Cow & Gate started in 1771 as a small grocery shop in Guildford at number 20 High Street, owned by the Gates family. In 1887, it was run by two brothers, Charles and Leonard Gates. They decided to expand into the dairy trade, and opened up a new business, called The West Surrey Central Dairy. To ensure supplies of the best quality milk, they built their own creameries in the West of England, and also in Ireland, where Cow & Gate infant formula milks are still produced today.
Their best-selling product was fresh cream. This was sold in distinctive little brown jugs, with a label showing a cow looking through a gate. Among their customers were members of the Royal family, including Queen Victoria, the Prince of Wales, and the Duke of York. The label became famous, and it soon became known as "Cow & Gate" cream.
The success of their cream business gave the Gates brothers a problem - huge quantities of leftover skimmed milk. In 1900, there was no public demand for low fat milks. To get around their predicament, they bought the latest drying equipment from America, and began selling milk powder to the bakery and catering trade for making puddings. This also carried the label of the cow looking through the gate.
In 1904, they received a bulk order for milk powder from the Medical Officer of Health in Leicester, Dr. Killick Millard, to use as a baby food. Dr. Millard had read reports from America that the health and survival rates of poorer children in New York were greatly improved when powdered milk was added to their diets. In 1900 around 15% of infants in Leicester failed to reach their first birthday but after conducting trials with Cow & Gate milk powder, he began to see similar improvements in his own area. He published the results of his trials with "Cow & Gate milk powder" in medical journals and soon demand for the new baby food began to come into Guildford from doctors and hospitals all over the country. That first link with the medical profession would eventually turn the West Surrey Central Dairy into Cow & Gate, the babyfeeding company.
The first Cow & Gate advert appeared in 1908.
In 1920 the Cow & Gate brand was so strongly associated with babyfeeding that it was adopted as the company name. In that year the first Cow & Gate Baby Book was published, for use by doctors and midwives to give new mothers the latest information and advice on feeding babies. Cow & Gate still work closely with the medical profession to develop the best foods for babies with a wide range of nutritional needs, and still provide educational materials for use by midwives, public health nurses and health visitors.
In 1959, Cow & Gate joined up with United Dairies, to form Unigate, one of the leading UK dairy companies. In 1976 the company moved its headquarters from Guildford to Trowbridge, in Wiltshire.
Present day Today, Cow & Gate is part of Group Danone, a leading global company specialising in health through food and beverages.
Cow & Gate still work closely with the medical profession to develop the best foods for babies with a wide range of nutritional needs and we still provide educational materials to midwives and health visitors
The above history was copied from the Cow&Gate web-site.