Carr's Milling Industries
Carr's Milling Industries plc of Carlisle
Owner of Carr's Flour Mills and agricultural supplies business. Have recently appeared in UK supermarkets through their Carr's Breadmaker flour range.
Carr's Milling Industries also own companies involved in light engineering.
Carr's is the name of foodstuff and agricultural brands historically derived from founder Jonathan Dodgson Carr but now owned and marketed by more than one separate company.
1831 Jonathan Carr formed a small bakery and biscuit factory in the English city of Carlisle. His company grew to include flour milling and he was heavily involved in the nearby port of Silloth
1836 started milling flour for his famous Table Water biscuit factory
Carr was the first person in Britain to recognise the benefits of high quality Canadian wheat.
1841 he received a royal warrant
1886 His successor Henry Carr opened a flour mill in Silloth.
Claimed to be the first firm to make Fancy Biscuits by machinery.
1885 The company was making 128 varieties of biscuits and employed a thousand workers.
1894 Carr and Co Ltd was registered on 27 February, to acquire the business of millers, corn merchants, and bread and biscuit manufacturers of the firm of the same name. [1]
1905 Carr's flour mills at Silloth were reopened after extensive alterations, enlargements and improvements.[2]
1908 Carr’s Flour Mills Limited was incorporated to acquire the flour milling assets of Carr and Co from which it was demerged.
Among the members of the Carr family who worked for the business was former Commando Capt Richard Carr MBE, who was decorated for repeated escape attempts from Italian and German PW camps during WW2.
1950 Carr’s Flour Mills Limited was incorporated to acquire the milling business carried on at Silloth by Carr’s Milling Industries Limited. Carr's Solray Ltd was incorporated to acquire the self raising flour business.[3]. Carr’s Flour Mills Ltd was renamed Carr’s Milling Industries Ltd.
1963 An automated plant for animal feed was installed at Silloth
1972 Carr’s Milling Industries was listed on the London Stock Exchange. There were 3 main areas of business:[4]
- Flour milling
- Baking of wrapped and sliced bread
- Animal feed stuffs
1982 Re-registered as a PLC
1996 Acquired Bendalls, a specialist fabrication business based in Carlisle operating in the nuclear, oil, gas and petrochemical industries.
1998 Closure of animal feed mill at Silloth
2003 Acquired Master Slave Manipulators, based in Swindon, specialising in the manufacture of manipulators used in the nuclear industry. Later renamed Carrs MSM
2004 Acquired two flour mills, one in Kirkcaldy, Fife and the other in Maldon, Essex, adding to the existing flour mill in Silloth, Cumbria.
2005 Acquisition of Wallace Oils Ltd, the start of the fuel business. Carrs Billington Agriculture (Operations) Ltd acquired W. and J. Pye animal feed producers.
2007 Acquired Johnstone Fuels and Lubricants Ltd
2010 Acquired A. C. Burn Ltd and Forsyths of (Wooler) Ltd. Acquired Scotmin Nutrition Ltd, of Ayr, adding to the feed block business Caltech.
2011 Acquired Safe at Work, a specialist protective clothing supplier to the forestry and agricultural markets. Disposed of Carrs Fertiliser.
2014 Acquired Chirton Engineering
2015 Carr’s Milling Industries PLC changed its name to Carr's Group