Kilty & Co. Ltd. – generally known as “Kiltys” – was for many years a jewel in Dundee’s business crown. The company had its first business premises in Johannesburg and also a manufacturing facility on a farm in the Wasbank area, where it made a very popular peanut brittle.
The company moved to Dundee in the 1950s. Kiltys built modern premises on the left side of the road to Glencoe, just after the fork in Karel Landman Street, at the top of Ryley’s Hill, where the road to Glencoe branches off the road to Newcastle.
George Funston and Alec McDavid were the founders of the company, and George Funston was its Chairman and Managing Director. Other executives of Kiltys were accountant John Davies (who left in about 1958), sales manager, Rory Wolmarans, and Eileen Funston, who was responsible for buying, packing and female staff matters. Gordon Campbell joined the company in 1957 and after a very brief career as a salesman, moved into the position of raw materials storeman. Herman Kritzinger was Dispatch Manager, with Joe Connellan, Joe Coetzee, Peter Khoury, Ernie Shilton and Ann Wood in charge of the various production departments. Other employees at that time were Graham Johns, Barry Lane, Hester Lourens, Maude Killian and the wonderful Lena Sithole (mother of Gertrude, Beatrice and Walter), a long time family friend, who used to spoil us as kids by dropping off sweets when she came past our Colley Street home on the way back from work en route to her home at Farm Doctor.
By the time Kiltys was established in Dundee it had supplemented its range to include a variety of really great toffees! These included a cream-coloured mint toffee with parallel green lines across the sweet indicating that it was the mint, a blue-wrappered vanilla toffee, and two or three other varieties. The logo of the company was a kilted bagpiper, and the gift packs of sweets were always in containers bearing the Royal Stewart tartan. The round tins in which Kilty’s sweets were sold were widely used as cake tins in the town and beyond! A photograph of one of those tins appears in the photo gallery of this website – by courtesy of Joe and Marilyn Coetzee.
School tours to Kiltys were always popular with the pupils, as the visitors were permitted to sample the product line! For me the highlight of any tour was being allowed to taste Kiltys own condensed milk that it manufactured for use in its toffees. I recall that this condensed milk was stored in a large vat rather like the tanks used for brewing beer.
During the 1950’s, Beech-Nut chewing gum was added to the product range. Later, following the merger of two companies in the USA, a new wing was added to the Dundee factory to accommodate Life Savers – the “the candy with the hole.” Lovat Coghlan joined the company during this period as General Manager.
Kilty & Co. Ltd., ceased to exist when Beech-Nut Life Savers bought out the local shareholders and then later, following several other overseas take-overs, the Dundee and Wasbank operations were closed and sweetmaking in Dundee was no more. Sadly, the Kilty name is now merely a memory for those of us who remember the ‘good old days’ of Dundee.
[My grateful thanks to Gordon Campbell for his input into the above article.]Joe Coetzee, whose father worked for Kiltys, contributed the following recollections about the company:
As far as I know, Kilty’s was an established company situated in Cleveland Johannesburg. Both my father Joe Coetzee and “Mac” Mc David worked there. I do not know what his position was. He and my father knew each other previously from some other firm. The photo of the Kilty’s toffee tin I submitted is of that period.
Toffees were already one of their established products. I know that George Funston who became the MD, had a farm (groundnuts, I think) in Wasbank and that a small factory made peanut brittle in Wasbank itself.
In 1951 Kilty’s moved to Dundee to a newly built factory on Ryley’s Hill, some two hundred miles from Johannesburg. Our family moved to Dundee in June 1951. How “Mac” Mc David and George Funston came together and what arrangement they had, I do not know. What does a nine year old know or care about business arrangements? I did, in later years, ask my father why Kilty’s had moved to Dundee and I seem to remember him telling me that there had been a rail transport subsidy or something similar available to promote de-centralization.
At that time, Kilty’s continued with the manufacture of toffees as well as hard boiled sweets, soft centres, spearmints and cachous (little pink breath sweeteners) In addition, to those penny suckers were made. A few years later 1953/1954, Kilty’s began manufacturing “Beechies” chewing gum under licence from Beechnut USA. (i.e to my understanding) and a few years later Beechnut’s “Life Savers” (The hard round sweets with a hole at the centre.) Although some lines were dropped, Kilty’s continued making their more popular sweets.
Condensed milk for use in the manufacture of toffees was also later produced at the factory. Milk in milk cans was delivered daily to the factory by various local farmers. I don’t know if it’s common knowledge but Kilty’s sweets were exported to other countries. I know of destinations such as Freetown, Sierra Leone as well as Italy. The sweets for Italy were labelled in Italian and that’s where I first learned the meaning of “miele” meaning honey. Furthermore, Kilty’s manufactured a well known cough/throat lozenge. When the lozenges were to be manufactured, a pharmacist from the producers in Johannesburg would travel to Dundee to supervise production. He alone would add the necessary medicinal components to the boilings. After the lozenges had been manufactured all scrap and leftover material was collected and destroyed.
As far as I can remember my father, Joe Coetzee, produced the first local “Beechies” chewing gum, the first condensed milk and the first “Life Savers” I remember him showing me a long scope-like instrument through which one peered and adjusted two half moons to obtain the PH reading which in turn was used to obtain the correct acidic balance for the Life Savers. On another occasion he made some Edinburgh type rock candy with his initials, JC, visible when looking at the profile. (I think it was to prove that it could be done) Contrary to our classmates perceptions, my sister and I were seldom given any sweets to eat. The exception was when a new line had been manufactured then Irene and I were given a two or three sweets each of the new line to taste and give our opinion.
In the early years at Dundee, Dave Jones (Peter Jones’ father) and my father, Joe Coetzee, were the only two sweet makers. Someone called “Oupa” Henning was responsible for electrical maintenance. I do not know if Dave Jones was with Kilty’s in Cleveland or not. He may have been. Dave Jones did not stay more than a few years in Dundee. George Funston’s sister, Eileen, supervised the “girls” (i.e the women) who operated the sweet wrapping machines. Other names that I remember over the years are: Shilton, Khourie, Barry Nel and Malcolm John, all sweet makers. There was even a young Czechoslovakian who had escaped from his country (then part of the USSR) while on holiday in Italy. He was a regular visitor to my parents’ home and often stayed for meals. “Kritz” Kritzinger (Dispatch Dept.)
Val Williams, Guelpa and someone else whose name I just cannot remember (he lived on a farm at Talana Hill) were part of the machine maintenance crew. Broken machines don’t make sweets. In the latter sixties after I had left Dundee, Joe O’Grady, an Irish friend of mine, joined the firm as well. I do not know what position he held. Other than Funston and Mac David, I remember some of the executive staff, namely: John Davies, Joe Connellan, Coughlan and Gordon Campbell. There was also a young accountant whose name I don’t remember, but he married Denton Murray’s (a class mate) sister Maureen. I do, however, remember that he drove a red MGA. Malcolm John at one stage owned a Morgan Plus Four. (I still think to this day, that they are one of the best looking sports cars ever built.)
I also remember that John Davies had a black Humber. My sister, Irene, and his two daughters, Jill and Sally, were once passengers in the car when returning from a swimming gala. In the wet weather, the car left the road somewhere near or in Van Reenen’s Pass. John Davies’ skilful driving prevented the car from rolling as he steered the vehicle part of the way down into the valley where the vehicle came to rest against a rock. Everyone, although somewhat shaken up, came out unscathed. Irene and Sally, who both live in Durban, are still in regular contact with each other.
At the beginning of 1964 I moved away from Dundee and consequently have very little further knowledge of happenings there. In addition, my father became ill in 1970 and was no longer able to continue working. He died in August 1972, which is the last time I visited Dundee.
I have heard that Kilty’s later moved back to Johannesburg. This may have been when Beech Nut Life Savers became the major shareholder. In the seventies I remember buying a packet of spearmint. Although the word “Kilty’s” appeared on the wrapping, the manufacturer was noted as Beech Nut Live Savers Inc. (or similar) and their address was some industrial area near Johannesburg. Gordon Campbell, who I think was a nephew of George Funston, should be able to fill in the later history.
Looking back, Kilty’s together with the “Talana” Glass Works, must have contributed enormously to the economy of Dundee. The glass works, became part of Consolidated Glass Works, a company which had factories in Wadeville, Bellville, and later Gwelo in the then Rhodesia. The Dundee glass factory, to my knowledge, at that time, manufactured the bulk of the South Africa’s beer bottles.