This article was published in the very first Fison, Packard & Prentice
Journal – a company magazine that continued into the latter part of the
20th Century. The companies had amalgamated the previous year.
by
WALTER G. T. PACKARD
In the year 1841 Mr Edward Packard, the father of Sir Edward Packard, having at the age of 22 obtained a diploma in pharmaceutical chemistry, and being very interested in agricultural chemistry, journeyed to London to study that science under a Dr. Nesbit. In the course of these studies he read a book by Dr. Justus Liebig published in 1839, in which was described a method of dissolving bones in sulphuric acid to make them more easily assimilable by plants. Mr Packard experimented with dissolved bones, and in 1843 started manufacturing them at Saxmundham, soon finding a ready sale for his goods. A year or so later, his attention was attracted to Phosphatic Coprolites, as a substitute for bones, and obtaining a bushel of these, he ground them and tried dissolving them in sulphuric acid, with the result that he made Superphosphate. It has never been quite cleared up as to whether Mr Packard’s experiments were carried out before or after those of Sir J. B. Lawes, but it is certain that they were carried out independently. An old mill at Snape was fixed for grinding Coprolites and Superphosphates were soon being manufactured on a commercial scale. The original millstone used is now in the yard of our offices at Duke Street to which Mr Packard moved his growing business in 1849.
It was in 1851 that the Bramford site was purchased, and the erection of the first complete Superphosphate works containing its own sulphuric acid plant was commenced. The Duke Street premises being retained chiefly for the grinding and export of Suffolk and Cambridge coprolites which were shipped in large quantities. The business expanded rapidly, large quantities of Superphosphate being shipped round the coast: also to Russia, Scandinavia, Australia etc., and later a considerable business was built up in Compound Fertilizers in the British and French West Indies. At the same time Mr Packard was exploiting Phosphate deposits in Germany, France and Algeria, as the English coprolite deposits worked out, or became too deep to work economically.
In about 1889, after 48 years of active business, Mr Packard Senior retired, and the business was carried on as E. Packard & Co. by his sons, Edward (now Sir Edward) and Henry (Mr C. R. Ward’s grandfather).
In 1895 the Company was turned into a Limited Liability Company with Edward Packard as Chairman (a position he held until his retirement in 1929). In the nineties the firm was feeling the keen competition of foreign Superphosphate manufacturers, but right up to1914 a considerable tonnage of Superphosphate and Compounds was still exported, while more attention was given to the home trade. In 1910 the business of Messrs J.& G. Bagshaw at Haddiscoe was acquired by the Company, and a year or so later the goodwill of Messrs Bird Brothers of Duxford was purchased, with a view to increasing the home trade. In 1919, on amalgamation with Messrs James Fison Sons Ltd., the name of Packards was changed to Packards & James Fison (Thetford) Ltd., a name which was never popular with the Board, but which was necessitated by the opposition of Joseph Fison Co. Ltd. to any shorter title. It is a matter of interest that of all the firms recently or at any time absorbed into our organisation, Packards is the only one which has not been wound up but has merely changed its name from time to time. The reason being that the constitution of the other companies was such that they could more easily be liquidated.