Gale's is a UK brand of

honey Honey is a sweet and viscous substance made by several bees, the best-known of which are honey bees. Honey is made and stored to nourish bee colonies. Bees produce honey by gathering and then refining the sugary secretions of plants (primar ...

, currently owned by

Premier Foods Premier Foods plc is a British food manufacturer headquartered in St Albans, Hertfordshire. The group owns many well-known brands, including Mr Kipling, Ambrosia, Bird's Custard, Angel Delight, Homepride cooking sauces, Lyons, Sharwood's, Loy ...

. The former company had been established in 1919, remaining independent until it was acquired by

Rowntree Mackintosh Confectionery Rowntree Mackintosh Confectionery was a British company formed by the merger of Rowntree's and John Mackintosh Co. The company was famous for making chocolate brands, such as Kit Kat, Aero and Quality Street. It was purchased by Nestlé in ...

in 1986.

History

The company was established in 1919, when Richard Westley Gale (born 1895 in Hendon) of

Richmond Richmond most often refers to: * Richmond, Virginia, the capital of Virginia, United States * Richmond, London, a part of London * Richmond, North Yorkshire, a town in England * Richmond, British Columbia, a city in Canada * Richmond, Californi ...

and Sidney Thomas Rayner of

Mortlake Mortlake is a suburban district of the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames on the south bank of the River Thames between Kew and Barnes. Historically it was part of Surrey and until 1965 was in the Municipal Borough of Barnes. For many cen ...

started their business as "Rayner & Gale" which was a partnership. The partnership was dissolved on 3 July 1926 and it became "R.W. Gale & Co. Ltd", based in the SW9 district of south London.

Reckitt & Colman

In 1948 Joseph Farrow & Company of the Carlton Works, Fletton near

Peterborough Peterborough () is a cathedral city in Cambridgeshire, east of England. It is the largest part of the City of Peterborough unitary authority district (which covers a larger area than Peterborough itself). It was part of Northamptonshire unti ...

, a subsidiary of Reckitt & Colman that made canned foods (green peas, later marrowfat peas), bought the company. In the early 1960s it introduced a peanut spread called ''Smooth'n Nutty''. In 1962 it introduced

mincemeat Mincemeat is a mixture of chopped dried fruit, distilled spirits and spices, and often beef suet, usually used as a pie or pastry filling. Mincemeat formerly contained meat, notably beef or venison. Many modern recipes replace the suet with ...

. It was made in Carrow, Norwich. For many years Gale's were the UK's biggest manufacturer of honey.

Rowntree Mackintosh

On 28 November 1986 it was bought by

for £11 million, and production moved to

Hadfield, Derbyshire Hadfield is a town in the High Peak of Derbyshire, England, with a population at the 2021 Census of 6,763. It lies on the south side of the River Etherow, near to the border with Greater Manchester, at the western edge of the Peak District clo ...

. The Norwich site was later owned by Unilever Bestfoods from 1995. The Hadfield Industrial Estate site, next to the

River Etherow The River Etherow is a river in northern England, and a tributary of the River Goyt. Although now passing through South Yorkshire, Derbyshire and Greater Manchester, it historically formed the ancient county boundary between Cheshire and Derb ...

, had been bought by Rowntree's in June 1967. Rowntree Mackintosh was bought by Nestlé on 28 June 1988 in a

hostile takeover In business, a takeover is the purchase of one company (the ''target'') by another (the ''acquirer'' or ''bidder''). In the UK, the term refers to the acquisition of a public company whose shares are listed on a stock exchange, in contrast to t ...

Premier Foods

In May 2002 it was acquired by

, when it also bought

Rowntree's Rowntree's is a British confectionery brand and former business based in York, England. Rowntree developed the Kit Kat (introduced in 1935), Aero (introduced in 1935), Fruit Pastilles (introduced in 1881), Smarties (introduced in 1937) brands ...

's ''Jelly'' and other

Nestlé Nestlé S.A. (; ; ) is a Switzerland, Swiss multinational food and drink processing conglomerate corporation headquartered in Vevey, Vaud, Switzerland. It is the largest publicly held food company in the world, measured by revenue and other me ...

brands for £132 million. The Hadfield site was closed in the first quarter of 2004, and production moved to the desserts and spreads plant in Cambridgeshire which also made

Hartley's Hartley's is a brand of marmalades, jams and jellies, originally from the United Kingdom, which is manufactured at Histon, Cambridgeshire. The brand was formerly owned by Premier Foods, until it was sold along with the factory in Histon to Hai ...

jam. It is now made at Premier Foods plantPremier Foods
at Geograph.org at

Histon Histon is a village and civil parish in the South Cambridgeshire district, in the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It is immediately north of Cambridge – and is separated from the city – by the A14 road which runs east–west. In ...

, north of Cambridge. It sells around 4 million jars a year. The plant is next to the

Cambridgeshire Guided Busway The Cambridgeshire Guided Busway, known locally as The Busway, connects Cambridge, Huntingdon and St Ives in the English county of Cambridgeshire. It is the longest guided busway in the world, overtaking the O-Bahn Busway in Adelaide, South Au ...

(former Cambridge & St. Ives Branch).

Marketing

In 1964, when owned by Joseph Farrow, it promoted the idea of stirring some of its honey into hot milk for a nightcap, or to help a sore throat by putting honey into hot water with some lemon juice. In the 1960s the account was handled by JWT. A

jingle A jingle is a short song or tune used in advertising and for other commercial uses. Jingles are a form of sound branding. A jingle contains one or more hooks and meaning that explicitly promote the product or service being advertised, usually ...

used to advertise the honey was: ''Gale's, Gale's pass the honey please, think about the honey, think about the bees''. It sells strongly in the winter months from November to February each year.

Varieties

* Gale's Traditional Set Honey * Gale's Traditional Clear Honey * Gale's Lemon Curd

References

External links

*
Grace's Guide
{{Authority control Rowntree's brands Nestlé brands Food manufacturers of the United Kingdom Premier Foods brands Food and drink companies established in 1919 Honey Companies based in Cambridgeshire Companies based in Norfolk South Cambridgeshire District