Read Brothers Ltd Round Black Backed Steel

Read Brothers Ltd black backed steel tray dating from the 1920s. In 1881 Thomas William Read and John Walter Read acquired land in Kentish Town, London, where they built an export bottling business. In the late 1880s the firm started using its famous Bull Dog trademark as its Company logo. At first the Company mainly bottled spirits, however by 1906 it was also the largest buyer and bottler of Bass Ale in the world, which was all sold for export. Large brewers Bass, Ratcliff & Gretton Ltd and Arthur Guinness, Son & Co. Ltd would sell their beers in bulk to Read Brothers Ltd which it would bottle and sell to export markets. The risk of customers receiving poor quality products after travelling long distances was born by the bottler rather than the brewer. The Company's main markets were split between Australia, New Zealand, France, the West Indies and South Africa. In 1938 Read Brothers Ltd and rival bottlers Robert Porter & Co. Ltd of Kings Cross and Liverpool, amalgamated to form Export Bottlers Ltd. The Company focussed the majority of its trade on the sale of Guinness Stout and Bass Pale Ale. Robert Porter had founded his business in 1848 and also used a similar Bull Dog trademark as its logo.