Factory.

Three Acres of Condiment Factory.

THE largest Worcestershire sauce factory in the British Empire has now grown up in Waterloo, Sydney, as the result of a de cision taken by Messrs. Holbrooks, Ltd., of Birmingham, England, in 1920, to manufacture their condiments and table delicacies in Aus tralia. The story of the enterprise provides an interesting chapter of Australian industrial history.

It meant the transfer to Australia of a large amount of English capital, the commencement of a new and intricate organisation and the scientific study of the effect of a change in climatic conditions in relation to the processes followed in England.

The Holbrooks business was originally founded In Stourport, Worcestershire, England, in 1798, and their products became known throughout the world. The Sydney factory occupies three acres of land. No other condiment factory in the world is so complete as, in addition to manu facturing a very wide and diversified range of food products, the whole of the glass bottles re quired are also made on the premises. An at tempt was made to brew a pure malt vinegar equal to the English standard, and a model vine gar brewery was erected. The problems of cli mate and water were overcome, and most satisfactory results obtained. This aided in the success of the business, as vinegar is an im portant ingredient in sauce manufacture.

A staff of highly-qualified industrial chemists is maintained to supervise the technical side of the business: and a special corps of cleaners maintains the highest possible standard of clean liness throughout the factory.

In addition to the glass bottle works, the vine gar brewery, and the sauce factory—where hun dreds of thousands of gallons of sauce are stored to mature—there are food kitchens occupying several thousands of square feet of space, de partments for the manufacture of pickles, olives, capers, meat and fish pastes, soups, tinned spag hetti and beans, jelly crystals, flavouring es sences, and a host of other varieties of food products.

An enterprise of this kind is far-reaching in its effect upon the primary and industrial pros

perity of the Commonwealth. Among the pri mary products purchased by the Company from Australian growers are barley, straw, vegetables, meat, fruit and flour; and, in addition to several hundred hands permanently employed on the premises, many secondary industries must supply machinery, printing, cases and a multi tude of other articles of raw materials.