J. S. Fry & Sons

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J. S. Fry & Sons, Ltd. was a chocolate company owned by Joseph Storrs Fry and his family.

This business moved through several names and hands before ending up as J. S. Fry & Sons.

Timeline:

circa 1759 — Joseph Fry starts making chocolate
1761 — Joseph Fry and John Vaughan purchase the chocolate business of Walter Churchman. Company named Fry, Vaughan & Co.
1777 — Chocolate works move from Newgate Street to Union Street, Bristol
1787 — Joseph Fry dies. Firm is renamed Anna Fry & Son
1795 — Joseph Storrs Fry assumes control. He patents a method of grinding cocoa beans using a Watt steam engine. As a result factory techniques are introduced into the cocoa business.
1803 — Anna Fry dies and Joseph Storrs Fry partners with a Dr. Hunt. The business is renamed Fry & Hunt
1822 — Dr. Hunt retires and Joseph Storrs Fry takes his sons on as partners and the firm is renamed J. S. Fry & Sons. The company becomes the largest commercial producer of chocolate in Britain.
1835 — Joseph Storrs Fry dies and the sons take full control.

In 1847, the Fry's chocolate factory, located in Keynsham, near Bristol, England, moulded the first ever chocolate bar suitable for widespread consumption. The firm began producing the Fry's Chocolate Cream bar in 1866. Over 220 products were introduced in the following decades, including production of the first chocolate Easter egg in UK in 1873 and the Fry's Turkish Delight (or Fry's Turkish bar) in 1914. In 1896 the firm became a registered private company. It was run by the Fry family, with Joseph Storrs Fry, grandson of the first Joseph Storrs Fry, as the chairman.

Near the start of World War I the company was the largest employer in Bristol. Joseph Storrs Fry died in 1913. By 1919 the company merged with Cadbury's chocolate and the joint company named British Cocoa and Chocolate Company. The Fry's division was moved to Somerdale in 1923. After 1981 the name Fry's was no longer in use at Somerdale, but the factory is still a major producer of Cadbury's products.

On 3 October 2007, Cadbury announced plans to close the Somerdale plant (historic home of the Fry's Factory) by 2010 with the loss of some 500 jobs. In an effort to maintain competitiveness in a global marketplace, production will be moved to a sister factory in Poland. Another motivational factor was the high real estate value of the land. In the longer term it is likely the greenfield site will be re-classified and provide Keynsham with much needed additional housing. Labour MP for Wansdyke, Dan Norris said "news of the factory's closure is a hard and heavy blow, not just to the workforce, but to the Keynsham community as a whole".^[1]