Identity area
Type of entity
Authorized form of name
Parallel form(s) of name
Standardized form(s) of name according to other rules
Other form(s) of name
Identifiers for corporate bodies
Description area
Dates of existence
History
The history of this collection involves the history of three different companies which came together over a period of about 70 years as a result of takeovers and buyouts by J. Lyons and Company. (The history of J. Lyons and Co. can be found in the introduction to ACC/3527)
In 1826 John Horniman had founded a tea packing business in Jersey. He was the first man to market packet tea rather than loose tea. In 1899 his sons, William Henry and Frederick John incorporated the business and established strong markets in Yorkshire. Their factory was in Wormwood Street, London. In 1918 J. Lyons and Co. purchased a controlling interest in W.H. and F.J. Horniman & Co. Ltd. to try and gain stength in the markets up North which Brooke Bond had already established. This was around the same time of the Lyons' big move to the factory site at Greenford, Middlesex in 1920. In 1968 Lyons bought out the remaining shareholders of this company, the "Overseas Trading Corporation Ltd." and it became a wholly owned subsidiary. At this point Horniman's whole operation relocated from Jersey to the UK.
Lyons did not stop their ambitions for expansion there and later took an interest in Joseph Tetley Company. Trading as tea merchants since 1837 in Huddersfield the Tetley family established Joseph Tetley & Co. when one of the brothers, Jospeh, went into partnership with Jospeh Aklan in 1856. Over the next 20 years the business continued to grow and expanded into the United States. It was these established American connections through the work of a distribution company called Wright and Graham which allowed it to grow at a faster rate. In 1913 Tetley established a base in America through Wright and Graham which became Tetley Tea Incorporated. Perhaps one of Tetley's most noted achievements was bringing the teabag to England in 1953, nearly 33 years after it had been introduced in America. This was introduced by Tetley Ironside Tetley-Jones, Joseph Tetley and Company's British Representative and became a mainstay of their business.
As the teabag market doubled packet tea was declining. Lyons wanted to raise the profile of its tea operations by purchasing the American Tetley Tea Company from Beech-Nut Incorporated in December 1972 for 23 million pounds. When the merger finished in April 1973 Tetley changed its company name to Lyons Tetley Ltd. to reflect both companies' interests and compete in the 130 million pound tea market. At this time Lyons Tetley Ltd. had a combined workforce of 3,000 with its business based at three sites; Greenford (base of Lyons Groceries), Bletchley (former Tetley UK Head Office and factory) and Eaglescliff (Tetley factory). The acquisition of Tetley brought into the Lyons group two American speciality coffee brands and opportunities in Australia. In 1976 Lyons Tetley merged with Lyons Catering Supplies to avoid duplication of produce. By 1980 the enlarged business had enabled Tetley to dominate the UK teabag market and in 1989 it introduced the world's first round teabag. By 1990 all the various tea and coffee businesses were brought together under the single company of Lyons Tetley Ltd.
1978 was the last independant trading year of Lyons as an individual company because Allied Breweries Ltd acquired J. Lyons and Co. Ltd. which became Allied-Lyons. This was the start of the breakup of the Lyons Tetley empire. In 1994 Allied-Lyons was aquired by Pedro Domecq sherry group and became Allied Domecq. The Tetley tea part of the business was the last to go. In July 1995 it was bought by a management team headed by Leon Allen and backed by Prudential Venture Managers Ltd. It eventually sold for £190 million. In 2000 The Tetley Group was sold to Tata Tea Ltd.