Barry Stubbs:

 

 

I suppose you could say that family involvement with the licensed trade goes back to Thomas Stubbs (1839-1912) who made and sold clay pipes to public houses in Southeast and East London. His son, Alfred (my grandfather - born 1875, died 1962) became a publican when he left the Army. At various times he was licensee of the Percy Arms in Plumstead (no longer there), the Stag at Ascot, the Guildford Arms in Greenwich, and finally the Coach & Horses in Greenwich Market.

 

My father, (Alfred) Roy Stubbs, took over the tenancy of the Coach & Horses soon after the Second World War, working the pub with my mother, Mollie.

 

In 1953, when I was about 10 years old, we left Greenwich and my parents took another pub, this time with letting rooms and a large function hall on the south coast at Bexhill.

 

Roy had never particularly wanted to be a publican and in the early 60's, having taken a sales course, he bought a small van and started up a sales round in and around Tunbridge Wells, serving mainly small, independent shops. When he had built up this business to a reasonable turnover, my parents and two sisters moved into a private house and the pub was sold. By this time I had left home and lived and worked in London.

 

My father ran his business (a husband and wife partnership) under the name of Stubro Supplies--don't ask! He was more than content to operate as a 'one man, one van' operation, and after some very sticky patches, eventually began to prosper.

 

In March, 1976, having been made unemployed by the collapse of the storage and materials handling company I worked for, I proposed that Stubro Supplies start a London branch. A small Escort-type van was hired and stock transported to London which quickly sold, using my garage as a storeroom. After a week, a larger Transit-sized vehicle was needed, which lasted 4 weeks before exchanging this for a Luton-bodied 35 cwt. van.

 

Success was probably due to the product range being quite unique to S.E. London--Golden Glow Nuts (now defunct) and some Walkers snack products (that company still a number of years away from entering London and before PepsiCo got hold of both them and Smith's Crisps).

 

The London end of the business expanded rapidly, and within 6 years there were six vans on the road covering South and East London, parts of Kent, Surrey, and Essex. Meanwhile, Roy had employed a driver/salesman and was busy building another route down in Sussex.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We prospered in London with Riley's crisps from Sooner Foods, followed by Christie's crisps from Hunter's Foods, experiencing the phenomenon of Planter's dry-roasted peanuts and bringing pork scratchings to the south.

 

 

In April 1982, I established Tavern Snacks which took over the part of Stubro Supplies working out of Greenwich. We continued to expand and our involvement with the licensed trade also grew as the company was approached to provide support for LVA's and Ladies Auxiliaries in the areas covered.Tavern Snacks' first venture into an 'own label' product was in 1984 with two sizes of salted peanuts, followed by dry roasted peanuts, salted cashews, mixed nuts & raisins, and pistachios.

 

Following several false starts, Tavern Snacks Super Crisps were launched in November 1987 as a 35 gram product, packed in foil--unique at the time.

 

In 1990, Tavern Snacks opened another distribution depot in Park Royal, London N.W.10, from which (eventually) 3 trucks operated.

 

At the same time, Stubro Supplies in Bexhill was acquired following the death of my father in 1983, after which my mother and younger sister ran it for a year before selling the operation to my older sister and her husband. In 1996 this side of the business (also with 3 trucks) relocated to Uckfield.

 

In 2001, both Park Royal and Uckfield were rehoused under one roof in a new warehouse at Merrow, on the outskirts of Guildford.

 

At the end of 1999 the main bulk of the operation was moved (under protest!) from Riverside Industrial Estate in Greenwich to Anchorage Point in Charlton--next to the Thames Barrier. This forced move was to make way for visitors traveling by coach to visit the Millenium Dome.

 

Product range has grown enormously over the past decade or so and continues to evolve. Some new lines are added and others dropped. The licensed trade has changed considerably during the same period of time. Today's licensees are totally different animals to those who were around when I started and their customers have changed too. All are more demanding, on both sides of the counter.

 

The next few years will be extremely testing and only the fittest are expected to survive.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Alfred Stubbs