Be-Ro - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

History

The Company was founded by Thomas Bell as a grocery and tea

Tea

Tea is an aromatic beverage prepared by adding cured leaves of the Camellia sinensis plant to hot water. The term also refers to the plant itself. After water, tea is the most widely consumed beverage in the world...

company in Longhorsley north of Newcastle in 1875. Thomas had experimented with rising agents on flour

Flour

Flour is a powder which is made by grinding cereal grains, other seeds or roots . It is the main ingredient of bread, which is a staple food for many cultures, making the availability of adequate supplies of flour a major economic and political issue at various times throughout history...

in baking and from that produced the world's first self-raising flour. He founded the Bells Royal works which sold the Bell's Royal Flour. Following the death of Edward VII, it became illegal to use the Royal name. Thomas Bell therefore decided to merge Bell and Royal into one word which is where Be-Ro came from. Thomas Bell started in his own right in small premises in the yard of the Black Boy Hotel adjoining the Groat Market in the centre of Newcastle. As well as manufacturing baking powder and self-raising flour he produced a health salt which he later discontinued. He also packed and marketed dried fruit, cereals, tea and coffee using such names as T.B. Royalty, Black Diamond and Belsun. He registered the Be-Ro name under the trade marks act of 1905.

The Company then moved into larger premises in Low Friar street and after that to Bath Lane. Thomas Bell died in 1925 and his descendents continued to expand the area covered by the Company to include Carlisle and the whole of County Durham

County Durham

County Durham is a ceremonial county and unitary district in north east England. The county town is Durham. The largest settlement in the ceremonial county is the town of Darlington...

as well as Teesside

Teesside

Teesside is the name given to the conurbation in the north east of England made up of the towns of Middlesbrough, Stockton-on-Tees, Redcar, Billingham and surrounding settlements near the River Tees. It was also the name of a local government district between 1968 and 1974—the County Borough of...

. Depots were later built at Leeds

Leeds

Leeds is a city and metropolitan borough in West Yorkshire, England. In 2001 Leeds' main urban subdivision had a population of 443,247, while the entire city has a population of 798,800 , making it the 30th-most populous city in the European Union.Leeds is the cultural, financial and commercial...

, Edinburgh

Edinburgh

Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...

, Sheffield

Sheffield

Sheffield is a city and metropolitan borough of South Yorkshire, England. Its name derives from the River Sheaf, which runs through the city. Historically a part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, and with some of its southern suburbs annexed from Derbyshire, the city has grown from its largely...

and Birmingham

Birmingham

Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...

and in 1931 they decided upon Nottingham

Nottingham

Nottingham is a city and unitary authority in the East Midlands of England. It is located in the ceremonial county of Nottinghamshire and represents one of eight members of the English Core Cities Group...

as a base from which to expand into the Midlands

English Midlands

The Midlands, or the English Midlands, is the traditional name for the area comprising central England that broadly corresponds to the early medieval Kingdom of Mercia. It borders Southern England, Northern England, East Anglia and Wales. Its largest city is Birmingham, and it was an important...

. Several dozen more depots were either built, bought or rented throughout England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

and Scotland

Scotland

Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

.

In 1958 Rank-Hovis Ltd acquired the business, which then became part of the newly formed RHM

RHM

RHM plc, formerly Rank Hovis McDougall, was a United Kingdom food business. The company owned numerous brands, particularly for flour, where its core business started, and for consumer food products...

in 1961. RHM

RHM

was taken over by Premier Foods

Premier Foods

Premier Foods plc is a British food manufacturer headquartered in St Albans, Hertfordshire. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index.-History:...

in March 2007, making Be-Ro a Premier Foods brand.

History

Further reading