Here's a little bit of history taken from the internet
The company was founded in the mid-nineteenth century in Chelmsford as the British Vitamin Products Company. It started producing fruit juices in 1938 and started marketing them under the Britvic name in 1949.
Acquired by Showerings of Shepton Mallet, and subsequently a division of Allied Breweries from 1968, the company changed its name to Britvic in 1971. In 1986 it merged with Canada Dry Rawlings and acquired the R. White's Lemonade brand. It acquired Tango and the Corona brand from Beechams in 1987 and since that year it has also owned the UK franchise for Pepsi and 7 Up. In 1995 it bought Robinson's from Reckitt & Colman.
Although most of its operations where concentrated in the United Kingdom andIreland, the Company's international arm was expanding and now exports to over 50 countries.
Corporate headquarters moved from Chelmsford, Essex to Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire in March 2012. There are regional offices in Dublin and France still.
The Chelmsford factory was built in 1954 and made soft drinks in cans, glass and plastic bottles, finally closed its doors in 2013 and apart from being used for storage for the 4x4 dealer next door has sat empty since
The Explore
A few of us “locals” have had an eye on Britvic since the day it shut, we have also kept a keen eye on the thread about it on here. One night whilst sat on the roof of another explore in Chelmsford the topic of Britvic came up. We decided it was now or never, the thread on here had been active again and we decided to get ourselves along and hopefully be the first in.
On parking up close by we realised that we could gain access to the site using the workmen digging up the road outside as cover. This worked and we quickly managed to get inside the perimeter fence.
That was half the battle as next we where faced with a multitude of cameras and the main road security hut. The hut was far enough away from us that he couldn’t see us with the naked eye but we where pretty sure the cameras would pick us up.
We made out way around the outside of the building looking for and easy access trying doors and eventually ending up in the loading bays. Damn we where stumped and couldn’t find a way in. But by now we knew or at least had a good idea that the cameras where inactive.
So we became a little more blatant, blatancy occasionally helps in these situations.
We walked down the yard and stood by the famous Britvic clock tower and surveyed what we had hoped would be “ours”
We sat for a bit just staring, then we spotted it, we had our way in!
After a bit of a climb and the odd slippery moment we where in.
Yes yes yes this is it we are the first in, Our excitement soon became sorrow as in fact we had missed all the good stuff and the place had been cleared, if we codenamed places on here this one deserved the codename “Shitvic”.
Yeah we where excited but there was nothing left to see, no funky machinery, just some walkways and painted floors. One office had a few bits and bobs in but the place was as naked as a new born baby.
I’ve added a few pics of what we found, the quality isn’t the best as we where on a bit of a downer
Hope you enjoy them
The company was founded in the mid-nineteenth century in Chelmsford as the British Vitamin Products Company. It started producing fruit juices in 1938 and started marketing them under the Britvic name in 1949.
Acquired by Showerings of Shepton Mallet, and subsequently a division of Allied Breweries from 1968, the company changed its name to Britvic in 1971. In 1986 it merged with Canada Dry Rawlings and acquired the R. White's Lemonade brand. It acquired Tango and the Corona brand from Beechams in 1987 and since that year it has also owned the UK franchise for Pepsi and 7 Up. In 1995 it bought Robinson's from Reckitt & Colman.
Although most of its operations where concentrated in the United Kingdom andIreland, the Company's international arm was expanding and now exports to over 50 countries.
Corporate headquarters moved from Chelmsford, Essex to Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire in March 2012. There are regional offices in Dublin and France still.
The Chelmsford factory was built in 1954 and made soft drinks in cans, glass and plastic bottles, finally closed its doors in 2013 and apart from being used for storage for the 4x4 dealer next door has sat empty since
The Explore
A few of us “locals” have had an eye on Britvic since the day it shut, we have also kept a keen eye on the thread about it on here. One night whilst sat on the roof of another explore in Chelmsford the topic of Britvic came up. We decided it was now or never, the thread on here had been active again and we decided to get ourselves along and hopefully be the first in.
On parking up close by we realised that we could gain access to the site using the workmen digging up the road outside as cover. This worked and we quickly managed to get inside the perimeter fence.
That was half the battle as next we where faced with a multitude of cameras and the main road security hut. The hut was far enough away from us that he couldn’t see us with the naked eye but we where pretty sure the cameras would pick us up.
We made out way around the outside of the building looking for and easy access trying doors and eventually ending up in the loading bays. Damn we where stumped and couldn’t find a way in. But by now we knew or at least had a good idea that the cameras where inactive.
So we became a little more blatant, blatancy occasionally helps in these situations.
We walked down the yard and stood by the famous Britvic clock tower and surveyed what we had hoped would be “ours”
We sat for a bit just staring, then we spotted it, we had our way in!
After a bit of a climb and the odd slippery moment we where in.
Yes yes yes this is it we are the first in, Our excitement soon became sorrow as in fact we had missed all the good stuff and the place had been cleared, if we codenamed places on here this one deserved the codename “Shitvic”.
Yeah we where excited but there was nothing left to see, no funky machinery, just some walkways and painted floors. One office had a few bits and bobs in but the place was as naked as a new born baby.
I’ve added a few pics of what we found, the quality isn’t the best as we where on a bit of a downer
Hope you enjoy them
