Condensed Milk Company of Ireland

The Condensed Milk Company of Ireland Limited was an Irish manufacturer of dairy products and, in its heyday, the largest of its kind in the United Kingdom. Its most famous product was Cleeve's Toffee, a popular confectionery which continued to be sold in Ireland until the 1980s.

The business was established in 1883 by Thomas Cleeve, a Canadian of English extraction. Cleeve first came to Ireland as a teenager to work for J. P. Evans & Co., a Limerick-based supplier of agricultural machinery owned by his uncle. Over the next 20 years Cleeve rose to become managing director of this company.

Through his contacts with Irish farmers, Cleeve saw the potential to process milk and manufacture dairy products for home consumption and export. Together with Edmond Russell,a local businessman, and William Beauchamp, a solicitor, Cleeve acquired Lansdowne, a site on the northern bank of the River Shannon. There, the partners set up a factory to produce condensed milk and butter.

In 1889, the business was incorporated as a private limited company. Within ten years 60,000 tins of condensed milk were being produced daily at its Limerick headquarters, with 10,000 cows providing the raw material. As the business expanded, Thomas Cleeve was joined by his four younger brothers who moved from Canada to help manage the company. They set up or acquired a chain of smaller creameries and factories throughout Munster. Branches were established in London and Liverpool to facilitate sales into the British market.

By the end of the nineteenth century the Condensed Milk Company had 2,000 employees on its payroll and counted 3,000 farmers as suppliers of its raw material. Its exports reached practically every corner of the British Empire. The company's brands included "The Cup", "The Calf", "The Goat", "The Shamrock", and "Cleeve's Full Cream Milk". A separate factory in Limerick manufactured Cleeve's Toffee.

Following the death of chairman Sir Thomas Cleeve in 1908, his brother, Frederick, became managing director, with William Beauchamp assuming the position of chairman. Business grew significantly following the outbreak of World War I in 1914, and employee numbers rose to 3,000. The Condensed Milk Company became a major supplier to British forces fighting in Europe. It was alleged after the war that company profits reached £1m during this period.