Barnum of Bread

At one end of London's gastronomic spectrum stands Fortnum & Mason, which specializes in the world's most elegant delicacies; its salesmen wear morning coats, ship such rarities as boar's head in aspic and breast of Scottish grouse to all corners of the globe. At the other end are London's ABC shops, a chain of 164 cheap self-service tearooms. This week the Piccadilly prince is about to marry the tearoom Cinderella. The man who brought Fortnum & Mason and ABC shops together: Canadian-born Willard Garfield Weston, 56, owner of Fortnum & Mason and boss of Britain's huge Allied Bakeries, who is known throughout the empire as "the Barnum of bread." If ABC stockholders approve, Baker Weston will pay $8,120,000 for ABC, one of England's biggest low-cost restaurant businesses, second only to Lyon's Corner House chain. Through Allied Bakeries, Weston already controls the United King dom's biggest bakery chain (10% of all Britain's bread, 20 million biscuits a day), with 1954 sales of $154 million and profits of $12,600,000. Overseas, subsidiaries and independent companies carry the Weston name on everything from ice cream to paper boxes, in Canada, India. South Africa, Australia and New Zealand. In the U.S., three Weston firms operate a chain of seven plants from Passaic. N.J. to Tacoma. Wash., making biscuits marketed under three names, including its popular F.F.V. (Famous Food of Virginia) label.

This year Weston's worldwide interests will rack up sales totaling more than $1 billion, and profits will probably top $40 million.

Weston makes something for everyone --slightly salted "Tavern Appetizers," spicy gingersnaps, big "Wagon Wheel" chocolate cream wafers and sweet "Shortcakes" for dessert, breads that go from "Ryvita" health bread to the standard "National Loaf" sandwich bread that is a staple of Britain's diet. Americans might find Weston's most popular bread too off-white and flabby for their taste, but Weston also makes a whiter, crustier loaf, which sells for a few cents more.

New World Enterprise. To Britain, Baker Weston is a unique example of new world enterprise returning to replenish the home country. His pride in his own success makes him regard other British businessmen a bit scornfully. Says he: "The men at the top in this country don't work hard enough. I am the greatest living exponent of enthusiasm in this country, and I want every living soul to be sold on the idea of working hard for Britain, just as my salesmen are enthused by me to sell my biscuits." As a Canadian soldier in World War I, Weston spent his furloughs studying the British baking industry. When he went home to Toronto he took on the job of running the family "bakery-cakery." While others scurried for cover during the Depression, Weston expanded by buying plant after plant, increased production, seldom laid off his men. His idea was that, by keeping up employment and production, he could infuse new economic life into areas where he operated. As a result, in the dark year of 1934, Weston's Canadian bakeries were working full time and sales soared to $1,000,000 a week.

Plunge into Politics. The same idea worked in Britain. Weston started up Allied Bakeries in Scotland and Wales at a time when both were so depressed that friends thought him balmy. He soon had five companies with 14 plants, 80 shops, 277 bread delivery routes. New plant openings were gala productions, with parties and placards proclaiming his favorite slogan: "Work Harder for Britain." In World War II, Weston took a brief plunge into politics as a Tory Member of Parliament. With peace, Allied Bakeries showed the industry how to hit $4,000,000 annual profits in 1948 despite shortages, has been growing spectacularly ever since.

The Canadian branch has climbed even faster, notably since 1948, when Weston shelled out $4,500,000 for William Nielsen, Ltd., thus becoming the empire's biggest ice cream maker. He bought five roofing and paper-box firms, a big produce company, and topped it off by plunking down several million for Loblaw's, Canada's huge grocery chain.

Weston is training his children to take over the worldwide business and keep it growing in future years. Just as Britain's 19th century empire builders sent their sons out to India and Africa, so Weston has packed two of his three sons, two of his six daughters off to school and jobs in far-away countries. On a trip through Texas a few years ago, he came on a Weston truck broken down along a deserted road. Stepping out to help, he found that the grimy driver sweating away under the chassis was his oldest son Grainger, whom he had sent off to the Texas branch of the family empire.

With London's ABC shops, where profits have been slipping, Baker Weston once more expects to show Britons how to turn flour into gold. For a starter, he will spend nearly $3,000.000 to expand the business, sell more baked goods, and hopes to push the chain into the No. 1 spot as Britain's biggest low-cost restaurant business.

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