For The Love Of Bread

Hhmmm Hovis and Butter for Tea...
My grandma Elizabeth Jane (Cissy) for short, owned and operated a bakery and fine confectionery shop in my hometown of Warrington for thirty something years....
Her daily delights were the main staple of all the surrounding households, and filled the stomachs of most all the nearby factory laborers on their lunch breaks.

As a young girl my contribution to the final product was extremely important, as it was left to me, to be both caretaker and deliverer of the warm, just-baked, breads.
I do confess to oftentimes pinching little holes in the underside of the loaf, after all I was considered the 'quality control manager' :)

Customers received freshly-baked bread, just in time for evening tea, still warm from the oven, and I in turn enjoyed a little taste; a trade-off of sorts......

The "Hovis" brand wheat germ bread was by far the MOST popular, as it was considered superior to the traditional "white" loaf, in both taste and nutritional value alike.

A History Of Hovis

The roots of the Hovis brand date back to 1886 when Richard 'Stoney' Smith invented a way of retaining the wheatgerm in flour - 'Smith's Patent Germ Flour'.In 1890 a national competition was launched to find a more consumer-friendly name for the new flour. The winner was a London student, one Herbert Grime, who pocketed £25 for his suggestion of Hovis, a shortened form of the Latin, 'hominis vis', meaning 'strength of man' (the runner-up was 'Yum Yum'!); and so the first Hovis loaf was produced.

Hovis rapidly became synonymous with health and goodness, greatly helped by its innovative approach to marketing and advertising. At the turn of the century Hovis took advantage of the cycling boom, producing road maps showing where cyclists could get their tyres inflated free, where they could stay overnight and, of course, where they could buy sandwiches made with Hovis bread.

In the 1920's the green Hovis signs, with their 3-D gold lettering, became a familiar sight above bakery shop fronts and some still survive today.Hovis was one of the first companies to take advantage of television as an advertising medium in the 1950's, with Kenneth Connor and George Benson bringing the famous slogan 'Don't say brown, say Hovis' to TV screens.

Perhaps the most famous TV ad was produced in 1974 when the boy pushed his bread delivery bike up the hill to the familiar sound of Dvorak's New World Symphony.


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The mid-1990's saw the 'Raised The Hovis Way' continuing the tradition of health and nutrition.In 1998 its new image was unveiled which, with its gold 3-D effect lettering, remained true to its long and successful heritage. In October 1999, the entire Hovis range was relaunched, unveiling new packaging designs across the range that included Hovis 'Slice Advice' on bread wrappers, bringing the nutritional benefits of bread to the attention of all consumers. These activities, combined with continuing to provide quality, great tasting products, have helped to ensure that Hovis remains the number one bread brand into the 21st century.