Mary Quant, the Swinging ‘60s & Gala Cosmetics
In the early 1940s, Miners make-up company moved into a unit on Hook Rise, part of the Cox Lane estate. Originally founded in 1864 to provide theatrical make-up, the company had entered the blossoming cosmetics market by 1940.
In 1960 Miners was bought by Stanley Picker, a New York-born and Harvard educated businessman who lived in Kingston Hill. Stanley owned a US-based company called Gala Cosmetics, which had been set up by his father shortly after the Great Depression. As part of the buy-out, Stanley took ownership of the Miners factory on Hook Rise.
Instead of renaming the products to Gala, he chose to keep the incredibly popular Miners brand, understanding the importance of brand loyalty. He is also often credited as being the pioneer of women matching their lipstick to their nail polish – a stroke of marketing genius which saw the company’s profits rocket!
In 1964, Gala successfully floated on the London Stock Exchange and secured a huge investment, which was used to scale up operations at Cox Lane by modernising the factory and setting up a global distribution hub at Chobham. The factory employed more than 100 women who staffed the production line, turning out lipsticks, powder compacts and other make-up under the Gala, Miners and Outdoor Girl brands.
In 1966 another successful move saw the company strike a deal with swinging sixties fashion designer Mary Quant. Under the contract, Gala would manufacture, distribute and market cosmetics branded with Quant’s iconic black daisy logo. Produced by shop floor workers at Cox Lane, Quant-branded products were shipped to and sold to countries around the world. Shortly after signing the deal with Gala, Mary Quant was awarded an OBE for her services to exports.
In 1970 Gala was taken over by major multinational Smith and Nephew, who already owned brands such as Nivea and Elastoplast. Miners, Mary Quant and Outdoor Girl branded products continued to be produced on Cox Lane until Smith and Nephew were forced to save costs and sell the brands, with Max Factor acquiring Gala’s product range. With manufacturing moved outside of the UK, the Cox Lane factory was closed down and eventually destroyed by 1981.
The Community Brain has been fortunate enough to trace down a number of former workers from the Cox Lane site, covering the factory floor, research & development, and the offices.
The cultural importance of Mary Quant
- Professor Fran Lloyd
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Pat Cann
Pat Cann was 19 years old when she started working on Gala’s ‘Factory 2’ site on Cox Lane, separate to the main Hook Rose factory.
In her interview with The Community Brain, she recalled how workers were rotated around different sections of the factory to avoid going ‘stir crazy’ through monotonous jobs, and how she found herself working on the lines for eyeshadow and Mary Quant perfume.
She explained how, in the absence of automation, each individual packing job on the line had to be done by a worker, and recalled some of the culinary treats in the staff canteen.
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Angela Hilton
Angela Hilton joined Gala in her teens as a summer holiday job, and found herself working on the glass bottle belts for Miners shampoo, nail varnish removal and aftershave.
She spoke of a positive atmosphere between members of her team and the excitement of the complementary ‘shilling bags’ of makeup that workers received.
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The Factory Floor
Research & Development
- Helen Bettell-Higgins
Looking for work after leaving school, Helen Bettell-Higgins found herself offered a lab based job at Gala due to her existing interest in science.
She soon became a 16 year old ‘colour technician’ – despite initially having very little idea what such a job entailed – and was still working at Gala when the factory closed.
She spoke to The Community Brain about working with brand managers to create different colours they required for the Miners, Mary Quant and Outdoor Girl brands.
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Glynis Hill
Glynis Hill was employed as a 19 year old junior secretary to Gala’s owner, Stanley Picker, which involved her serving teas and coffees whilst he met with Mary Quant. She spoke with The Community Brain about his leadership style, as well her various responsibilities in the job.
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Tony Peake
As a young man in the late 1970s, Tony Peake began working with Gala Cosmetics as a ‘Manpower Planning Officer’, helping managers to identify the number of workers they would need to fulfil their contracts. He later worked in an employee relations role, negotiating with trade unions on behalf of the company, and had the unenviable task of planning mass redundancies as the factory prepared for closure in 1981.
Although sad about its eventual demise, Tony warmly recalled his memories of working at Gala, citing a collegial atmosphere that led him to mix with factory floor workers as well as office staff. He praised the company for the way it looked after its workers, whether organising transport for workers, fostering positive union relations, arranging legendary Christmas parties, or providing a table service canteen that was open to all.
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Full transcript available here