EAW048620 ENGLAND (1953). The McVitie & Price Ltd Biscuit Factory on Wellington Road North and environs, Heaton Chapel, 1953

McVitie and Price



Attached image is from Wikipedia [[McVitie's]] showing McVitie's Biscuit Factory, Wellington Road North, Stockport close to the border with Manchester. Looking north towards the Manchester suburb of Levenshulme in May 2008. The image is copyright Slbs, licenced under Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike licence.



This factory specialises in the chocolate covered biscuits, especially the famed Penguin bars and the (not a biscuit) Jaffa Cakes (at a rate of 2000 per minute). The old red brick buildings on the A6 remain from this image - between this building and the railway there has been much modernisation and rebuilding.



All McVities Jaffa cakes are made here, the production line is over a mile long and the Jaffa Cake facility covers an acre. The local air is much improved by the smells from the factory when sponge is cooking.



The road to the North is the boundary between Manchester (Levenshulme) and Stockport (Heaton Norris - this part is now called Heaton Chapel).



The site is known as McVities, and is now part of United Biscuits, formed from "McVitie and Price" and "MacFarland and Lang".



Robert McVitie was an apprentice baker in Edinburgh whose son, also Robert, specialised in biscuits (they kept longer).. Charles Price, a salesman for Cadbury, joined McVitie in 1888.



The Manchester factory originated in the need for more capacity to supply the troops in World War 1 with hard biscuits.



World War 2 and a lack of ingredients drove the cooperation with MacFarlane and Lang, and the number of biscuit types reduced from 370 - to ten. On the death of the then managing director Robert Grant after the war the need to pay death duties was an additional driver to full integration of the two companies (1948).



William McDonald, of Glasgow, known for McDonalds Penguin chocolate covered biscuits, was added to the United Biscuits family. McDonalds was from Glasgow, and first produced the Penguin bar in 1932.



The Jaffa Cake was invented by McVitie and Price in 1927, and there are now many replica biscuits which use differing recipes.



In 2000 United Biscuits was sold to a consortium which included Nabisco, and there were a number of changes to brand ownership in the many international markets. There was a further sale in 2006 to a differing consortium.



These Britain from Above images show an active works sports facility with football pitches, tennis courts and a bowling green. The bowling green remains, with a car park between the green and the A6 road. Up to the green, where the image shows football pitches, there is now a full housing development. What shows here as two football pitches is shown on some old maps as a cricket pitch and the area probably saw both uses.



The railway line runs from Manchester to the North to Stockport to the South and then on to Buxton, Crewe, Stoke, London etc. The sidings for the Erwood Park Works across the lines from McVities has been removed.



The other side of the tracks from McVities was used by Crossley Motors and Fairey Engineering for aircraft and car production. Much of the site is now light engineering, with two small bus companies depots. The Fairey Band still has its rehearsal rooms there but is now self financing.