Griffiths Brothers Teas, also known as Griffiths Teas, and as a public company, Griffiths Brothers Limited, was an Australian tea, coffee and cocoa merchant. It was established in Melbourne, but subsequently opened operations in Sydney, Brisbane, and Adelaide. It was known for its distinctive advertising signs along railway lines, showing the remaining distance in "miles to Griffiths Bros. Teas".
History
Origins James Griffiths (1850–1925) had been a general storekeeper in Wolverhampton, England, before he emigrated to Melbourne in 1873, 1875 or 1879 (sources vary on the year). He initially became involved in the timber business.
In the early 1880s, Australians were, per capita, the largest consumers of tea in the world, reportedly consuming annually 6.61 pounds of tea per head. James Griffiths began importing, tea, coffee, and cocoa, in bulk, and locally packaging and distributing those products. He persuaded his brother John to emigrate and join him in the business.
Griffiths Brothers - partnership and companies The original business was established in 1879, by James Griffiths, under his own name. He entered into a partnership with his brother, John Moore Griffiths (1855–1943), in late 1882, and from then on the business was known as Griffiths Brothers. It is probable that the word "Teas" was included in the business name due to the existence of another 'Griffiths Brothers', a large foundry and engineering works at Toowoomba.
A proprietary limited company, Griffiths Brothers Teas Pty Ltd, was registered in Victoria in 1898, and re-registered on 29 October 1913. It became a public company, Griffiths Brothers Ltd, on 2 December 1920. The public company was operating into the 1980s, but by then was no longer in its original line of business.
"Ferndale"and tea growing
James and Emily Griffiths' home was "Ferndale", on of land in the Dandenong Ranges, around four miles from Bayswater railway station, at a locality still known as The Basin. Griffiths bought the land in 1888, and erected on it a large house, said to resemble a Swiss chalet. It first served as their country home—during the time that they lived at their mansion, "Monnington", in what is now Adeney Avenue, Kew—but "Ferndale" was their main residence from 1905. By the time it was sold, 'Ferndale' was on .
Tea had been grown in Australia, as early as 1883, in Queensland. James Griffiths experimented with growing tea at "Ferndale". In 1901, he successfully grew Orange Pekoe and Lapsang souchong tea, which he judged to be better than he could import from Ceylon. However, he concluded that, "it is quite true tea can be grown in Victoria, but that it cannot be grown to pay", the main obstacle being the cost of labour.
Interstate growth Griffith Brothers expanded to Sydney, Adelaide, and Brisbane. Although they never expanded to Perth, they did have an agent there.
Sydney By late 1898, there was a "warehouse and manufactory" at 534 George Street, opposite the Sydney Town Hall, with display windows, and the company had an open invitation for the public to inspect their premises. What is still known as the Griffiths Teas building, in Wentworth Avenue, in Surry Hills, in Sydney, was designed by Henry Budden in 1912.
Adelaide Griffith Brothers opened an Adelaide branch, at a new four-storey building at 49 Rundle Street, in 1901. The address of its Adelaide office changed from there to Hindmarsh Square, in 1921. It opened a new tea room in Gawler Place, Adelaide in 1930.
Brisbane "Griffiths House", a six-storey building on Queen Street, Brisbane, near the intersection with Eagle Street, was built in 1923–24. The ground floor and part of the basement were tea rooms, and were the venue for many art exhibitions.
Family, evangelism and philanthropy James Griffiths married his cousin Emily Moore (1848–1925). The couple had no biological children, but brought out from England the five children of James's deceased brother, George Friend Griffiths. They adopted the children in 1890, and raised them as their own.
John Moore Griffiths married Margaret Wightman Davidson (1867–1928), in 1891. The couple had seven children, but lost two sons; one to a cycling accident and the other on active service during World War I.
Both the Griffiths brothers were evangelists, in the Church of England (Anglican) tradition, and both were also philanthropists.
Products and marketing Around the time that James Griffiths began as a tea merchant in Melbourne, tea was most commonly sold by grocers who weighed out portions of bulk tea that they sold to their customers. Fear of adulteration—either due to known attempts to mask cheap tea or intentionally spread rumours to encourage use of British-controlled Indian and Ceylon teas over Chinese teas— led to legislation, and to a new retail offering: branded, factory-packaged tea.
Although packaged tea was the main product Griffith Brothers also sold packaged coffee, chickory, coffee and chicory blend, cocoa, malted cocoa, and baking powder.
They also sold hampers of their products, which could be given as gifts, and specialty items such as tins of sugared peanuts and confectionery, "eating chocolate", teapots, strainers, and other items that could be a part of those hampers.
Griffiths Brothers sold tea in packages, but also in more substantial tinplate metal canisters, which were printed and, in some cases, also embossed. Some of their tea canisters came already identified with other cooking ingredients—currants, oatmeal, sago, tapioca, barley, starch, spices—allowing them to be re-purposed as kitchen canisters, once emptied of tea. That approach encouraged customers to keep buying Griffiths Brothers tea in canisters, to obtain enough for a complete set.
Griffiths Brothers tea branding had an association with railways. An advertising logo of the company was a railway semaphore signal showing "all clear". Their "Red Signal" brand was for a blended Ceylon tea, whereas "Green Signal" was for a China Pekoe tea. The same "Signal" brand was used for their baking powder. They also used the word "Sunbeam" as a brand name for tea, coffee, cocoa, chocolate, and baking powder.
The most famous of Griffiths Brothers marketing initiatives were the many blue and white, vitreous enamelled sheet steel signs erected along railway lines, showing the remaining distance in "miles to Griffiths Bros. Teas". They were installed along suburban, country, and interstate railways in eastern Australia, ranging from a two-mile sign (such as at Redfern) to ones showing hundreds of miles to the destination. The signs were already a familiar part of railway travel by 1913. In New South Wales, the Department of Railways had a contract to renew the signs every five years.
Sometimes, instead of erecting a sign, the wall of a building or other structure, adjacent to a railway line, was painted with the same advertising message, using the familiar blue and white colour scheme. There is a surviving example of another type of enamelled sheet steel sign, of a different shape to the more famous railway signs. It has a blue background with a large white letter 'T', upon which is superimposed the words "Griffiths Teas" in red text and, below that, a distance in miles. There are photographs dating from the 1970s, showing that type of sign installed on buildings on Victorian Railways station platforms. After motorised road traffic became more common, there were also roadside signs on major highways conveying the same message.
First World War During the First World War, the company made hampers to be sent to soldiers on active duty. The advertising of Griffiths Brothers was so well known that it became a ready-made source of humour for Australian soldiers on duty far from home, in both the First and Second World Wars.
Improvised signage adorned many places Australian soldiers passed through during the First World War. Examples were painted on a fence rail in the Valley of the Somme, "12,000 miles to Griffiths Brothers for the best teas, coffee and cocoa." and at the railway station at Ribemont, France ("13,000 miles, to Griffiths Brothers' Tea.").
Deaths of James and Emily Griffiths.
Given that an advertising logo of the company was a railway semaphore signal showing "all clear", the death of James Griffiths in a railway level crossing accident, on 6 April 1925, was what an obituary called "a melancholy coincidence". A wagonette, driven by Griffiths, was on the way to Bayswater railway station to meet Arthur Henry Harris, the manager of "Ferndale", when it was struck by a train at a level crossing. After the accident, Griffiths's watch was found to be running ten minutes behind, leading to speculation that was the reason he had not expected a train to be nearby.
Janet Emily Harris (Harris's daughter) was killed instantly,Deaths: Harris, The Age, (Wednesday, 8 April 1925), p.1.Miss Harris, A Bright Girl, The Herald, (Tuesday, 7 April 1925), p.5. James GriffithsDeaths: Griffiths, The Herald, (Tuesday, 7 April 1925), p.23.A Philanthropist: Mr Griffiths, Generous Man of Business, The Herald, (Tuesday, 7 April 1925), p.5. and Elizabeth MortonMiss Morton: Church and Kindergarten Worker, The Herald, (Tuesday, 7 April 1925), p.5. died at the scene of the accident, and Emily, James Griffiths wifeDeaths: Griffiths, The Argus, (Saturday, 11 April 1925), p.1.Bayswater Tragedy: Mrs Griffiths' Death, The Herald, (Saturday, 11 April 1925), p.7. died of her injuries four days later."Safety First" Education Urged by Coroner, Bayswater Crossing Smash Inquest Story, The Herald, (Tuesday, 5 May 1925), p.1.Level-Crossing Perils, The Age, (Wednesday, 6 May 1925), p.14.Bayswater Accident, The Argus, (Wednesday, 6 May 1925), p.22.Bayswater Crossing Smash, The Weekly Times, (Saturday, 9 May 1925), p.6. The sole survivor was Joe Shelley, a doctor and son of the man who had been the tea taster for the company, who remained a close friend of the Griffiths brothers. Shelley was injured. The two horses were unhurt.
James Griffiths funeral took place on 8 April 1925. He was buried at Boroondara Cemetery. Because her husband had predeceased her, Emily Griffiths had to make a new will hurriedly, on 9 April 1925, and died on the following day.
Second World War There are surviving photographs of signs in Libya, the work of Sapper Leslie John "Doc" Dawes, 2/3rd Field Company, Royal Australian Engineers, made in 1941 using captured Italian paints. Before the Second World War, Dawes had been a signwriter. At least two of the signs that he painted imitated Griffiths Brothers Teas advertisements.
In 1942, as fears of invasion grew, it was decided, that signs showing distances would be removed on roads in New South Wales, so as to deny an invader information. That included Griffiths Brothers Teas road-side signs.
The war affected the company itself; wartime price controls, which fixed the price of tea by regulation, inevitably affected the company's profitability.
Later years of the company The remaining Griffiths brother, John Moore Griffiths, retired from the company in 1936, and died in 1943.
Griffiths Brothers, as late as the early 1940s, only sold their products directly to the public. They had their own shops and tea rooms, and still used what was, by then, an old-fashioned practice of company travelling salesmen dealing directly with the public. The business was unable to pay a dividend in 1940. In March 1942, the company ceased to sell directly to the public, except for a small mail order operation, and began supplying tea, coffee and other products to grocers and storekeepers, on a wholesale basis.