Apollinaris and Johannis Limited, mineral water manufacturers and importers, 4 Stratford...

Annual reports, and records relating to shares in the company.

Records were deposited on permanent loan by Spackman, Dale and Hood, Market Hill, Calne, Wiltshire in September 1979.

The firm first appears in the Kelly's Post Office Directories in 1875 at 19 Regent Street as The Apollinaris Co Ltd with a Stanley P Wilkinson as its secretary. The following year the firm are listed as wine and spirit merchants and then in 1877 as mineral water and wine and spirit merchants. From 1878-94 they operated solely as natural mineral water dealers. In 1895 the firm moved to new premises at 4 Stratford Place, Oxford Street and from 1898 to 1931 a second company of Apollinaris and Johannis Ltd is listed at the same address. Subsequently in 1932 Apollinaris and Johannis Ltd becomes Apollinaris and Presta Ltd and that company continues to operate until 1951. From 1952 until 1955 a single firm of Apollinaris and Company Ltd, importers of natural mineral waters and manufacturers of Presta squashes and table waters is recorded at Sardinia House, 52 Lincoln's Inn Fields, Kingsway.

The firm took it's name from the Apollinaris Spring which it owned in the Ahr Valley close to Neumahr, Germany. Close to the spring at Niederbreisig was located the firm's bottling factory, the Rheinmahr Bottle Works, which was a German limited company. From there the mineral water was exported all over the world with over forty million bottles being produced by 1913-14. There also appears to have been a second spring in operation at Apenta in Hungary. At the outbreak of the First World War 97% of the firm's total capital was in the hands of over four and a half thousand British shareholders. However, the directories clearly show that the firm was able to survive the difficulties associated with the war with Germany between 1914-18 and 1939-45.