His first business was in Small Street, but in 1763 soon after buying the Churchman business, he was in Wine Street.
Fry’s expansion to the purchase of the Churchman business, including the patent for the mechanical process of chocolate production, and then deciding to invest in larger premises as well as purchasing a Boulton & Watt water engine to further enhance his firm’s capabilities.
When Joseph Fry died in 1787, his widow, Anna, and their son Joseph Storrs Fry (b 1767) carried on the business under the name ‘Anna Fry and Son’.
Almost immediately, J. S. Fry began a programme of expansion and mechanisation in production, using these technical advances as a point of difference in his advertising claims.
After the death of his mother in 1803, Joseph Storrs Fry took a partner, a Mr. Hunt, but in 1822 his three sons came into partnership with their father and the firm became known as J.S. Fry and Sons, the name it has borne ever since.
In the second half of the nineteenth century, business expanded rapidly. Between 1860 and 1907, Fry's opened seven new factories in Bristol. At the time Fry's became a registered private company in 1896, there were nearly 4,500 employees.
Company merged with Cadbury's chocolate in 1919 and the company name changed to British Cocoa and Chocolate Company. In February 2010 Cadbury was purchased by Kraft.
J. S. Fry & Sons Ltd.
