Sir George Francis Davis (1883 – 1947) was a New Zealand born industrialist. He is notable mainly for his association with Davis Gelatine, Cockatoo Island Dockyard, and the Glen Davis Shale Oil Works, in Australia. Glen Davis, New South Wales is named after him.
Early life and family background
He was born at New Lynn, a suburb of Auckland, on 22 November 1883. His parents were Charles George Davis and Lillian Edwedinah, née Ball, and he was their third and youngest son. Davis attended King's College, Auckland. He left school at fifteen, and went to sea for four years in the sailing ships of John Emery and Co., Boston. He was later to say that he wanted to join the navy, but was not accepted due to his poor hearing.
Both the Davis and Ball families were involved in glue manufacture in England. His parents had emigrated from England in 1879, intending to farm in New Zealand. Instead Charles Davis set up a small glue factory at New Lynn in 1881, moving to a new larger factory at Onehunga in 1888. The eldest son Charles Christopher (Chris) Davis was working in factory from 1892. By 1899 Chris was the manager of the company that his father formed in that year, New Zealand Glue Co. Ltd, in which his father held a one third share.
Business in New Zealand
It was not until 1901 that Davis joined the family business. In 1903, his father bought out the other shareholders, and divided those shares equally between Davis and his elder brother Chris. In 1909, the company bought a rival manufacturer based at Woolston, a suburb of Christchurch, and George became the manager of the Woolston factory.
When their father died in April 1913, the two brothers decided to expand into the production of gelatin. George went to England to learn the craft from some of his mother’s family. In 1913, plant for the manufacture of gelatin was added to the Woolston factory. It was soon supplying not only New Zealand but also Australia and Canada. In 1915, the middle brother, Maurice, who had been working as a marine engineer, joined Davis at the Woolston factory.
The mundane industry of gelatin and glue production, from animal skins, sinews, and bones, waste products of the meat industry, would make the Davis family's fortune.
Expansion to Australia
After a share issue in 1916, a decision was made to expand to Australia. George who had set up gelatin manufacturing in New Zealand was chosen to set up a new factory in Australia.
He arrived in Sydney at the end of October 1917, and immediately bought 8 ha of land at Botany, a suburb of Sydney, Foundations of the new factory were laid, in December 1917, and it produced its first gelatin in early January 1919. Botany was already the site of tanneries and other industries that produced by products of meat production, to which was added the gelatin made by the new factory.
Following the same pattern as in New Zealand, the Davis family bought out competitors in Australia and expanded the Botany factory. Davis’s maternal cousin Jack Ball emigrated to Australia, in 1924, and became manager of the Botany factory and a director of the Australian company.
Davis Gelatine
Between 1921 and 1926, the family interests were restructured so that the Australian company, Davis Gelatine (Australia) Pty Ltd, became the holding company, with subsidiary companies in New Zealand, South Africa and Canada, all under the name Davis Gelatine. George Davis was Managing Director of the company. The organisation sought additional capital from the public in late 1921, floating Davis Gelatine (Australia) Limited, issuing both ordinary shares and debentures, with the objective of paying down the debts incurred in its rapid expansion. It had already achieved market dominance in Australia, within three years of starting local production.
'Davis Gelatine' became a famous brand. The company promoted use of gelatin through recipes for 'Davis Dainty Dishes' that it published, over many years beginning in 1922, both in booklet form and in publications, particularly the cookery pages of The Australian Women's Weekly. Davis Gelatine almost certainly took the concept of 'Dainty Dishes' from 'Dainty Desserts for Dainty People, and similar titles using the word 'Dainty', that were published by the Knox Gelatine Company of Johnstown, New York.'