THROUGH THE ARCHIVES: Cider company owner predicts record year

Portadown-based cider producer, Mr James Grew who owned Grew’s Cider, was predicting a bumper year for his company in 1919.

The paper’s correspondent noted: “The apple crop had been exceedingly good this year, and the company hope to increase their output four-fold in comparison to last year.”

Grew’s Cider “had held its own” in the face of opposition the News Letter was told and since Mr Grew had acquired the company from a Mr Harper in 1905 experts from across the British Isles had been nothing but enthusiastic about the cider produced from the apples grown in Armagh.

At the 1909 Royal Show at Gloucester the cider had won both first and second prize in the competition.

Meanwhile at the Bristol Exhibition (“under the auspices” of the Royal Agricultural Society) in 1913 the second prize had also returned to Portadown.

But that “even with this augmentation of supply there is not likely to be any surplus, as orders have been coming forward in shoals”.

The correspondent added: “At present they are cramped for space in Portadown factory” but to help deal with such good demand Mr Grew and his co-directors were to a new extension which would consists of offices, stores and a manufacturing section.