Trebor (confectionery)

History

Trebor was founded on 4 January 1907 in south west Essex by W.B. Woodcock, Thomas Henry King, Robert Robertson and Sydney Herbert Marks from Leytonstone, with a factory on Katherine Road in Forest Gate, London. The name Trebor, a reversal of "Robert", was trademarked four days after World War I ended. On 18 April 1944, a German bomb struck the Katherine Road factory. The company acquired Moffat toffee in 1959 and Jamesons Chocolates in 1960.

By the late 1960s, Trebor exported to over fifty countries, with 20% of output from its three factories going abroad; the United States was its largest export market. Chairman John Marks, son of the founder, received a CBE in the 1967 Birthday Honours for export achievements; he had been president of the Cocoa, Chocolate and Confectionery Alliance from 1956 to 1959. Trebor was the fourth-largest UK confectionery group by the end of the 1960s, competing with Rowntree Mackintosh Confectionery and Cadbury.

Early advertising featured the jingle "Trebor mints are a minty bit stronger". In January 1969 it bought Clarnico's confectionery interests. John Graham Marks, the founder's grandson, became chairman in 1970, co-owning the firm with his brother Ian; the family-run company maintained a Christian paternalistic ethos. Night shifts were discontinued in 1981 due to concerns about family life.

Trebor bought Maynards for £7.5 million in December 1985. By the mid-1980s it led the British market in branded mints and boiled sweets. Cadbury Schweppes purchased the company for £147 million on 14 September 1989, employing about 3,000 people at the time. From 1 March 1990 it operated as Trebor Bassett, a Cadbury division. Production later moved to north Sheffield off the A61.

Structure

The company was headquartered in Woodford, Greater London, in what was south-west Essex. Its initial factory, the Trebor Works, opened in Forest Gate in 1935 within what is now the London Borough of Newham; the main headquarters were at Clayhall. A five-acre factory on Brimington Road in Chesterfield, on a former brewery site next to Chesterfield railway station, opened in 1939 and closed in 2005. The Trebor Bassett national distribution centre was in Holmewood, North East Derbyshire.

A £15 million factory in Colchester opened in 1978 and closed in March 2000. Trebor received the Queen's Award to Industry in April 1966. In 1987, the Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel song "Mr. Soft" was used in television adverts for Trebor Softmints and Softfruits, sung by Phillip Pope imitating Harley's vocal style; EMI re-released the song as a 7-inch single in the UK on 7 March 1988 due to popular demand, timed to coincide with Softmints' spring campaign running nationally from March to the end of April 1988.