ALLIED BREWERIES: VICTORIA WINE COMPANY LIMITED

Identity Statement

Reference code(s)	: GB 0074 LMA/4434
Held at	: London Metropolitan Archives   Click here to find out how to view this collection at https://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/lma ›
Full title	: ALLIED BREWERIES: VICTORIA WINE COMPANY LIMITED
Date(s)	: 1822-1989
Level of description	: Collection
Extent	: 6 linear metres
Name of creator(s)	: Allied Breweries Ltd

Context

Administrative/Biographical history:

The Victoria Wine Company, wine merchants and importers, was in operation by at least 1867, when the company is mentioned in The Times newspaper. In 1929 the company became a subsidiary of brewers Taylor, Walker and Company. In 1959-1960 Ind Coope, which owned Taylor, Walker and Company, successfully bid to purchase those shares in Victoria Wine not owned by Taylor, Walker and Company and thus Victoria Wine became a subsidiary of Ind Coope. In 1983 it was described in The Times newspaper as "Britain's largest high street wine and spirits chain, which has some 900 shops".

Ind Coope Tetley Ansell Limited was registered as a limited company in 1961 and was the result of a merger between Ind Coope Limited, Romford, Essex and Burton-on-Trent, Staffordshire, Tetley Walker Limited, Leeds, West Yorkshire and Ansells Brewery Limited, Birmingham, West Midlands. In 1963 the company was renamed Allied Breweries Limited. The companies pooled there resources but still functioned independently. In 1968 the Showerings, Vine Products and Whiteways group merged with Allied Breweries. A new parent company, Allied-Lyons plc was established after the acquisition of J Lyons and Company Limited, a food manufacturing and distribution company.

Allied Breweries acquired numerous other companies including Wm Teacher and Sons Limited in 1976, United Rum Merchants Limited in 1984, and the Canadian group Hiram Walker-Gooderham and Worts Limited in 1984, which made Allied Breweries the leading international wines and spirits producer and distributor. This position was reinforced by the acquisition of James Burroughs Distillers in 1989 and the buy-out of Whitbread's 50 per cent holding in the companies joint venture company, European Cellars (Holdings) Limited. During the 1980s Allied Breweries began to fragment with various companies being sold off. The result was Allied Domecq which concentrated on wines and spirits. Allied Breweries pulled out of the brewing business around 1990.

Content

Scope and content/abstract:

Records of Victoria Wine Co Ltd, a subsidiary of Allied Breweries Ltd, and records of various other subsidiary companies including some acquired by Victoria Wine before it was acquired by Allied. Each company collection contains corporate records which can include minutes of meetings, memoranda and articles of association, registers of directors and members and corporate agreements.

This collection contains the records of the following businesses:
A. Bartlett and Hobbs Limited
B. Beverlys Limited
C. B E Bird and Company Limited
D. Prince Brindley Limited
E. Broad Street Securities Limited
F. Valentine Charles (Holdings) Limited
G. Castle and Company Limited
H. Churchill and Williams Limited
I. Clough and Pickering Limited
J. Byron Gulliver and Sons Limited
K. Lings of London London
L. Matthew and Son Limited
M. Thomas McAndie and Company Limited
N. M Milne Limited
O. E A Mitchell Limited
P. William Perry Wine Merchants Limited
Q. Preston Watson and Company Limited
R. David Sandeman and Sons (Pall Mall) Limited
S. A J Smith and Company Limited
T. Taylors (Wine Merchants) Limited
U. Tyler and Company Limited
V. Victoria Wine-Tylers Limited
W. P G Ward and Company Limited
X. Winchester Brewery
Y. Wine Ways (Supermarkets) Limited
Z. Thomas Wylie and Company Limited

Access & Use

Language/scripts of material:
English

System of arrangement:

The businesses have been arranged alphabetically.

Conditions governing access:

These records are open to public inspection, although records containing personal information may be subject to closure periods.

Conditions governing reproduction:

Copyright rests with the City of London

Finding aids:

Please see online catalogues at: http://search.lma.gov.uk/opac_lma/index.htm

Archival Information

Archival history:

Immediate source of acquisition:

Received as a gift in 2002 and 2008. (B02/091; B08/176)

Allied Materials

Related material:

For more records relating to Allied Breweries see also LMA/4433 and LMA/4435.

Publication note:

Description Notes

Archivist's note:

Rules or conventions:
Compiled in compliance with General International Standard Archival Description, ISAD(G), second edition, 2000; National Council on Archives Rules for the Construction of Personal, Place and Corporate Names, 1997.

Date(s) of descriptions:
July to October 2009