Mac Fisheries
Encyclopedia
Mac Fisheries was a branded United Kingdom
retail chain of fish mongers, founded by William Lever, 1st Viscount Leverhulme
, the co-founder with his brother of Lever Brothers
, which later merged to become Unilever
.
. In May 1918 at the age of 66, he bought the Isle of Lewis for £167,000. Convinced that he could resurrect the fishing industry
, he set about investing in all aspects of the supporting industries and supply/distribution chain.
Leverhulme's plan was to build an ice-making plant in Stornoway
, building refrigerated cargo ships to take fish to a depot at Fleetwood
, where he would build herring-curing facilities, a canning factory, and a plant installed to make fish cakes, fish paste
, glue
, animal feed
and fertiliser. To create a market for the fish, he started buying up independent fishmongers throughout Britain, rebranding them Mac Fisheries.
But in 1919, servicemen demobilised from World War I
and promised land, started occupying plots on the Isle of Lewis. Leverhulme protested and took legal action against the people he considered squatters, but the Scottish Office
took the side of the ex-servicemen, leaving Leverhulme's plan in tatters. Leverhulme announced that he would leave Lewis in 1923, offering to gift the Isle to the locals. But suspicion ran so high, that he was forced to sell again to long-term absentee landlords.
for the sum of £36,000. Taking in the Western Isles fishing village of Obbe, he planned to turn it into a consolidated major fishing centre, with product distributed through the Mac Fisheries shops. In 1920, Obbe with local consent was rebranded Leverburgh
, and 300 men started work on a new pier and seashore infrastructure for processing the product from 50 berthed trawlers. Shore side construction covered an accommodation block, curing sheds, smoke houses, a refrigeration building, store sheds, houses for the managers and a twenty car garage.
With a second stage of development planned that would have seen the inner sea loch converted into a harbour to accommodate 200+ trawlers, fitted with a sea lock to ensure a constant 25 feet (7.6 m) depth, Leverhulme paid for upgraded roads to accommodate the additional traffic. After purchasing the London butchers Wall's
in 1920, the economic downturn of 1920-21 slowed development, resulting in the London-based Mac Fisheries being incorporated into Lever Brothers Ltd in 1922. By 1924 Leverburgh was ready to start production, and 12 Great Yarmouth
drifters landed a quantity of herring
so great, that extra female employees were taken in from the mainland to handle the catch.
After making his last visit to Leverburgh in September 1924, Leverhulme took a trip to Africa
, where he developed pneumonia
. After his death in Hampstead
, his executors and the Board of Lever Brothers had no interest in the Leverburgh project, and so ended all work and then sold off the village and production facilities for £5,000, and the estate for £300. It is estimated that the project cost Leverhulme £500,000.
consumers, the British soap
maker Lever Brothers and Dutch
margarine
producer Margarine Unie
, created the foods conglomerate known as Unilever
. The company′s main focus was overseas expansion by distribution of its manufactured foods products outside its two core markets, resulting in a strategy that left in-country operations to do their own thing as long as they made a profit and earned money.
-developed frozen products such as Unilever's own Birds Eye
fish fingers, meant a decline in wet-fish sales, and a decline for Mac Fisheries. The management turned the chain towards multi-line retailing, introducing fresh vegetables, dairy products and some canned produce. But now shop size proved a problem, as the originally purchased retail estate from 1920 had not been expanded.
This resulted in the chain moving to larger scale shops in the late 1950s, often on different streets or different parts of the town. But the new multi-line stores proved successful in reviving the chain′s fortune, and spurred the growth of the chain into the new concept of supermarket
based retail. To expand their footprint Mac Fisheries sought a merger, and found a willing seller in Express Dairies
, who wished to dispose of their chain Premier Supermarkets. Express had seen the problem of being both a wholesale supplier to supermarkets such as Fine Fare
, Gateway
, Sainsburys and Tesco
, as well as a retail competitor in Premier: the same problem that would eventually lead to Mac Fisheries disposal and closure some 15years later. Express also needed the cash to develop long-life milk, for which the funds from the sale of Premier would allow them to launch.
However, again estate problems brought issues for Mac Fisheries. Coming second or third into a particular town with the supermarket concept, the new Food Centres were often in the wrong/quiet part of town. This resulted in increased sales thanks to the footprint increase, but financial performance under target. This slowed store roll out, resulting in only 80 Food Centres by the end of 1964. Secondly, customers had to get used to a new colour scheme, based on orange over the traditional blue and white. Thirdly the decision was made to keep some of the smaller fish-only stores open as Mac Fisheries, at a time when consumers were falling in love with the supermarkets cheap priced mass delivery of pre-processed foods, resulting in further losses. This resulted in competition between the two chains in many towns, Mac Food Centres and Mac Fisheries, further confusing the consumer. To avoid this, later Mac Fisheries were opened as a store-within-a-store at the Mac Food Centres.
Mac Fisheries developed new distribution systems based on Unilever's expertise, building a new warehouse in Farnborough
, Hampshire
, that introduced the first high street introduction of the bar code to consumer retailing. However, the family concepts from both the original fish mongers and Unilever were retained, with gold watches for 40 years of service.
By the early 1970s, Unilever were becoming aware of the dichotomy of being both a wholesale supplier and retailer. Unilever tried to stress to their other supermarket customers that Mac Fisheries didn't get a pricing advantage over them, and yet as the science of food retailing developed, it was clear that Unilever was giving guidance to Mac Fisheries on placing Unilever products in the most prominent positions.
marketing
between the two chains, resulted in the other supermarket brands expanding far more quickly, resulting in them getting better prices and hence more customers. The result was that by 1973, Mac Fisheries Group was turning over £50million, but making very little money. Secondly, the development of out of town retail parks required that another change of estate footprint requiring new investment was made in the business, something which Unilver was by now reluctant to do as it had to absorb consistent losses from the chain.
The result was a cost-cutting period in 1975, resulting in loss making store closures and staff reductions, particularly at the groups headquarters in Bracknell
, Berkshire
. Further, the annual staff conference was downgraded from this point from a top London hotel, to a series of regional town meetings.
In April 1979, the Food Centres were sold to International Stores, while the residual wet fish shops were simply closed down within the following three months.
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
retail chain of fish mongers, founded by William Lever, 1st Viscount Leverhulme
William Lever, 1st Viscount Leverhulme
William Hesketh Lever, 1st Viscount Leverhulme was an English industrialist, philanthropist, and politician....
, the co-founder with his brother of Lever Brothers
Lever Brothers
Lever Brothers was a British manufacturer founded in 1885 by William Hesketh Lever and his brother, James Darcy Lever . The brothers had invested in and promoted a new soap making process invented by chemist William Hough Watson, it was a huge success...
, which later merged to become Unilever
Unilever
Unilever is a British-Dutch multinational corporation that owns many of the world's consumer product brands in foods, beverages, cleaning agents and personal care products....
.
Isle of Lewis
In his thirties, Lord Leverhulme had taken a boat trip and fallen in love with the Western Isles of ScotlandScotland
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 May 1918 at the age of 66, he bought the Isle of Lewis for £167,000. Convinced that he could resurrect the fishing industry
Fishing industry
The fishing industry includes any industry or activity concerned with taking, culturing, processing, preserving, storing, transporting, marketing or selling fish or fish products....
, he set about investing in all aspects of the supporting industries and supply/distribution chain.
Leverhulme's plan was to build an ice-making plant in Stornoway
Stornoway
Stornoway is a burgh on the Isle of Lewis, in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland.The town's population is around 9,000, making it the largest settlement in the Western Isles and the third largest town in the Scottish Highlands after Inverness and Fort William...
, building refrigerated cargo ships to take fish to a depot at Fleetwood
Fleetwood
Fleetwood is a town within the Wyre district of Lancashire, England, lying at the northwest corner of the Fylde. It had a population of 26,840 people at the 2001 Census. It forms part of the Greater Blackpool conurbation. The town was the first planned community of the Victorian era...
, where he would build herring-curing facilities, a canning factory, and a plant installed to make fish cakes, fish paste
Fish paste
-Fermented products:* Ngapi: a fish paste used in the Cuisine of Burma* Petis Ikan: a salty dark fish paste used in the Cuisine of Indonesia, mostly Madurese....
, glue
Glue
This is a list of various types of glue. Historically, the term "glue" only referred to protein colloids prepared from animal flesh. The meaning has been extended to refer to any fluid adhesive....
, animal feed
Animal feed
Animal feed may refer to:*Compound feed, commercial pelleted food produced in a feed mill and fed to domestic livestock*Fodder, food given to domestic livestock, including plants cut and carried to them*Forage, growing plants eaten by domestic livestock....
and fertiliser. To create a market for the fish, he started buying up independent fishmongers throughout Britain, rebranding them Mac Fisheries.
But in 1919, servicemen demobilised from 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...
and promised land, started occupying plots on the Isle of Lewis. Leverhulme protested and took legal action against the people he considered squatters, but the Scottish Office
Scottish Office
The Scottish Office was a department of the United Kingdom Government from 1885 until 1999, exercising a wide range of government functions in relation to Scotland under the control of the Secretary of State for Scotland...
took the side of the ex-servicemen, leaving Leverhulme's plan in tatters. Leverhulme announced that he would leave Lewis in 1923, offering to gift the Isle to the locals. But suspicion ran so high, that he was forced to sell again to long-term absentee landlords.
Leverburgh
In late 1919, Leverhulme purchased the South Harris estate from the Earl of DunmoreEarl of Dunmore
Earl of Dunmore is a title in the Peerage of Scotland. It was created in 1686 for Lord Charles Murray, second son of John Murray, 1st Marquess of Atholl. He was made Lord Murray of Blair, Moulin and Tillimet and Viscount of Fincastle at the same time, also in the Peerage of Scotland. He was...
for the sum of £36,000. Taking in the Western Isles fishing village of Obbe, he planned to turn it into a consolidated major fishing centre, with product distributed through the Mac Fisheries shops. In 1920, Obbe with local consent was rebranded Leverburgh
Leverburgh
Leverburgh is the second largest village, after Tarbert, on the island of Harris in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland.-History:In his 30's, English businessman William Lever, 1st Viscount Leverhulme had taken a boat trip and fallen in love with the Western Isles of Scotland...
, and 300 men started work on a new pier and seashore infrastructure for processing the product from 50 berthed trawlers. Shore side construction covered an accommodation block, curing sheds, smoke houses, a refrigeration building, store sheds, houses for the managers and a twenty car garage.
With a second stage of development planned that would have seen the inner sea loch converted into a harbour to accommodate 200+ trawlers, fitted with a sea lock to ensure a constant 25 feet (7.6 m) depth, Leverhulme paid for upgraded roads to accommodate the additional traffic. After purchasing the London butchers Wall's
Wall's (company)
Wall's is a United Kingdom-originated food brand, covering both meat products and ice cream, owned by Unilever. Founded in London in 1786 by butcher Richard Wall, it was acquired in 1922 by Lever Brothers, which became a part of Unilever in 1930. To avoid summer lay-offs due to the down turn in its...
in 1920, the economic downturn of 1920-21 slowed development, resulting in the London-based Mac Fisheries being incorporated into Lever Brothers Ltd in 1922. By 1924 Leverburgh was ready to start production, and 12 Great Yarmouth
Great Yarmouth
Great Yarmouth, often known to locals as Yarmouth, is a coastal town in Norfolk, England. It is at the mouth of the River Yare, east of Norwich.It has been a seaside resort since 1760, and is the gateway from the Norfolk Broads to the sea...
drifters landed a quantity of herring
Herring
Herring is an oily fish of the genus Clupea, found in the shallow, temperate waters of the North Pacific and the North Atlantic oceans, including the Baltic Sea. Three species of Clupea are recognized. The main taxa, the Atlantic herring and the Pacific herring may each be divided into subspecies...
so great, that extra female employees were taken in from the mainland to handle the catch.
After making his last visit to Leverburgh in September 1924, Leverhulme took a trip to Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
, where he developed pneumonia
Pneumonia
Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung—especially affecting the microscopic air sacs —associated with fever, chest symptoms, and a lack of air space on a chest X-ray. Pneumonia is typically caused by an infection but there are a number of other causes...
. After his death in Hampstead
Hampstead
Hampstead is an area of London, England, north-west of Charing Cross. Part of the London Borough of Camden in Inner London, it is known for its intellectual, liberal, artistic, musical and literary associations and for Hampstead Heath, a large, hilly expanse of parkland...
, his executors and the Board of Lever Brothers had no interest in the Leverburgh project, and so ended all work and then sold off the village and production facilities for £5,000, and the estate for £300. It is estimated that the project cost Leverhulme £500,000.
Retail chain
In 1930, a merger of the major palm oilPalm oil
Palm oil, coconut oil and palm kernel oil are edible plant oils derived from the fruits of palm trees. Palm oil is extracted from the pulp of the fruit of the oil palm Elaeis guineensis; palm kernel oil is derived from the kernel of the oil palm and coconut oil is derived from the kernel of the...
consumers, the British soap
Soap
In chemistry, soap is a salt of a fatty acid.IUPAC. "" Compendium of Chemical Terminology, 2nd ed. . Compiled by A. D. McNaught and A. Wilkinson. Blackwell Scientific Publications, Oxford . XML on-line corrected version: created by M. Nic, J. Jirat, B. Kosata; updates compiled by A. Jenkins. ISBN...
maker Lever Brothers and Dutch
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
margarine
Margarine
Margarine , as a generic term, can indicate any of a wide range of butter substitutes, typically composed of vegetable oils. In many parts of the world, the market share of margarine and spreads has overtaken that of butter...
producer Margarine Unie
Margarine Unie
The Dutch company Naamlooze Vennootschap Margarine Unie grew in the 1920s through mergers of several margarine companies, among which Centra and Schicht and above all the companies of Antonius Johannes Jurgens and Samuel van den Bergh...
, created the foods conglomerate known as Unilever
Unilever
Unilever is a British-Dutch multinational corporation that owns many of the world's consumer product brands in foods, beverages, cleaning agents and personal care products....
. The company′s main focus was overseas expansion by distribution of its manufactured foods products outside its two core markets, resulting in a strategy that left in-country operations to do their own thing as long as they made a profit and earned money.
World War Two
Mac Fisheries was hence left alone, buying wholesale product from both Unilever sources as well as the open market. It did not expand much until the Second World War, when although meat which had to be mainly imported was rationed, resulted in a boom of trade. To keep fishermen safe, the Government introduced a protected zoning scheme of trawlers, resulting in them landing fish in different ports each week. Mac Fisheries became adept at communicating to their stores when fresh fish would reach them, resulting in signs in shop windows stating when the next fresh fish delivery was due.Challenge and development
The dual consequences of the end of food rationing in the UK in 1954, and the wider introduction of AmericanUnited States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
-developed frozen products such as Unilever's own Birds Eye
Birds Eye
__FORCETOC__Birds Eye is an international brand of frozen foods owned by Pinnacle Foods in North America and by private equity group Permira in Europe....
fish fingers, meant a decline in wet-fish sales, and a decline for Mac Fisheries. The management turned the chain towards multi-line retailing, introducing fresh vegetables, dairy products and some canned produce. But now shop size proved a problem, as the originally purchased retail estate from 1920 had not been expanded.
This resulted in the chain moving to larger scale shops in the late 1950s, often on different streets or different parts of the town. But the new multi-line stores proved successful in reviving the chain′s fortune, and spurred the growth of the chain into the new concept of supermarket
Supermarket
A supermarket, a form of grocery store, is a self-service store offering a wide variety of food and household merchandise, organized into departments...
based retail. To expand their footprint Mac Fisheries sought a merger, and found a willing seller in Express Dairies
Express Dairies
Express Dairies is a subsidiary of Dairy Crest, specialising almost entirely in home deliveries of milk and other dairy products.-History:The company was founded by George Barham in 1864 as the Express County Milk Supply Company, named after the fact that they only used express trains to get their...
, who wished to dispose of their chain Premier Supermarkets. Express had seen the problem of being both a wholesale supplier to supermarkets such as Fine Fare
Fine Fare
Fine Fare was the name of a chain of supermarkets in the United Kingdom. It was famous for its Yellow Pack budget own-label range.-History:The company started as a single supermarket in Brighton in 1956. It was one of a series of convenience store chains established in the 1950s, the others being...
, Gateway
Somerfield
Somerfield was a chain of small to medium sized supermarkets operating in the United Kingdom. The company was taken over by the Co-operative Group on 2 March 2009 in a £1.57 billion deal, creating the UK's fifth largest food retailer. The name is currently being phased out and replaced by the...
, Sainsburys and Tesco
Tesco
Tesco plc is a global grocery and general merchandise retailer headquartered in Cheshunt, United Kingdom. It is the third-largest retailer in the world measured by revenues and the second-largest measured by profits...
, as well as a retail competitor in Premier: the same problem that would eventually lead to Mac Fisheries disposal and closure some 15years later. Express also needed the cash to develop long-life milk, for which the funds from the sale of Premier would allow them to launch.
Merger with Premier Supermarkets
Express put Premier up for sale in April 1964, and concluded a deal with Unilever in May 1964 for £1million. The Premier stores were rebranded at Mac Food Centres, which were the new format multi-line large footprint stores. Paul Gilam, Mac Fisheries Operations Manager pre-takeover, considered the title Super Market brash, hence the choice of Food Centre, but due to public opinion the title slipped back in and eventually stayed.However, again estate problems brought issues for Mac Fisheries. Coming second or third into a particular town with the supermarket concept, the new Food Centres were often in the wrong/quiet part of town. This resulted in increased sales thanks to the footprint increase, but financial performance under target. This slowed store roll out, resulting in only 80 Food Centres by the end of 1964. Secondly, customers had to get used to a new colour scheme, based on orange over the traditional blue and white. Thirdly the decision was made to keep some of the smaller fish-only stores open as Mac Fisheries, at a time when consumers were falling in love with the supermarkets cheap priced mass delivery of pre-processed foods, resulting in further losses. This resulted in competition between the two chains in many towns, Mac Food Centres and Mac Fisheries, further confusing the consumer. To avoid this, later Mac Fisheries were opened as a store-within-a-store at the Mac Food Centres.
Mac Fisheries developed new distribution systems based on Unilever's expertise, building a new warehouse in Farnborough
Farnborough, Hampshire
-History:Name changes: Ferneberga ; Farnburghe, Farenberg ; Farnborowe, Fremborough, Fameborough .Tower Hill, Cove: There is substantial evidence...
, Hampshire
Hampshire
Hampshire is a county on the southern coast of England in the United Kingdom. The county town of Hampshire is Winchester, a historic cathedral city that was once the capital of England. Hampshire is notable for housing the original birthplaces of the Royal Navy, British Army, and Royal Air Force...
, that introduced the first high street introduction of the bar code to consumer retailing. However, the family concepts from both the original fish mongers and Unilever were retained, with gold watches for 40 years of service.
By the early 1970s, Unilever were becoming aware of the dichotomy of being both a wholesale supplier and retailer. Unilever tried to stress to their other supermarket customers that Mac Fisheries didn't get a pricing advantage over them, and yet as the science of food retailing developed, it was clear that Unilever was giving guidance to Mac Fisheries on placing Unilever products in the most prominent positions.
Closure
Mac Markets failed roll out and confused high streetHigh Street
High Street, or the High Street, is a metonym for the generic name of the primary business street of towns or cities, especially in the United Kingdom. It is usually a focal point for shops and retailers in city centres, and is most often used in reference to retailing...
marketing
Marketing
Marketing is the process used to determine what products or services may be of interest to customers, and the strategy to use in sales, communications and business development. It generates the strategy that underlies sales techniques, business communication, and business developments...
between the two chains, resulted in the other supermarket brands expanding far more quickly, resulting in them getting better prices and hence more customers. The result was that by 1973, Mac Fisheries Group was turning over £50million, but making very little money. Secondly, the development of out of town retail parks required that another change of estate footprint requiring new investment was made in the business, something which Unilver was by now reluctant to do as it had to absorb consistent losses from the chain.
The result was a cost-cutting period in 1975, resulting in loss making store closures and staff reductions, particularly at the groups headquarters in Bracknell
Bracknell
Bracknell is a town and civil parish in the Borough of Bracknell Forest in Berkshire, England. It lies to the south-east of Reading, southwest of Windsor and west of central London...
, Berkshire
Berkshire
Berkshire is a historic county in the South of England. It is also often referred to as the Royal County of Berkshire because of the presence of the royal residence of Windsor Castle in the county; this usage, which dates to the 19th century at least, was recognised by the Queen in 1957, and...
. Further, the annual staff conference was downgraded from this point from a top London hotel, to a series of regional town meetings.
In April 1979, the Food Centres were sold to International Stores, while the residual wet fish shops were simply closed down within the following three months.