90 YEARS UNIQUE KNOWLEDGE & EXPERIENCE
Explore our interactive timeline to see how our business has evolved to
the global business that we are today.
Benjamin, James and Peter have developed today’s Ragus from a UK-based manufacturer into a full-service global operation. The new multi-million pound state-of-the-art factory supplies hundreds of tonnes of pure sugar products to customers all over the world every day.
Ronald and Barry retire with the great grandsons of Charles Eastick, James, Peter and Benjamin continuing their great grandfather’s hard work.
Ragus is now the UK’s last independent sugar manufacturer; we celebrate family ownership with our golden jubilee.
Ragus begins to sell large quantities of Refined White and Raw sugar and as a result the workforce almost doubled.
Bernard and Fredrick sell their shares in Martineaus and Manbré & Garton take over.
A period of intense change as the demand for sugar soars. Grandsons Barrington and Ronald take over Ragus and introduce crystallised candy feed for apiaries and crystallised animal feed for farms.
Douglas serves his country in WWII, his role in charge of the RAF air balloons over Felixstowe docks where the sugar is making its way into the port.
WWII is brewing and fruit, now the cornerstone of Charles’ refinery, is no longer available. This sparks invention, with a honey alternative made from crystallized golden syrup.
Sugar continues to run in the family. Charles’ two sons join him: Douglas at Ragus and Fredrick as MD at Martineau, where Charles remains involved.
Charles merges the factory with another of his companies to produce inverted sugars: a sweeter, moist sugar perfect for baking. This merged operation will become the Ragus we are today.
Charles’ enthusiasm and invention never wanes; he begins to make specialist sugars and fruit-based goods in a dedicated factory
he has built in Slough, west of London.
Sugar refineries are struggling and fast becoming part of history. Yet Charles and his family’s 11 sugar refining patents, along with their hard work, allow theirs to thrive.
Britain edges closer to war. Charles’ attention is drawn to helping others and he devotes his time to sugar rationing. Later he will receive an MBE for services to his country.
The brothers seek new adventures. John leaves to oversee the Bundaberg sugar cane plantations in Australia; Charles runs production at the Martineau refinery, at the heart of London’s sugar industry.
Golden Syrup is packed into the first metal tins.
Tough times bring sugar production to a near-halt. But Charles begins to experiment with the by-products of the sugar refining process. Golden Syrup is born.
Impressed by their ground-breaking work, Abram Lyle invites the Eastick brothers to set up a lab at his new Plaistow Wharf refinery.
Brothers John and Charles Eastick, excited by sugar’s recent rise into ubiquity to British life, begin a sugar analysis and consulting practice in the centre of London.
