HISTORY OF THE NATIONAL FOLDING BOX CO. GAINSBOROUGH.

Another of the subsidiaries of Rose Brothers (Gainsborough) Ltd that came in to the group in 1961. In September 1907 William Rose took out a patent for the R.S. (Reckitt's Starch) machine. Reckitt & Sons of Hull were sending supplies of cardboard in barges up the River Trent to Gainsborough where they were converted into cartons and sent down the river to be filled with 'Robin' starch at Hull, where the Rose R.S. machine applied the printed wrappers. A section of the works at Gainsborough was set aside for this activity. Over time, the varieties of cartons needed for different products became so numerous that, by 1920, separate premises were provided and a new company, the National Folding Box Company was formed with William Rose's son-in-law, Hugh S. Ridley, as its manager.

The National Folding Box Company made a valuable contribution to the war effort during 1939 –1945; almost its entire production went into RAF fighters and bombers. For improving the design of certain instruments, a special award was made to the company by the Patents Department of the Air Ministry.

Heavy competition made the production of cartons unprofitable and the firm concentrated on wax-coated cardboard ice-cream tubs, the annual output of which rose to between fifteen and twenty millions in the mid 1960s.

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