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Aspro
History
The beginning of Aspro
Aspro’s
key men
George Nicholas
Alfred
Nicholas
George
Davies
George
Garcia
1924
– UK Aspro market launch
1927
– Slough Aspro Production Commences
1958 – Bath
Road Factory
Oswald Quinn
The beginning of Aspro
It all began as an explosion with a stunned and shocked body staggering
from a backroom of a small chemist’s shop. It was in Windsor,
not in England, but in a suburb of Melbourne, Australia during the
first few months of World War 1.
The man was George Nicholas. With the dangers of the first experiment,
George was relieved to regain his sight and not be blinded for life.
The second attempt led him to be badly gassed and still he survived.
The quest to invent a safe, effective pain reliever and healer had been
set because of 2 factors:
- Patients taking salicylic acid had sensitive stomachs
and complained of gastric discomforts and nausea. Salicylic acid a
comparatively simple derivative of phenol, containing 2 active
principles of willow extracts and the oil of wintergreen, which was a
traditional embrocation for relieving muscular stress.
- At the outbreak of World War 1, the Germans had
patented Aspirin with over 2 years to run. However the war brought a
release from this situation, it was a time of emergency and men were
forced to take what they needed and balance the books when peace was
restored.
The priorities of other Western European nations,
including Britain, were the deficits of their organic chemical
reserves, the ones that went ‘bang’. In the
meantime producing enough Aspirin for their own needs, with no surplus,
was proving a hard struggle.
Aspro’s key
men
George Nicholas
Born 1884 in Majorca, a small gold mining town, Victoria, Australia.
His father was an enterprising Cornish miner and after a pit disaster
in 1861, he emigrated with his family to Australia. George’s
childhood dream to qualify as a doctor was thwarted by illness and the
early death of his father. The family finances were low and being one
of 6 children, George’s goal was reduced to an initial
apprenticeship to a printer but later entered pharmacy to finally
qualify and possess his own pharmacy. He was a great public benefactor,
mainly educational but probably exceeded by his private and often
anonymous gifts. George never forgot old friends, however lowly their
station.
Alfred Nicholas
Born 1881 in the same town as his brother George. He too started work
early and his studies were also interrupted by illness. His jobs varied
as grocers’ errand-boy, piano salesman, suburban shop
manager, brick layer (an open air job for health reasons) and
travelling salesman. In Melbourne Alfred established his own import
agency, which he maintained until he united with George full time in
the Aspro venture.
He was shy, teetotal, strictly principled, optimistic, ambitious,
single-minded, a dour administrator and converted kitchen chemistry
into a business. Alfred joined his brother in many benefactions, his
own special interests being education, the Methodist church and the
Seamans Mission. During the depression years, he undertook a project
that provided employment to hundreds. This was the building of Burnham
Beeches, named after the Burnham Beeches in Slough that we know so well
http://www.parkweb.vic.gov.au/1park_display.cfm (create links) a luxury
home in extensive grounds, 25 miles east of Melbourne. In 1955 it was
converted into the Nicholas Institute for Medical and Veterinary
Research.
He was a keen gardener and developed one of the best orchid collections
in Australia. His pride and joy, however, was his herd of Jersey stud
cattle, which he also developed at Burnham Beeches, Australia.
George Davies
Born 1882 in New Zealand of immigrant parents from England. They
unfortunately died young and George was brought up by his uncle and
gave him a first job in his draper’s shop. Very soon George
was working independently, with varying degrees of success and finally
moved to Melbourne taking a job selling printing.
In 1917 he met Alfred and entered the world of the Nicholas brothers
and remained to handle publicity. They gave him a contract to advertise
Aspro with a commission of 1% on sales which was honoured throughout
his active life. With the success of Aspro, George Davies earned a
large income and spent with ease.
As an unknown outsider he made a marked impression on the world of
pharmaceuticals, with another big bang. He was a high-energy
advertising man, ablaze with ideas of a crazy genius, brash and almost
uncontrollable. A rarity in his own time.
George Garcia
Born in Melbourne, he was of Spanish and Jewish descent. He fought for
Australia in the 1914-18 war and then became an officer in the
Victorian tax department. He was of great intelligence and as a
financial adviser gained specialised knowledge of company taxation.
George Garcia joined F J Davey to found an auditing and financial
advisory partnership, which soon became involved in helping the
Nicholas brothers with early investments and organising their company
structure.
His friendship with Alfred had been close however it ended because of
Alfred’s abnormal fears about money, even though the company
was successful.
1924
– UK Aspro market launch
George Garcia sets sail from Australia to investigate
the American and British markets, on instruction from the Nicholas
brothers. Although America was the priority, he stopped off in England
and during this time arranged a display of the Aspro product at the
Empire Exhibition in Wembley and researched the UK market. The
prospects looked good and he relayed this back to Australia. Alfred and
George agreed, the first big push would happen in the UK.
It was a time of depression for Britain, with 2m people on the dole and
millions of others on low income. Aspirin, was popular and widely sold
at low prices and trading laws were strict. These difficulties did not
deter George Garcia.
Launch regions were established in Lancashire and Yorkshire with a
headquarters in Manchester and large stocks of Aspro were shipped into
England. The launch did not go well so George Garcia suggested
pinpointing to a town and Hull was chosen. In the meantime Alfred
Nicholas joined the struggle and moved to Bromley, Kent with all his
family.
Prices were as follows:
- 1st pack in UK – 25 tablets for 1s 3d (6p)
became too much for ordinary people
- 2nd pack in UK – 10 tablets for 6d (2.5p)
George Davies promoted the Hull campaign and it was a
complete success, so much so there followed one in Leeds. However it
was not all smiles, the hardships continued. Competitors were annoyed
and Customs & Excise officials invoked an old Stamp Duty Act,
which required a levy to be paid on medicines sold through outlets
other than chemist shops.
This meant a 50% tax – a 3d stamp (1.25p) for every 6d (2.5p)
packet sold.
The campaign carried on and extended nationally with a permanent HQ
established in London.
1927 –
Slough Aspro Production Commences
Customs & Excise officials eased the stamp duty to only be paid
on each wholesale packet instead of the 6d across the counter.
Then a bizarre fortune struck in the form of influenza and sales rose.
This caused unrest with the Australian employees working in the UK, who
were homesick and missing their families.
George Garcia returned to London on a semi-permanent basis and became
Chairman and MD. He had 2 important policy decisions to make a) to find
and rent a factory b) to end Australian made Aspro imports and start
production in the UK. He chose a factory site on Slough Trading Estate
and sent for George Rowson to install the machines.
On 11th August the first Aspro tablets came off the production line and
on 22nd November UK sales were ahead of Australia, staging a market 10
times bigger. That winter another epidemic attacked the population,
this time the viral Asian flu. Slough factory stocks were drained and
an extra 12 million tablets a week were needed with much overtime for
the employees.
At this time, patented medicines were increasingly open to public
criticism. Key newspapers became wary of their advertisements being
false and including doubtful claims. One of Aspro’s earlier
ads was refused, however with the speedy reaction of Aspro management
inviting the press to despatch their own experts to the Slough factory,
all tests resulted in favourable reports. Needless to say there were no
future problems of this kind, the confidence of the Aspro people
surpassed.
1958 – Bath
Road Factory
George Garcia acquired a piece of land on the Bath Road pre World War
2. Plans and models were drawn up for a new and innovative factory.
Whilst the war was raging all development came to a halt as the
‘non-essential’ business classification prevailed.
Aspro managed to extend their existing canteen facilities as they were
providing even more lunches for employees from other smaller factories
on the Trading Estate. Because of this Aspro were entitled to extra
food rations.
It was to be long after the war the new factory was built. John Jamison
(known as Jack in Australia) took on the job and overcame many
difficulties. A public right of way crossed the site and there were
legal arguments to move it to the side.
There followed planning investigations and delays. Plus Dr Francis
Chilson, an American Consulting Engineer, was not on good terms with
the architect. The Board grew restless and doubted whether it could be
afforded.
By the summer of 1958, the Bath Road factory was completed and it did
not resemble in any way the original ideas. It had modern, up-to-date
concepts with a similarity to the Dublin site and the Chadstone factory
in Melbourne, Australia., however it wasn’t a carbon copy.
The factory was larger than 250k sq. ft. with the front wing consisting
of more glass than wall, a reception, conference rooms and executive
offices. The Slough factory became one of the first British examples of
a ‘windowless’ factory, relying to a large extent
on artificial light and ventilation. Aspro created a room of beauty
that was the fitter’s shop. It was called the ‘deep
blue room’ and housed the building and overhauling of the
production machines. Additional services included lighting, air
conditioning, sound- proofing, thermal insulation and telephone points,
with the imaginative use of decorative materials all around.
An important part of the Nicholas philosophy was to always care for its
staff. Everything was planned to integrate convenience with great
flexibility and to give the feel good factor. Aspro wanted a place of
work that was physically and psychologically conducive to its
employees. They introduced sports fields and incentive schemes from a
very early stage. Conventional canteens, cafeterias and locker rooms
existed however those facilities were expanded to spacious, happy and
relaxing staff lounges, flowers, fountains, courtyards and lawns. The
architectural press gave rave reviews.
Before any groundwork started on the production lines, carefully
planned models, with attention to every detail, were created. The lines
were U-shaped and proved to be highly efficient. This allowed orderly,
one-level flow from the raw materials to the finished products, with a
single warehouse and single production area. The raw materials, the
main being acetylsalicyclic acid, were not manufactured at Slough, that
belonged to the specialists. The focus was on the before and after e.g.
R & D, purity control, packaging, distribution and most
importantly tableting. It has been quoted “An Aspro Plant is
of a hailstorm of healing”
The Slough factory was making an impressive contribution to the
national economy by its high productive capacity. Drug exports were no
small item in the national balance sheet. As in the Australian factory
in Chadstone, Aspro visions of expansion of up to 100% were provided
for in the original designs. The growth was dependent on the research
department.
Oswald Quinn - link
Ossie, as he was popularly known, came to Slough from Chorley, Lancs,
in 1926. He joined the Bucks Constabulary as a police officer and
eventually worked for Aspro in 1934 initially as a chief investigator
and during his 15 years there, was promoted to assist the MD, Mr F S
Allwright.
Whilst working for Aspro his drive and energy and amazing organising
ability, contributed greatly to the establishment of the annual Slough
& Windsor District Holiday Carnival. This was part of the
summer event, Holidays at Home with Mr Allwright, forming the first
committee. Ossie was the secretary and continued till 1954 and was also
one of the founders and secretary for the All Good Causes Fund. One of
his work colleagues, Norman Blackman once said, ‘Ossie Quinn
was a chap with a wonderful flair for organisation and one who could
get on with a job and ensure it was done’.
Ossie was awarded the British Empire Medal for his services as chief of
the Navy, Army and Air Force Institute (NAAFI) Investigation Branch.
The prime responsibility of the organisation was to stop the stealing
of supplies allocated to the forces. Shortly after Dunkirk,
unfortunately severe amounts of goods destined for the troops and
various depots in the UK made their way onto the black market causing
the NAAFI to expand rapidly.
Ossie had worked for the NAAFI in peacetime and now his services were
desperately needed. So the NAAFI approached Aspro for his loan. Aspro
agreed and the NAAFI Investigation Branch was created.
Ossie’s team of men were at ports or covering journeys of
valuable loads from manufacturers, not only in the UK but also in N
Africa, Egypt, Italy, Iceland and NW Europe. Another of
Ossie’s wartime activities was as a lieutenant with the
Trading Estate Home Guard unit.
After Ossie left Aspro he went into farming for some years at Winkfield
and Brock Hill Farm, Warfield. He died, aged 61 at his home in Albert
Street, Slough.
Renate, January 2006
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