Staff had to be laid off during the summer months as internal demand for pies, sausages and meat fell each year. For this reason, in 1913, Thomas Wall II started making ice cream in order to avoid layoffs during the summer.
Its original name is Wall's Unilever. Wall's was founded in 1786 by Richard Wall with a butcher's counter in London's St James's Market area. In the 1900s, Richard's grandson, Thomas Wall II, took over the business.
Every year, the demand for sausages, pies and meat in the company was falling, and staff had to be laid off. So in 1913, Thomas Wall II entered the ice cream business to avoid these layoffs during the summer.
By 1922, the business was jointly acquired by Lever Brothers and Margarine Unie. Maxwell Holt was appointed as the head of the company and the idea of producing assorted ice cream was revived. Ice cream production began in 1922 at a factory in Acton, London. Production doubled with the new factory in 1959.
Although Unilever uses the name Wall's for ice cream in the UK, it has entered the market under different names in different countries. For example, in some European countries, this ice cream is marketed as Algida.
Wall's, the most profitable subsidiary of Unilever, has gained a large place in the global market with the acquisition and renaming of local ice cream companies in various countries.