Demolished Silver Springs production plant 2014-07-31 17-27

Silver Spring Soft Drinks Ltd was a commercial limited company that produced a range of soft drinks from its factory and headquarters at

Folkestone Folkestone ( ) is a coastal town on the English Channel, in Kent, south-east England. The town lies on the southern edge of the North Downs at a valley between two cliffs. It was an important harbour, shipping port, and fashionable coastal res ...

Kent Kent is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Essex across the Thames Estuary to the north, the Strait of Dover to the south-east, East Sussex to the south-west, Surrey to the west, and Gr ...

, in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

. Founded as a company in 1886, the company traded under the name of Silver Spring Mineral Water Company until it changed ownership in 2009; it was subsequently sold by Privet Capital in 2010. The new entity in turn hit trouble in 2012 and was liquidated in early 2013. It produced the drink brands Perfectly Clear and

Rola Cola In beverages, Rola Cola was a carbonated soft drink created by Carlo Dini in 1979. The soda was produced in the United Kingdom by Dubuis & Rowsell (dissolved in 1999), and originally−formerly by Silver Spring Soft Drinks of Kent, England; a ...

along with own label brands for supermarket chains.

History

The Silver Spring Mineral Water Company was founded in Folkestone in 1888 as a carbonated soft drinks manufacturer. Originally located at Grace Hill, Folkestone, towards the end of the 1890s the company expanded and moved to larger premises in Foord Rd. In 1946 Silver Spring bought and merged with another local firm, the Harris of Hythe Company. Further consolidation of the local market came in 1969 when Silver Spring took over Star Mineral of Whitstable. In 1970 it moved again to a new facility on the Park Farm Estate. During the following decade it created the

and Spring Up brands. The company became the first company in Great Britain to begin production of P.E.T. 2-litre bottles in 1982, and shortly after commenced own label production for the

supermarket A supermarket is a self-service Retail#Types of outlets, shop offering a wide variety of food, Drink, beverages and Household goods, household products, organized into sections. Strictly speaking, a supermarket is larger and has a wider selecti ...

s. On 6 May 1995, the company introduced the Perfectly Clear brand of flavoured mineral water. Within two years Perfectly Clear became the 4th best selling carbonated drink in the UK. In 2008 the company was reported as producing more than 250m bottles of drinks per year. Despite the success of Perfectly Clear, the family-owned company was entered into

administration Administration may refer to: Management of organizations * Management, the act of directing people towards accomplishing a goal: the process of dealing with or controlling things or people. ** Administrative assistant, traditionally known as a se ...

on 16 September 2009 by Deloitte LLP. The company's assets were subsequently purchased by

venture capital Venture capital (VC) is a form of private equity financing provided by firms or funds to start-up company, startup, early-stage, and emerging companies, that have been deemed to have high growth potential or that have demonstrated high growth in ...

firm Privet Capital and renamed as Silver Spring Soft Drinks Company Ltd, which continued the sale of the Silver Spring products. Silver Spring Soft Drinks Company Ltd in turn entered administration in October 2012, with production ceasing in December 2012 ahead of the company being finally

wound up Liquidation is the process in accounting by which a company is brought to an end. The assets and property of the business are redistributed. When a firm has been liquidated, it is sometimes referred to as wound-up or dissolved, although di ...

. Drinks company CBL Drinks acquired Silver Spring's former brands in 2013.

Products

Silver Spring products were commonplace throughout Kent, and many (including its 'Perfectly Clear' flavoured water range) were distributed nationwide. Certain lines were, however, distributed only in Kent, thus the company had a very local feel to it. Although many of its products were generic in nature (cola, mineral water, etc.) it produced one line which is believed to be unique, the soft drink ''

Bing Bing most often refers to: * Bing Crosby (1903–1977), American singer * Microsoft Bing, a web search engine Bing may also refer to: Food and drink * Bing (bread), a Chinese flatbread * Bing (soft drink), a UK brand * Bing cherry, a varie ...

'', which was widely drunk in Kent. The company's

lemonade Lemonade is a sweetened lemon-flavored drink. There are many varieties of lemonade found throughout the world. In some parts of the world, lemonade refers to an un-carbonated, traditionally, homemade drink, using lemon juice, water, and a sw ...

was known by the distinctive product title ''Spring Up''. Silver Spring had been operating from Folkestone since 1870, and as a Company since 1886, and remained independent until its final years. It retained many traditional features, for example, manufacturing its own bottles, both glass and plastic, and claimed to have the United Kingdom's last glass drinks bottle manufacturing plant. In 2007, Silver Spring took over production of

Virgin Cola Virgin Cola was a carbonated cola soft drink, launched in 1994. In 2009, it was discontinued in the United Kingdom, and in 2014 it was stopped being made by its final licensee, in Bangladesh. History Virgin Cola was set up during the early 199 ...

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HighBeam Research HighBeam Research was a paid search engine and full text online archive owned by Gale, a subsidiary of Cengage, for thousands of newspapers, magazines, academic journals, newswires, trade magazines, and encyclopedias in English. It was headqua ...

References

External links

The Silver Spring website
Drink companies of England Drink companies of the United Kingdom Defunct companies based in Kent Folkestone Food and drink companies established in 1886 Food and drink companies disestablished in 2012 2012 disestablishments in England Companies that have entered administration in the United Kingdom British brands Defunct drink brands

History

Products

See also

References

External links