Needler's

History

Frederick Needler was born at Arnold, Skirlaugh, near Kingston upon Hull, on 12 December 1864. His father, George Needley, a paint-factory employee, died from typhoid in September 1872 at age 37. Frederick attended St John's School, Newland, in Hull. Around age fourteen in about 1878, he began work in a tea and coffee warehouse on High Street.

The 1881 Census recorded him as a grocer's apprentice. At eighteen he became a bookkeeper to Edward Buckton, who ran a small manufacturing confectionery business near Paragon Station in Hull. Using money from his mother, Frederick bought that business for about £100 in approximately 1886. He moved the premises to Anne Street, where he employed two staff: a sugar boiler and a boy named Watson, and used a horse and cart for deliveries.

Many similar firms operated in Hull at the time, limited by the stamina of their horses. Frederick soon moved into wholesaling, occupying various premises north of Paragon Station until he purchased 9 and 11 Spring Street in 1898, when company records began. In 1899–1900 turnover was about £15,000 with a profit of £781 (roughly 5%). Production reached about ten tons per week, with ten female and twenty-three male employees making over two hundred products, chiefly boiled sweets and toffees.

The company also wholesaled other brands such as Cadburys, Frys and Rowntrees. Growth was aided by a switch from green to clear glass jars, improving product appearance. The company was incorporated on 27 October 1902 as Fred Needler Ltd., with directors Fred Needler (£250 per annum), Alfred Thorpe (£160), and Joseph Cooper Wilson (£140). Of 6,000 shares, 5,416 were owned by Frederick Needler and one by his wife.

In 1906 new larger premises were built on Bournemouth Street off Sculcoates Lane in Hull, and the name changed to Needlers Ltd. Increasing demand for sweets reduced the wholesale operation, which ceased by 1912. The product range then included 576 lines, 74 in chocolate. A new chocolate plant began on the same site in August 1916. Turnover, £95,000 in 1913/14, peaked at £664,000 in 1920.

Sale of company; post-sale activity

Hillsdown Holdings took over Needler's in 1986, and Raymond Needler stepped down the following year. The Norwegian firm Nidar later owned the company before selling it in 1996 to Blue Bird Confectionery, a subsidiary of Singapore's Jack Chia-MPH. In 2000, the business was renamed Needler Blue Bird Confectionery. Jack Chia-MPH began talks to sell the subsidiary in 2001, and the sale to Ashbury Confectionery was finalized in 2002. The Hull factory in Sculcoates then shut down, and the site became a housing estate called Needler's Way.