States in 1953.

A year earlier, in 1952, John Arthur’s sons—John Arthur Junior and Peter—had taken over, renaming the firm J A & P Holland. It went public on the Liverpool Stock Exchange in 1953, and an extension was added to the Virginia Street factory in 1954. As the toffee market shrank, the brothers bought up competitors: Coq D’or Chocolates in 1959, Fillerys Toffees in 1960, Casket Confectionery, and London’s Walters Palm Toffee for £385,000. That same year, the company listed on the London Stock Exchange, having acquired more than 20 firms.

In 1961, it purchased S. Parkinson & Son, Harper Paper for £1.25 million, Mackay Brothers of Edinburgh, and George & Son of Southend-on-Sea. The Daily Mail called Holland the world’s largest toffee maker. By 1965, it ran 33 wholesale warehouses. John Arthur Holland Junior invented a soft toffee in 1963, launched as Chewzits.

The company paid no dividends in 1963 or 1964, as many subsidiaries struggled. Independent shareholders clashed with the Holland family, and in 1965 James Goldsmith’s Cavenham Foods mounted a takeover bid that the Hollands fought but ultimately lost.

Cavenham Confectionery Ltd

Carsons was joined by Yeatmans, J A & P Holland, and Paramount Laboratories to create the Cavenham Confectionery division of Cavenham Foods. Its offerings included Famous Names, Chewits, Hollands Toffee, Fillery's Toffee, Walters Palm Toffee, Ewbanks Liquorice, Dr Who & The Daleks Sweet Cigarettes, Royal Doncaster Butterscotch, and Parkinsons Boiled Sweets. The company shut many subsidiary factories, focusing output at Carsons' Greenbank site, Holland's Southport location, and Parkinsons' Doncaster plant.

In 1967, as Cavenham Foods faced financial trouble, James Goldsmith combined Cavenham Confectionery with Perrier's confectionery arm—which held Menier and Lindt—in a 50/50 partnership. The venture exported $750,000 worth of goods to America in 1968 and acquired the Elizabeth Shaw brand and recipes. The partnership ended in 1969, and Cavenham Confectionery was sold to Conwood SA for £1.2 million; that firm was equally owned by Cavenham Foods and Conwood Corporation, but the business soon returned to Cavenham Foods.

In 1981, management bought the company for £8 million during James Goldsmith's dismantling of Cavenham Foods, renaming it Famous Names Ltd.

Greenbank factory site

When the factory shut down in 2006, locals opposed the first developer’s plan to turn it into flats and houses, viewing the building as a key piece of Bristol’s industrial past. George Ferguson backed their campaign; he had previously transformed a disused tobacco factory in Bedminster into the Tobacco Factory, a well-known arts and creative hub. By 2012, the site remained vacant after no acceptable reuse plan could be agreed upon. In late 2013, ownership returned to Clydesdale Bank, and the Generator Group began planning.

In August 2014, Generator South West put forward a proposal for open spaces surrounding a mix of flats and houses. By 2016, the developer had requested exemption from the legal requirement that 30 to 40 percent of any development be social housing, arguing that the extra cost of restoring historic buildings made the project unprofitable. Community group ACORN campaigned against this move, citing Bristol’s severe shortage of affordable housing. Generator Group then worked with Bristol City Council to create 36 shared ownership homes alongside private units.

The first homes ready for residents in 2021 were shared ownership. Details on the still-undeveloped 1950s factory block can be found in the city council’s planning archive.