PURITY CELEBRATES 130 YEARS

Wednesbury-headquartered Purity Soft Drinks is celebrating the completion of its 130th year in business.

West Bromwich West MP Shaun Bailey visitied the main manufacturing facility to mark the occasion.

The manufacturer behind popular soft drink brands JUICEBURST and Firefly was originally founded in 1892 and is one of the oldest companies in the UK. Both brands arestocked nationwide, with JUICEBURST available in Sainsbury’s, Morrisons, Asda and Tesco as well as schools, offices and thousands of cafes across the UK. Firefly is available in Booths, Co-op and Waitrose and through Ocado.

Beginning life by supplying soft drinks by horse drawn dray to people across Wednesbury,Purity was bought by RAF Pilot Douglas Cox on his returnfromthe Second World War. It remained under the ownership of the Cox family until it was acquired by private equity firm Langholm Capital in 2012. In 2021, the business was acquired by Verdane, who are focused on building on the brands history and growing it further

Throughout this time, it has remained one of the region’skey employers. Today, the business has ateamofmorethan 60 people, with roles ranging from manufacturing operations at its main site in Wednesbury through to finance, marketing and business management.

Mr Bailey was given atourofthe company’s headquarters and manufacturing facility from chief executive Sarah Baldwin, and met a number of long-standing employees.

Speaking about the anniversary,Sarah said: “Purity Soft Drinks has afantastic heritage hereinWednesbury and, as we celebrate completing our 130th year in business, it’s agreat opportunity to reflect on all that the business has achieved over those years.”

Mr Bailey said: “Purity Soft Drinks arethe embodiment of Black Country ingenuity.The longevity of the business comes down to the continued drive for excellence in its processes, in-built resilience as aresult of continuing to adapt and its commitment to the community in Wednesbury

“It is great to see that the company’sreach extends far and wide, including to the Houses of Parliament, whereJUICEBURST is proudly on sale.”

With over 35 years’ experienceweprovide high qualitytoolingatcompetitive prices.Our highly skilled workforceand stateofthe art CNC machinerymakes PembertonEngineering thesupplier of choice formany OEMs from a diverserange of industrysectors