Griffin and Sons, Ltd.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XXXV, Issue 205, 7 September 1901, Page 2 (Supplement)

Griffin and Sons, Ltd.

Wholesale Manufacturing Confectioners, Biscuit Manufacturers, etc. None of us are likely to forget the days when we were wont to stand before a lolly shop with mouth agape and " watering," admiring the delightful confectionery that was so near and yet so far. Who, when a child, would not have given a year of his life to be allowed the freedom of that magnetic shop, to pick and choose at will. The awarding the freedom of a city to a grown-up notable would not afford half the pleasure, and yet most of us are not too old to be a child again in this regard. The old man is frequently as fond of his lollies as his grandchild, and the sweet taste is not confined to any class of society. The Right Hon. George Reid addresses the Federal House of Representatives With equanimity when he hears a packet of lollies rustling in his pocket, and, according to report, statesmen, poets, soldiers, and what not, have as great a weakness for these little balls of sugar as their youngest children. Few people have any conception of the processes followed and the trouble taken in the manufacture of confections. • As a matter of fact, so general is their popularity, the manufacture of sweets is quite an industry [employing considerable capital and labour, and calling forth more than ordinary ingenuity in the perfecting of the mechanical contrivances used. Some idea may be formed on these points from a perusal of a sketch of the important undertaking of Messrs. Griffin and Sons, Ltd. At their biscuit and confectionery factory in Alton-street, Nelson, they employ nearly a hundred hands, decidedly the greatest number engaged in any other single local industry, and have installed scores of machines of modern type, besides using up a deal of material. Their works are second to none in New Zealand, and very justifiably local people are exceedingly proud of their institution which can compete with the biggest concerns of the kind in the colony and in their own territory, t©o. The output of Griffin 'and Sons' factory is distributed from north to south and east to west of New Zealand, and everywhere bears an excellent reputation. Although the business has been in existence for about a quarter of a century, it has been enly in recent years that these big results have been obtained. The beginning, or foundation, was laid by Mr. Griffin and his sons as a private firm, and when upwards of six years ago the going concern was floated into a limited liability company with a larger capital to work on the expansion became little short of phenomena. Happily, most of the shareholders are local people, and when it is added that the directorate is a local one with Mr. J. H. Cock, head of the large wholesale house of Cock and Co., as Chairman, and with the general management in the hands of the Griffin Bros, it will be seen that the institution is essentially a Nelson product. The two storey factory is very spacious, and is equipped with a plant of considerable capital cost. Manufacturing is mostly conducted on the lower flat in a series of departments devoted to the various lines, each department containing ingenious . machines and presenting a bustling scene. On the ground floor also is the engine, the bulk store, and the box making department, and a dining and reading room specially provided for the girls employed. This last is a considerate conferment to the pleasure and convenience of the employes, and is part and parcel of. the desire generally evinced . throughout the buildings to secure their welfare. . Upstairs certain classes of confections are manufactured, and there is the drying room, the stocks room, the card box and tin making departments, the delivery and other departments. Delivery into vehicles which approach along aright-of-way at the rear is effected expeditiously by means of a lift. The works are self-contained, all the boxes, card boxes, and tins being made on the premises; in short everything but the printing is effected. For these purposes they have band saw benches and other contrivances for box making ; a guillotine and other machines for tin making ; and slotting, bending, studding, cornering, corner cutting, metal edge cutting, and other appliances for card box making. The boxes are made of white pine grown in the district, and local industry is everywhere supported where possible. The machinery is driven by a compound engine of 40 h.p. The first departments visited on leaving the offices fronting Altonstreet are those devoted to biscuit making. This plant is of an exceptionally good character, being the latest designed by Messrs. Joseph Baker and Sons, who are celebrated in this" class of machinery. Biscuit making is almost entirely effected by mechanical appliances, and from the time the flour- is sifted through the v3jious.pjocgs.ses, until the biscuits emerge from the travelling oven the material is hardly touched by hand. The eggs are Ltieaten. the fruit is cleaned, the sugar pulverised ,the dough kneaded, the ingredients a?e wised, and the various shapes cut, all by machinery, leaving little for the worker to do but to think for them all, and to judge. As an example of the allpotency of machinery such a factory is interesting. The sugar mill (Bakers) is in the new style, the sugar being pulverised in a revolving drum, averaging about 3000 revolutions a minute, is then blown yp a. shoot to a. settline chamber upstairs. Mixing is effected in cylinders fitted with r revolving arms, each mixer being Capable ofl manipulating .about joolbs. at a time. Kneading is conducted by a roller, the material passing back and forth over a slab and under th| roller. The biscuit cutting machine and the drop biscuit machine, cut the dough into the required shapes of the biscuits, scores at a time, a_nd place them on t^e tf ay which holds them in the oven, The principal Baker's travelling oven installed is one of the largest and best in the colony, and just as the biscuit cutters are as different from the ordinary domestic appliance used for the purpose as a steam hammer from a boy's toy hammer so is this ovan from the common range. The trays are placed in it and proceed through the machine at the exact speed that will bring them out at the further end with the biscuits cooked to a nicety, and as we see them at our. table. Nothing could b? ffloye simple. Other Ovens are used foy other . cooking, and other machines forj otlier rflanuf^ctuye. There is a 'du- '

plicate biscuit cutting pliant, asd there are two travelling ove_.*„ Messrs Griffin and Sons make scares of different kinds of Biscuits, and also cakes, etc The output « considerable, people aU over the colony being the consumers* In these, as in all other departments, the best ingredients Only are iised,-the highest class sugars and flour, the; cleanest fruit, the freshest milk, butter, spices, etc. Griffin's Canterbury .cakes in ilb boxes with the nairifcpf the firm embossed on the lid^ie. quite a noted line, and have an extensive sale. The biscuit packing department is Upstairs, the biscuits being carried up in large boxes which are placed on a trolley running the length of the packing tables, on either side of these- numbers of hands being engaged, rapidly filling the tins. At adjoining tables are several girls constantly -4i*Mng and labelling. Further arbtig the same flat are. large stocks, the lift being busily occupied delivering into the vehicles for consignment. Biscuit making thus effected is reduced' to; a science. The manufacture ©f sweets is* conducted by people expert in the business, and here, too-, wherever possible, machinery is requisitioned. Each year improvements are being made in the contrivances used by liirge confectioners, and some day perhaps nearly all the work will be done &y mechanical agency even to the stamping and packing. The beginnings of the lollies so familiar to us ;are made ift the sugar boiling department. When this comparatively simple process is completed the liquid is passed on to , patent cooling slabs, with a stream of cold water running underneath, after which the material is ready to go by divers routes to its' completion either as an ordinary boiled lolly or as a comfit. . Each 0f the scores of machines used in these interesting departments is worked by steam> the sugar rollers, the revolving pans, the egg beaterc, the fruit cleaners, and so on. In the revolving pans the long rounded comfits are turned out by thousands at a time ', the pan, which receives the necessary preparation from an adjacent melting pans, merely revolving and the cemfits getting fatter and fatter each revolution. By a similar process the rounded hundreds and thousands up to lollies the size of pigeons eggs are evolved, while sugar almonds are also produced in the same way. It would not be possible to follow the development «f the scores of kinds of confections manufactured by the Company. Different; contrivances are required for the different kinds-. Messrs Griffin and Sons have a reputation for their chocolate creams ftnd other chocolate products. After the cocoa bean has been manipulated, the chocolate cream with its ingredients is boiled in large pans. The cream centres are then moulded in stareb, large rows being stretched out on the tables and making a pretty picture. After this they go on to the ■ chocolate coating or dipping department, where are a number Of hands, for the making of chocolate goods is an important feature. Every class is manufactured and packed in fancy and other boxes, and sent 'all over the colony. Jujubes are also moulded in starch, while Caramels are more easily manufactured, the shapes being cut by maehtne. Jujubes seem to compete with the chocolate gooda for output, and nothing less than animmense quantity of them is turned out. In the drying room upstairs where the last stage of their manufacture is reached, two rows of racks, seventeen racks high, running the whole length of theroom (about 50ft), are occupied by Jujubes. But Griffin and Sons make all classes of ■ confections, from ordinary boiled sugar to the most delicate and expensive of chocolates, jujubes, caramels. "Within the next few weeks they will begin the manufacture of the special Christmas confections and fancy goods always an important item. A. portionof the factory is specialty se. , apart for this purpose, and here their Christmas Stockings and other articles dear to the heart of the little ones are produced. Besides similar lines the firm make all sorts of oandied goods, lemon peel, etc, from the raw state, and enjoy a large demand for them. Then v department not ' yet mentioned has more than ordinary importance. ThiSis the cocoamaking branch, thfcCompany-s cocoa, being as widely known as any of their other goods, and being pushed' sedulously throughout th« del-gin and breadth- of the colony. The beans are imported fr° m Ceylon, America, South America, and the West ladies — the various types being represented so as to obtain different varieties fer sale — and are subjected to the most careful treatment. Aflfer being roasted, the beans are slrinned and broken by machinir^r and are then reduced to a liquid, after whioh the product is passed through a hydraulic press supplying a 50 toos pressure where the natural butter is extracted. Thence the cocoa ia evolved, and from its purity, wholesomeness, and delicacy of flavour, tbe Company's braid has obtained deserved popularity and is recommended > hy householders. Such is a discursive sketch of this big institution, important to Nelson in giving extensive employment, in advertising the town, or in drawing capital to this centre. Its expansion during the last few yeara kas gratifying, as it ia creditable to the management. The fame of its manufactures seems to be growing year by year, and whether in biscuits, cakes, cocoa, candied peels, or confections, they are not to be surpassed in all New Zealand and are seldom equalled.