Vimto Chew Bar - 18g

A tonic from Granby Row

It all started in 1908 with John Noel Nichols, a herb and medicine wholesaler at 19 Granby Row, Manchester. Noel was born in Blackburn, Lancashire, in 1883, and he mixed up a fruit-flavoured cordial that he sold as a health drink called 'Vim Tonic'. Then somebody, quite rightly, decided that was a mouthful, and it became Vimto. A health drink that ended up as a chew bar. That is about as British a career path as you will find.

Manchester, then the world

It did not stay small. Production moved into a former laundry building in Old Trafford, Manchester, in 1927. A year later Aujan secured the licence to distribute it in the Middle East, where it gained a major following, and in 1979 Aujan built its first beverage plant in Dammam, Saudi Arabia. Back on Granby Row, an oak sculpture by Kerry Morrison, 'A Monument to Vimto' (1992), marks the spot where the first batch was mixed. Not many soft drinks get a monument.

Still answering to Nichols

Nichols plc now runs things from Newton-le-Willows, Merseyside, and reported revenues of £170.7m for the year to 31 December 2023, which is a lot of cordial and a fair few chew bars. The chew bar itself is still what it always was: the thing you bought instead of something sensible, the one you swore you would save for later. You did not save it for later. Nobody ever has.