J. S. Fry & Sons, Ltd. was a British chocolate

Chocolate

Chocolate is a raw or processed food produced from the seed of the tropical Theobroma cacao tree. Cacao has been cultivated for at least three millennia in Mexico, Central and South America. Its earliest documented use is around 1100 BC...

 company owned by Joseph Storrs Fry

Joseph Storrs Fry

Joseph Storrs Fry was an English chocolate and confectionery manufacturer and a member of the Fry Family of Bristol, England.-Early life:He was born in 1767, son of Joseph Fry and his wife Anna...

 and his family

Fry Family (Chocolate)

The Fry family was prominent in England especially Bristol, in the Society of Friends, and in the confectionery business in the 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries.-Origins:...

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

History

• circa 1759 — Joseph Fry
  Joseph Fry (type-founder)
  Joseph Fry , was an English type-founder and chocolate maker and founder of the Bristol branch of the Quaker Fry family...
  
   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
  Joseph Storrs Fry
  Joseph Storrs Fry was an English chocolate and confectionery manufacturer and a member of the Fry Family of Bristol, England.-Early life:He was born in 1767, son of Joseph Fry and his wife Anna...
  
   assumes control. He patents a method of grinding cocoa beans using a Watt steam engine
  Watt steam engine
  The Watt steam engine was the first type of steam engine to make use of steam at a pressure just above atmospheric to drive the piston helped by a partial vacuum...
  
  . 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 on his sons Joseph, Francis
  Francis Fry
  -Life:Fry was born at Westbury-on-Trym, near Bristol, on 28 October 1803, the second son of Joseph Storrs Fry. He was educated at a large school at Fishponds, in the neighbourhood of Frenchay, kept by a Quaker named Joel Lean, and began business training at Croydon....
  
   and Richard as partners: the firm is renamed J. S. Fry & Sons. The company becomes the largest commercial producer of chocolate in Britain
  United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
  The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was the formal name of the United Kingdom during the period when what is now the Republic of Ireland formed a part of it....
  
  .
• 1835 — Joseph Storrs Fry I dies and the sons take full control.

In 1847, the Fry's chocolate factory, located in Union Street, Bristol

Bristol

Bristol is a city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, with an estimated population of 433,100 for the unitary authority in 2009, and a surrounding Larger Urban Zone with an estimated 1,070,000 residents in 2007...

, England, moulded the first ever chocolate bar suitable for widespread consumption. The firm began producing the Fry's Chocolate Cream

Fry's Chocolate Cream

Fry's Cream is a chocolate bar made by Cadbury's, and formerly by J. S. Fry & Sons. It consists of a fondant centre enrobed in dark chocolate and is available in a plain version, and also peppermint or orange fondant...

 bar in 1866. Over 220 products were introduced in the following decades, including production of the first chocolate Easter egg

Easter egg

Easter eggs are special eggs that are often given to celebrate Easter or springtime.The oldest tradition is to use dyed or painted chicken eggs, but a modern custom is to substitute chocolate eggs, or plastic eggs filled with confectionery such as jelly beans...

 in UK in 1873 and the Fry's Turkish Delight

Fry's Turkish Delight

Fry's Turkish Delight is a chocolate sweet made by Cadbury, and formerly by J. S. Fry & Sons. It was launched in 1914 and consists of a rose-flavoured Turkish delight surrounded by milk chocolate....

 (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 II

Joseph Storrs Fry II

Joseph Storrs Fry was a member of the Bristol Fry family, head of the family chocolate firm of J. S. Fry & Sons and a philanthropist....

, grandson of the first Joseph Storrs Fry, as the chairman.

An employee of Fry's, H.J Packer went on in 1881 to establish his own chocolate business in Bristol. At its eventual home in Greenbank

Greenbank, Bristol

Greenbank is a small informal district in the city of Bristol, England nestling between Easton to the south, Eastville to the west and north west, Fishponds, Clay Bottom and Rose Green to the north, and Whitehall to the east. It is however part of the official Easton Ward for elections...

, Bristol, Packer's Chocolate would continue to provide local competition for Fry's which would continue until 2006 under various owners and brands, from Bonds through to Famous Names and Elizabeth Shaw

Elizabeth Shaw (Confectionery Company)

Elizabeth Shaw is the trading name of a Greenbank, Bristol based company that markets chocolate-based confectionery, which includes the internationally known brands Famous Names chocolate liqueurs and Elizabeth Shaw after dinner mints...

.

Near the start of World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

 the company was one of the largest employers in Bristol. Joseph Storrs Fry II died in 1913. By 1919 the company merged with Cadbury's

Cadbury Schweppes

Cadbury is a confectionery company owned by Kraft Foods and is the industry's second-largest globally after Mars, Incorporated. Headquartered in Uxbridge, London, United Kingdom, the company operates in more than 50 countries worldwide....

 chocolate and the joint company named British Cocoa and Chocolate Company. Under Egbert Cadbury

Egbert Cadbury

Air Commodore Sir Egbert Cadbury DSC, DFC was a First World War pilot who shot down two Zeppelins over the North Sea: L21 on 28 November 1916, and L70 on 6 August 1918: the latter while flying a De Havilland DH.4 with Robert Leckie as Observer/Gunner.The son of George Cadbury and Dame Elizabeth...

 the Fry's division began the move to Somerdale, Keynsham

Keynsham

Keynsham is a town and civil parish between Bristol and Bath in Somerset, south-west England. It has a population of 15,533.It was listed in the Domesday Book as Cainesham, which is believed to mean the home of Saint Keyne....

 in 1923. After 1981 the name Fry's was no longer in use at Somerdale

Somerdale Factory

Somerdale was a chocolate factory located in Keynsham near Bristol in south west England. It was the home of a Cadbury plc's production facility, and was originally built by the Fry family when they expanded through consolidation of a number of existing facilities located in the centre of...

, but the factory was still a major producer of Cadbury's products.

On 3 October 2007, Cadbury announced plans to close the Somerdale plant, the 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 would be moved to a new factory in Poland

Poland

Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...

. Another motivational factor was the high real estate value of the land. Labour MP for Wansdyke

Wansdyke (UK Parliament constituency)

Wansdyke was a county constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elected one Member of Parliament by the first past the post system of election....

, Dan Norris

Dan Norris

Dan Norris is a British Labour Party politician who was the Member of Parliament for Wansdyke from 1997 until 2010. He was also a Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs....

 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".

In February 2010, following the takeover of Cadbury plc by Kraft Foods, the closure was confirmed to take place in 2011. In the longer term it is likely the greenfield

Greenfield land

Greenfield land is a term used to describe undeveloped land in a city or rural area either used for agriculture, landscape design, or left to naturally evolve...

site will be re-classified and provide Keynsham with additional housing.