Paul's
malting
Paul’s company history
The business was founded by Robert Paul (1806-1864) in c1842.
Previously the Paul family had owned a small brewery in Foundation
Street, Ipswich, with a tied estate of fifteen public houses and a wine
and spirit trade. There is some evidence of financial crisis, and in
1842 the brewery, together with Robert's Ipswich saddlery and his
father's Bury St Edmunds ironmongery were sold. Robert, maintaining his
interests in the London and Ipswich United Shipping Company, continued
as a wharfinger and maltster. On his death in 1864 the business
comprised eleven small maltings and six barges. He constructed a trust
to administer the estate to provide sufficient money for his family
without disposing of his fixed capital, ships or stock in trade.
His brothers-in-law were required to manage the business effects until
either of his sons reached the age of 24. After a decade of
administration by his executors the business therefore passed to his
sons, Robert Stocker Paul (1845-1909) and William Francis Paul
(1850-1928) and thereafter expanded rapidly. During the critical years
after their father's death they received financial support from William
Hewitt, Robert's father-in-law who financed the purchase of their first
substantial malting (the 'Oliver Prentice' malting in Fore Street,
Ipswich) in 1877. The Albion Malting, Smart's Mill (a factory for
dressing foreign barley) and No 4 Malting were all built during the
1880s and maltings were rented at Woodbridge, Stowmarket and Stonham.
Expansion in malting was matched by diversification into the
manufacture of animal feedstuffs and flaked maize for brewers.
William Francis Paul was to become a major
philanthropist in Ipswich and his name is commemorated on the W.F. Paul Tenement Trust buildings and
the Ragged Girls' School, as well as
being linked to the setting-up of Rosehill
Library in Tomline Road.
Paul’s also developed their shipping interests. In 1886 the first
coastal steamship, the Swift, was acquired. By the early 1890s the
fleet comprised six steamships, ten 40-50 ton sailing barges, a number
of lighters and steam tugs, including the Merrimac which doubled as a
summer excursion steamer. Maize and barley were imported from America
and eastern Europe, and malt, barley and smaller quantities of wheat
and oats were shipped outwards, accounting for some two-thirds of the
grain exported from Ipswich. In 1893 the business was incorporated as a
private limited company, R. and W. Paul Ltd, worth a share capital of
£250,000.
In 1902 the company purchased Gillman and Spencer Ltd of Rotherhithe
(manufacturers of flaked maize and brewers' preservatives), where they
developed Kositos, an animal feed made from cooked flaked maize, for
which the company was known for many decades. In 1904, the first of two
300 quarter maltings was built at the New Cut (junction with Felaw
Street) at Stoke, Ipswich, the second was completed in 1912, the
complex remaining the centrepiece of the enterprise for several
decades. In 1906 a financial interest was taken in the Grantham malting
company, Lee and Grinling Ltd and in 1914 the Barnetby (Lincolnshire)
maltings of Truswell's Brewery Company were purchased. Boal Mill in
Kings Lynn was purchased in 1912 and converted for the production of
animal foodstuffs. In 1918 the Hull Malt Company, manufacturers of
flaked maize, was acquired and converted for milling animal feeds.
Expansion continued throughout the inter-war years with full control of
Lee and Grinling achieved in 1928. The Stonham maltings were purchased
as were the Creeting Road maltings at Stowmarket and, in 1937, maltings
at Blyton, Lincolnshire. The Albion Sugar Company, producing invert
sugars for the brewing trade, was registered in 1929 (a joint venture
with White, Tomkins and Courage). The Leeds firm of Richard Dobson and
Son was purchased in 1941 and, three years later, the Thetford maltings
of James Fison Ltd. However, the main emphasis during the period was on
the company's animal feed interests especially the new growth area of
compound feeds.
In July 1960 Pauls was converted into a public company, enabling
capital to be raised for a large-scale expansion programme. In February
1963 the company merged with one of its oldest competitors, White,
Tomkins and Courage of London. A new holding company, Paul’s and
White’s, was formed with five wholly-owned subsidiaries: Gillman and
Spencer; the Albion Sugar Company; White, Tomkins and Courage; Paul’s
Foods and R. and W. Paul (Maltsters) – the last two formed by
separating Paul's milling and malting interests. The acquisition in
1965 of S Swonnell and Son of Oulton Broad and Harrington Page of Ware,
brought further centralisation of sales and distribution. In 1967 the
company was reorganised into a multi-divisional structure embracing
three divisions: malt, animal feedstuffs and general products. Two
years later, following the report of the management consultants, John
Tyzack, the general products division was disbanded and the business
reorganised on a marketing basis into three new divisions: farming,
foods and brewing material.
In 1969 after the acquisition of the Gainsborough maltsters, Sandars
and Co., a new operating company, Paul’s and Sandar’s was formed.
Founded in the eighteenth century, Sandar’s was one of the most
prestigious of British malting companies and brought to Paul’s valuable
contacts with the British brewing trade. The purchase of the Scottish
maltster, Robert Hutchison and Co. in 1972 enabled further penetration
of the distilling market. Britain's prospective entry into the EEC also
prompted a direct move into the European malting industry. In 1971 a
quarter share was taken in the Belgian company, Malteries Huys NV; in
1973 the French companies Usines Ethel SA and its neighbour Grands
Moulins de Strasbourg; and in 1977 a German subsidiary, Malzfabric
Schragmalz.
The sharp recession from 1979 saw further rationalisation across the
British malting industry and the closure of many of the remaining floor
maltings. The Stoke Maltings (Felaw
Street) were closed in 1980; part of the German subsidiary was
closed in 1984 and the remainder sold. In March 1985 Paul’s was
acquires for £113 million by the overseas trading and plantation group,
Harrisons and Crosfield. George Paul, fifth generation of the firm was
subsequently appointed chief executive of the group. In July 1987, in
the most important take-over in the history of the Britiash malting
industry, Paul’s acquired their old competitors, Associated British
Maltsters, the integrated company becoming the largest European malting
enterprise.
The economic downturn of the early 1990s brought the closure of
maltings at Grimsby and Kirkcaldy in 1992 and two years later at Ware.
Paul’s purchased the Glenesk Maltings, near Montrose, from United
Distillers in January 1997, the acquisition including an agreement to
supply distilling malt to Guinness's Park Royal Brewery in London. In
February 1998 Paul’s commissioned a new malting at Bury St Edmunds; its
annual capacity of 100,000 tonnes making the site the largest in
Europe. Two months later, following the decision by Harrisons and
Crosfield to focus on their core business of chemicals, Paul’s Malt was
sold to the Irish-based agriculture and sugar congolomerate, Greencore.
See our page on the Trinity House buoy
for photographs of the two Paul's maltings which stood on St Peter's
Wharf, including some from the 1980s before the ship loading gantry was
removed. The Paul's malting which used to tower over its
neighbour the Custom House appears our Burton's
page with other lettered Paul's buildings.
1932
advertisement
And just to illustrate that Pauls didn't just do malt, here's an
advertisement for animal feed called "Pauls' Kositos" (can it really be
that they chose a variation on "cozy toes"?). 'Samples and full
particulars from the sole manufacturers: R. & W. Paul, Ltd.,
Ipswich'.
Related
pages:
The Question Mark
Christie's
warehouse
Bridge
Street
Burton, Son
and Sanders / Paul's
College Street
Coprolite
Street
Cranfield's
Flour Mill
Custom House
Trinity
House buoy
Edward
Fison Ltd
Ground-level dockside furniture
on: 'The
island', the northern quays
and Ransome's
Orwell Works
Ipswich
Whaling Station?
Isaac Lord
Neptune Inn
clock, garden
and interior
Isaac
Lord 2
The Island
John Good and Sons
Merchant
seamen's memorial
The Mill
Nova Scotia
House
New Cut East
Quay
nameplates
Ransomes
Steam
Packet Hotel
Stoke
Bridge(s)
Waterfront
Regeneration Scheme
Wolsey's
Gate
A chance to
compare
Wet Dock 1970s with 2004
Wet Dock maps
Davy's
illustration of the laying of the Wet Dock lock foundation stone,
1839
Outside
the Wet Dock
Maritime Ipswich
'82 festival
also:
Stoke
Bridge Maltings
Trinity House Buoy
Old Bell
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©2004
Copyright
throughout the Ipswich
Historic Lettering site: Borin Van Loon
No reproduction of text or images without express written permission
