Ovaltine Factory Kings Langley

In 1865, Dr George Wander, a Swiss chemist based in Berne, established the high nutritional value of barley malt. He then began to manufacture malt extract and launched the food drink “Ovomaltine”. In 1900 his son Albert took over the business and in 1909 established the British company A.Wander Ltd. The name Ovomaltine was changed to Ovaltine for the British market and became very popular with doctors as a health product.

In 1913 a small factory was built to manufacture Ovaltine in Kings Langley. The factory opened with an original workforce of just thirteen. The business expanded rapidly throughout the 1920s and by the end of the decade the factory had extended almost to its final size.

The company purchased two farms in 1930 on which they established the Ovaltine Dairy and Poultry farms. They set the standard for farm produce in barley, milk and eggs, the main Ovaltine ingredients. This helped the brand present as healthy country goodness, also symbolised with the use of the Ovaltine Dairy Maid, first used in the 1920s, before the farms were even built. She appeared in many advertising campaigns but did not appear on the front of Ovaltine products until 1974. As well as Ovaltine, Options hot chocolate was manufactured. The company became the largest liquid malt extract producer in the world not only is it used in Ovaltine, but also the inside of Maltesers and many other well known biscuits and sweets.

The Kings Langley site was well chosen as the location of the Ovaltine factory. The surrounding farms could produce many of the ingredients, water was available, there was a good rail network and a ready supply of local labour. One of the major factors in choosing the site must have been the  proximity of the Grand Union Canal. It meant that coal needed to fire the boilers could be delivered by narrow boat from the Warwickshire collieries. In 1925 Wander decided to introduce its own boats to handle the transportation of coal. The first pair, the motor “Albert” and the butty “Georgette” entered service in January 1926. By 1954 the fleet was reduced to 3 pairs and contractors were increasingly delivering coal. Eventually the company switched from coal to oil.

In December 1988, the sad wreckage of “Albert” was noticed lying at the bottom of a canal in Nottingham. Chris Collins and Tim Woodbridge saved the craft and re-built “Albert” using near-forgotten traditional skills. “Albert was re-launched back onto the Grand Union Canal with the blessing of Dr Albert Wander, (after whose grandfather the boat had been named) in 1990.

In the early 1920s Saward Baker & Co. Ltd., the appointed advertising agents for Ovaltine introduced Horace Bury to Wander. He created Ovaltine adverts for the next 40 years, incorporating slogans for health, family, quality and sleep. The most famous Ovaltine marketing came with “The Ovaltineys Show”, with one of the best remembered radio jingles of all time. The Ovaltineys was a secret club for children that started in 1935. Every Sunday there was a special broadcast on the radio especially for children that consisted of singing, secret codes, puzzles and stories. By 1939, there were 5 million members. Children applied for membership using forms found in Ovaltine tins. They were then sent a badge, rule book, secret code and signals and a list of the special rules that all members must abide by.

In 1967 Wander merged with a Swiss firm, Sandoz Ltd. After which business remained the same for Wander, but in 1996 Sandoz merged with CIBA and the new firm became Novartis. In 1997 the Ovaltine factory had to change from Wander to Novartis.

In 1913 the number of employees at Kings Langley was just 7, rising to 1400 in 1950 before automation greatly reduced the workforce. By 1990 the number of people employed had shrunk to 350, but was still a major local business until its closure in 2002.

More pictures of the Ovaltine factory and other local scenes are available at Geograph

Dacorum Heritage Trust preserves the historic Ovaltine artefact collection for KLLH&MS