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Messrs. REDGATE, Limited,
Importers of Foreign Wines, Whiskey Blenders, Manufacturers of British Wines, Cordials, Liqueurs, Aerated Waters, and Brewers of Hop Bitters,
Telephone No. 552. Traffic Street, NOTTINGHAM.
AMONG the extensive circle of customers supplied from their Nottingham centre by the firm of Redgate, Limited, there are probably many who, although familiar enough with the specialities represented under their well-known trade mark, are yet unacquainted with the outlines of the progressive development of the business, or the extent of its resources in the departments of manufacture, import and distribution concentrated at the Traffic Street establishment, with a view to affording some details of interest on the subject, especially to Messrs. Redgate's more distant clients, we embody the following particulars of the firm's business as indicating the more prominent features of the firm's undertakings. This originated in 1877, and was the outcome of the enterprise of the founder, Mr. J. G. Redgate, who at that date commenced the manufacture of mineral waters and British cordials at premises in Houndsgate, Nottingham. Under energetic management the business rapidly expanded, and in 1883 it became necessary to obtain more spacious accommodation for the requirements of the increasing trade. The firm accordingly removed to the present commodious establishment in Traffic Street, and since then have added new and important departments to which we shall have occasion to refer at a later stage of our notice. About a twelvemonth ago the business was incorporated as a company under the title of "Redgate, Limited," with a capital of £15,000, with Mr. Redgate as the managing director.
The premises, extending along the west side of Traffic Street, have a lengthy frontage to that thoroughfare, and are arranged as offices, stores, factory, stabling and van sheds, with a large yard in the rear where vehicles are loaded and unloaded. Beneath the entire extent of the buildings are the immense cellars running to a distance of fifty or sixty yards under the property, providing a vast underground storage system, admirably arranged, and kept in proper order and affording convenient accommodation for the large stocks of wines, spirits, liqueurs and other cask, and bottled goods held duty paid in these departments. As manufacturers of cordials and liqueurs Redgate's have successfully placed on the market some specialities that rank equal in the estimation of the trade with the highest qualities of foreign production. The leading lines in these goods are Orange Bitters, Peach Bitters, Ginger Brandy, and Sloe Gin, while their Curacoa, Maraschino, Noyeau and Absinthe are in increasing demand by the best judges of liqueurs in the Kingdom.
As shippers of foreign wines the firm import large stocks of the chief products of the leading Continental growers which are bonded in the wood in their warehouse in Wilford Road, Nottingham, and for the convenience of supplying customers in those towns are also held in bond in Liverpool and London. In the cellars are kept ready for immediate delivery some fine old bottled ports, sherries, clarets and champagnes of approved vintages and well-known marks, and in another capacious vault are also stored Bass's ales and Guinness's stouts, which are supplied in fine condition. Buying from the principal distillers of Highland and Irish whiskies, Redgate, Limited, hold a very large stock of these spirits to mature in the bonded warehouses before mentioned, and also at Leith and Glasgow, from which are replenished, when of sufficient age, the stocks in vault from which their well-known blends are combined for the market.
In British wines the firm produce other specialities held in favourable esteem by buyers, and in which a very extensive trade is transacted. It is in these departments the firm is most widely known to members of the trade outside Nottingham, as well as in that district, the connection lying chiefly among the principal hotel keepers in England, and including customers as far north as Newcastle-on-Tyne and as far south as London.
The manufactory occupies the ground-floor portion of the main building, is completely equipped with modern plant and appliances for filling mineral and medicated beverages, motive force for the machinery being supplied by a powerful steam engine and boiler erected in a separate structure on the premises. For the process of bottle-washing specially designed machinery of an automatic type is laid down by which this work is carried out on a system of absolute cleanliness, a feature, by the way, characteristic generally of the entire arrangements of the well-organised establishment. Nearing completion, also, is a new building intended as a brewery for Hop Bitters, the old-fashioned ginger beer and other fermented beverages for which the increasing demand compels the firm to provide much more extensive and efficient means of production.
In the stables may be inspected a fine stud of horses kept in splendid condition, of which the firm are justifiably proud, and these are employed in the work of delivery for which an admirable service of van journeys has been organised for the convenience of their extensive circle of local customers. The vehicles for this purpose are quite a distinctive feature of the Nottingham street traffic, and with their bold announcement of the firm's widely-known trade mark—a red gate—are familiar objects to frequenters of the city thoroughfares.
In conclusion, it is hardly necessary to remind members of "the trade," that Messrs. Redgate, Limited, obtained two substantial awards at the Brewers' Exhibition, 1886 and 1887, and gained the Gold Medal at the Industrial Exhibition, Nottingham, in 1891.
Messrs.: JOHN PLAYER & SONS, Limited,
The Castle Tobacco Factory, NOTTINGHAM.
Tobacco Sorting and Spreading Room at the Castle Tobacco Factory.
ORIGINALLY founded in the year 1823, by the late William Wright, in an old building in the Broad Marsh, Nottingham, the business was continued by that gentleman down to 1877, when it passed into the possession of the late Mr. John Player. The new proprietor at once inaugurated a more enterprising regime than that pursued in the time of his predecessor, and was a pioneer of the packet tobacco trade, of the many brands of which few are better known or appreciated than the firm's "Navy Cut." On the death of the founder in 1884 the business was left to his two sons, and in 1895 was converted into a limited liability company, of which they are the managing directors.