for the book shop see thornton s bookshop . for the american chain of convenience stores see thorntons inc. this article has multiple issues . please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page . learn how and when to remove these template messages this article needs more links to other articles to help integrate it into the encyclopedia . please help improve this article by adding links that are relevant to the context within the existing text . november 2012 learn how and when to remove this template message this article relies largely or entirely upon a single source . relevant discussion may be found on the talk page . please help improve this article by introducing citations to additional sources . april 2011 learn how and when to remove this template message thorntons type public founded sheffield south yorkshire england 1911 founder joseph william thornton headquarters alfreton england number of locations 228 plus 186 franchise shops key people barry bloomer chief executive revenue 221 million 2013 operating income 5.2 million 2013 net income 3.8 million 2013 owner christopher pashley george o hara robert montgomery ronan evans number of employees just under 4000 1 website www.thorntons.co.uk thorntons is a british chocolate company established by joseph william thornton in 1911 and owned by ferrero spa since 2015 . 2 turnover in its annual report of 2013 was reported at 221 million with 249 shops and 186 franchises together with internet mail order and commercial services . when cadburys became part of a non confectionery specific group thorntons became the largest confectionery only parent corporation in the united kingdom ; while it retains a minority of sales of its established toffee and fudge the group shifted its specialism after post war rationing ended into chocolate and developed wide continental swiss and belgian chocolate ranges which alongside novelties and decoration form the bulk its sales . 1 3 it is listed on the london stock exchange and is a constituent of the ftse fledgling index . while cutting back on its high street presence sales and production have increased and a small minority of its shops have started afresh or diversified to become caf s. 1 in june 2015 thorntons was bought by ferrero spa for 112m . 2 contents 1 the thornton family 2 the flagship store 3 the moor store 4 j. w. thornton ltd 5 1923 to 1931 expansion and toffee 6 thorntons in the 1930s 7 impact of world war ii 8 post war expansion and walter willen 9 1956 to 1968 10 production for marks and spencer and franchising 11 thorntons in the 1980s 12 2000s trading difficulties 13 use of imperial measures 14 publicity 15 see also 16 references 17 external links the thornton family edit this outlet plays on the brand s long history by being unusually housed in a former tram shelter in gunwharf quays portsmouth hampshire . a thorntons shop in banbury oxfordshire . the thornton family lived in leeds for many years having various occupations from shopkeeper to innkeeper until eventually joseph thornton born 1832 moved south to become a railway shopkeeper in sheffield . he married in 1868 and two years later joseph william thornton was born . 4 joseph grew up to become a commercial traveller with the don confectionery company and opened his first thorntons chocolate kabin shop in october 1911 on the corner of norfolk street and howard street in sheffield . at that time the family was living in rented property in the nearby derbyshire village of hathersage . 5 the flagship store edit it was joseph william s intention to offer the nicest sweet shop in sheffield . 6 the walls inside the shop were covered in fashionable cream anaglypta wallpaper . there was a beautifully shaped glass case from which kunzle cakes were served individually with tongs . trays of mackintosh s toffee deluxe were broken into pieces by assistants using toffee hammers and pincers and put into waxed bags on the brass weighing scales . behind the counter there were mirrors from floor to ceiling giving the shop a classy air and making it seem much bigger than it actually was with glass shelves for the knock stoppered jars of caramels and boiled sweets . other now unfamiliar products included cachous violet cachous sweet lips phul nanas and the descriptively named curiously strong mints . 7 joseph couldn t afford to give up his job at the don confectionery company at the time and he prudently retained his job as a commercial traveller until 1913 to guarantee himself an income . instead he decided to take his son norman out of abbeydale secondary school when still only 14 to become manager of the shop when it opened . the other members of staff were two young ladies of a very superior type who doubtless gave the shop the necessary atmosphere of quality that joseph sought . there must have been great relief in the family when the shop opened successfully ; taking 20 a week quite a lot of money . in those days . it was successful enough to persuade joseph in 1913 finally to leave his job and risk opening another shop . 8 the moor store edit the moor would be the next best place because the rents would be lower and there were considerably more passers by . it was here in the basement that joseph began some simple manufacturing of his own products he would demonstrate to norman how to make simple boiled sweets such as fish mixtures and mint rock . in a back room on the ground floor of the shop there was sufficient space to start manufacturing chocolates . 9 the family left the rented house in hathersage and moved into rooms above the shop thus efficiently combining retailing manufacture and accommodation under one roof . norman s youngest brother stanley obtained a scholarship to sheffield university to study chemistry and physics but because the family was so short of money he was under pressure to relinquish his university place and join his brother norman in the business . helpfully the university allowed him to attend on some evenings and on saturday mornings to study food technology and this later became a very valuable asset to the business . 10 j. w. thornton ltd edit joseph william thornton became ill in 1917 and died in 1919 . the business was taken over by norman thornton at age 21 who tried to consolidate trade in the two shops . in 1921 stanley and norman thornton formed a limited company called j.w. thornton ltd with themselves as the two shareholders to secure the family business . 11 1923 to 1931 expansion and toffee edit in 1923 economic conditions started to improve and the thornton brothers opened two more shops on london road and rockingham street both busy locations thus doubling the number of outlets and production . 12 the london road property was put up for sale for 5000 not long after thornton s rented it so to avoid losing it they agreed to buy it in instalments of 250 a year . they increased sales to cover the increased costs by the gimmick of personalising easter eggs by writing people s names on them . 13 up to 1924 thorntons were selling mackintosh s deluxe toffee but sales were modest . the brothers felt they could improve on this by making their own toffee . stanley used his university experience to develop a home made toffee . despite the relatively high price of 6d 2 p a quarter pound 114g it soon made up half of the total sales of the business and remained the company s mainstay for the next 50 years such that in many people s minds the words thorntons and toffee became synonymous . 14 during the difficult period of the 1920s a special toffee was introduced along with an increasing variety of chocolates accompanied by vigorous promotions such as saturday specials . a further two shops opened in 1926 the year of the general strike one in neighbouring rotherham and the other on union street . the rotherham shop was the first outside of sheffield and was a great success but the one on union street was less so and became the company s first failure closing within a year . 15 the brothers now split their responsibilities with norman managing the shops and administration and stanley the manufacturing . in 1928 a new shop was opened in castle street followed in 1930 by shops in leopold street and spital hill all in sheffield . the latter soon closed but a city centre shop in fitzalan square opened in 1931 was very successful . 16 thorntons in the 1930s edit by the early 1930s thorntons felt their successful formula could be expanded over the north of england and possibly scotland . they remained unsure of the south believing that consumption of confectionery was linked to average ambient temperature and that southerners would not buy a northern product . these assumptions proved to be unfounded . a manchester shop opened in 1932 on oxford street only the second branch to open outside sheffield . it was followed by a shop at 37a boar lane in leeds the area the family originally came from . 17 in 1934 a purpose built factory was built in archer road four miles 6 km south of the city centre with cleaner air and closer to the countryside . two years later it was doubled in size . 18 impact of world war ii edit war was declared in september 1939 . suddenly the steel works in sheffield were busy again . this led to a boost in other regional businesses including thorntons although this was short lived offset by other negative factors chiefly the shortage of raw materials particularly cane sugar which of course always had to be imported . confectionery was quickly rationed to a mere two ounces a week . staffing in the retail shops was reduced as individuals male and female left for military service . the company had opened eight new shops in the year before the start of hostilities making a total of 35 shops in 18 towns . while having more stores helped sales through rationing this did not end until february 1953 in respect of sweets and later that year in respect of retail sugar and therefore the company struggled to increase sales to individuals through this period . the war put paid to any further expansion for at least ten years . indeed some shops were actually lost either through expired leases or air raids . there were at least 30 instances of retail premises suffering war damage . the night of 1 and 2 june 1940 was just such an occasion when three of thornton s shops in manchester were heavily bombed and reduced to rubble . the branch on mosley street in the heart of the city was a particular loss as the brothers were extremely proud of this very successful large branch with five display windows . 19 later that year in sheffield heavy bombing on the night of 12 13 december destroyed much of the moor including the shop where the family had once lived and the shops on london road . the thorntons factory on archer road was only superficially damaged but gas electricity and other services were lost for seven weeks . with some remarkable forethought the brothers had anticipated such a contingency and had recently acquired a small bankrupt factory in lancashire to transfer production there if necessary . 20 post war expansion and walter willen edit after the war thorntons considered further expansion . an application for a building licence to extend the sheffield factory on its quarry site was refused because of the very great shortage of building materials and skilled labour . one of the brothers