W. Mitchell and Sons (Ayr) ; A. & J. Mitchell

W. Mitchell and Sons (Ayr) ; A. & J. Mitchell, Wholesale Provision Merchants, 46 and 48, Albion Street.—

    One of the leading Scottish houses in the wholesale bacon and cheese trade is that of the well-known and old-established firm which carries on a wholesale provision trade under the name of W. Mitchell & Sons (A. & J. Mitchell). The business at Ayr was founded in 1845 by the late Walter Mitchell, father of the present proprietors, and consists*of an extensive bacon-curing establishment, the largest home curing establishment in Scotland. About twenty men are constantly employed in killing and curing.

    The present proprietors are the three sons of the original founder — Andrew Mitchell, John Mitchell, and Walter Mitchell. These gentlemen opened the present premises in Glasgow in 1885 as a central wholesale warehouse for the collection of orders and for supplying the retail trade in this city and the surrounding district. This has been the means of greatly increasing and extending the firm’s business. A large and increasing trade is done here in Ayrshire bacon and cheese of superior qualities. The warehouse being large and commodious, a full stock of every class of goods is always kept on hand. Being connected by telephone to curing establishment at Ayr, orders can be delivered from either place on the shortest notice.

    The bacon is supplied in large quantities, through agents, to Liverpool and London. The bacon is supplied to the trade as skinned Ayrshire rolls, being neatly covered with muslin cloth. They send out about 50,000 to 60,000 rolls of bacon annually. The mildness of cure, combined with tidiness and cleanliness of appearance, places these rolls as second to none in the market ; hence the extent of their business being greater than anything yet approached to in the shape of bacon-curing in Scotland, although only a mite compared with the extensive curing houses of America. Yet the ever-growing taste of the people for lean new cured bacon may yet raise our trade to an industry worthy of the attention of our agricultural population in Scotland, as the most of the farmers here have yet to find out that hog or pig-raising is the most profitable part of a dairy, and would do well to take a leaf out of their American friends' book, where they are raised by the thousand. Agents who call on wholesale dealers in the north of Scotland also supply from the Ayr firm the wholesale dealers in East Edinburgh and Leith, &c.

    The three partners of this thoroughgoing concern are all men of practical experience, having been trained to the business from their youth under their, father, and the very laudable energy and push that has characterised them as a family has placed them in a very prominent and profitable position in the Scotch provision trade..

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