The History of Villa Drinks

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Villa Drinks of Sunderland are part of a long established soft drinks industry and can boast being part of that industry for over 120 years. Today soft drinks consumption in the UK amounts to over 13.7 billion litres per year worth a staggering £8 billion at retail value. Bottled water alone represents 2.2bn litres and is worth £1.6bn per year at retail value.

Villa’s story started back in 1885 when Mr. Thomas Fenwick began to make soft drinks that he supplied to local pubs and off-licences.

In those days the popular drinks were lemonade, ginger ale and soda water all of which mix well with alcohol, but drinks such as Sarsaparilla and Dandelion & Burdock were also popular. The Fenwick reputation soon spread and their drinks over the years became a household name in the North East of England.

When Villa started in business it was under the “Fenwick” name. There were no automatic filling machines at that time until the introduction of the “Codd” bottle known as the “Alley Bottle”. A round marble in the neck of the bottle formed the closure and was kept in position by the pressure of the gas contained in the drink. Those bottles were in use from 1900 to 1912, when low-pressure filling machines were introduced and it was possible to use external swing stopper bottles, which were a lot more convenient and cheaper to produce.

Popularity and booming sales soon burst the sides of Thomas Fenwick’s original premises in Roker Avenue, Sunderland, and successive moves were made into a bigger building in Cooper Street then Westwood Street in Sunderland. Before long a third move was made into a former bakery within the grounds of the “Villa”, the Fenwick family home and the name “Villa”, under which the soft drinks were marketed during the next 20 years, was gradually adopted, together with the “Fen-vill” for fruit squashes.


Under the guidance of Thomas Fenwick and his son James, the business expanded steadily until World War I, when, with employees serving in the Forces and raw materials scarce, output was limited.

Development started again at the end of the war when James Fenwick, but now with the help of the third generation of Fenwick’s, Thomas, Edward and Fred to guide the firm, began once more to expand sales areas and to develop new drinks to meet public demand.

In 1920, Fenwick’s purchased their first motor vehicle; previous to that all transport was horse drawn. In 1930, the firm became a private limited company, which coincided with James Fenwick retiring, to leave the business in the hands of his three sons. There was a need for more room to work, so the family home and old factory were pulled down and a new factory built in their place. Unfortunately in 1947, one of the sons, Edward Fenwick, died at the age of 45 due to an infection caught in hospital.

This was at a time when the business was thriving and the Fen-vill fruit squashes were known as family favourites. These were exported to such countries as Iraq, Mauritius, India, Portugal, Ceylon, Malta, Nigeria and the Persian Gulf, as well as enjoying popularity in the North East of England.

In 1950 Brian, the fourth generation of Fenwick’s, joined the business, and spent much of his time developing new recipes to the same high standards that had been the forte of the business in previous years. In 1954, the company was granted the franchise for ‘Sunfresh’ and much success at around this time was due to the successful marketing of Sunfresh products.

Further expansion of the business took place in the 1960s and 70s with new factory extensions being built and a separate warehouse being built within a mile of the factory. Villa became a household name due to regular regional advertising on the local Tyne Tees television.

In 1976, Martin Fenwick, who qualified as a Chartered Accountant, was the fifth generation to join the business.

Martin made an early impact on the business by identifying the need to expand sales and look at different packaging in order to do this. In 1976, the company was one of the first to move into plastic packaging, which started off filling a carbonated beverage into a plastic tube which had the trade name of “Merolite”. Completely new plant was set up and commissioned within three months of deciding to go ahead with the investment. Unfortunately this was withdrawn from the market in 1978 due to a discontinuation of supply of the main packaging materials.

However, in1979 it was decided to follow this with another plastic product, but this time in a bottle. This was a Rigello bottle developed in Sweden by Tetra Pak with a ring pull closure and was marketed under the “Merryfizzz” label. This bottle was also withdrawn after a couple of years due to prices of raw materials increasing so that it became uneconomic to produce. Tetra Pak, at the time, were also having tremendous success with their Tetra Pak juice packs and there was also the prospect of PET being launched imminently in the market which was to take the industry by storm.

In 1980, “Villa” was one of the first companies in the UK to become involved in the use of PET bottles, a development that has since changed the soft drinks’ market dramatically. With the introduction of PET, it was soon recognised there was a growing need to have a facility to produce non-returnable soft drinks at an economical price.

Because the “Villa” premises were not particularly suited to non-returnable containers it was decided to look for alternative premises. Eventually, a suitable new site was found on a 3.5 acre site, which would enable all operations to be brought under one roof. This was at Southwick in Sunderland.

However, just prior to purchasing these premises, they were severely vandalised during the Christmas period in 1982, causing over £100,000 worth of damage, which nearly scuppered the whole project. Fortunately, due to the determination of the company, the project did go ahead and over £250,000 was spent adapting the building to the needs of a modern soft drinks’ manufacturing unit at that time. Some new plant was installed at the same time as the existing plant was being moved in. Opportunity was taken to extend the layout of the plant to suit the more open space available, unlike the very cramped conditions in which it had previously operated.

The move was completed in April 1984 and the first production came off the line at 4:20 p.m. on Wednesday, 25th April 1984. It was a great day for all concerned in this big project. At this time there was an abundance of space, but it only took 10 years of expansion of the business to completely fill the new site.

In 1989, a second production line was installed together with bottle blowing to cope with the growing demands of the business. Making bottles on site was a new venture, but the company decided to cease after only a brief period due to the problems of not being able to produce bottles as fast as “Villa” were filling them as well as customers requiring a variety of bottle shapes.

During the 1990s and the first decade of the 21st Century, capital expenditure in the most up-to date machinery continued and in 2009 the business was purchased by Malcolm Slatcher whose intention is to grow the business, based on the highest quality of soft drinks, coupled with a first class customer service.

For over 120 years, Villa has developed by always being flexible to customers requirements and adapting to changing market needs.

“Villa” has now one of the most versatile production sites in the UK, able to produce a variety of packaging formats and product types together with a mixture of small scale and large scale production.