Horlicks - Definition and Overview

Horlicks is the name of a company and a malted milky hot drink claimed to promote sleep when drunk at bedtime. It is manufactured by GlaxoSmithKline in the United Kingdom and India.

Company timeline

• 1869: William Horlick from Gloucestershire immigrates to the United States.
• 1873: James Horlick, a pharmacist, joins his brother in the U.S. and together they found a company in Chicago to manufacture a patented malted milk drink as an artificial infant food.
• 1875: Business moved to larger premises at Racine, Wisconsin with an abundant supply of spring water.
• 1883: U.S. patent 278,967 granted to William for first malted milk drink mixing powder with hot water.
• 1890: James returns to London to set up an office importing U.S.-made product.
• 1906: Slough selected as site for new factory.
• 1908: Factory construction completed at a cost of £28,000.
• 1909-1910: Horlicks is popular as provision for North Pole and South Pole expeditions by Robert Peary, Roald Amundsen, and Robert Falcon Scott.
• 1914: James is made a baronet. World War I saw extensive use of this nutritional drink at home and at the Front.
• 1921: Death of James saw the company split, with William having responsibility for the Americas and the sons of Sir James having the rest of the world.
• 1931: "Night Starvation" story developed to promote Horlicks as a bedtime drink.
• 1935: Richard E. Byrd names the Horlick Mountains on the edge of the Ross Ice Shelf after William, in appreciation of his support. A small factory opens in Australia for the local market, including New Zealand.
• 1936: William Horlick died, aged ninety.
• 1945: The U.S. company is acquired by the British Horlicks business.
• 1952: Horlicks is linked to the successful treatment of gastric ulcers and some forms of diabetes.
• 1960: A factory is built in Punjab, India to make Horlicks from buffalo milk.
• 1968: Factory built in West Punjab, Pakistan to supply local demand (including East Pakistan, now Bangladesh).
• 1969: Horlicks acquired by the Beecham Group.
• 1975-1978: Factory construction and expansion in Andhra Pradesh.
• 1989: Beecham Group becomes SmithKline Beecham.
• 2001: SmithKline Beecham becomes GlaxoSmithKline.

In some countries, such as the Philippines, Horlicks was also sold as milky-chocolate-flavored disks in paper packets, which were then eaten as candy.

The product's name has entered the vernacular due to an advertising campaign in which the word "Horlicks" was used as a substitute profanity (such as, for example "bollocks"); given its original usage in this context however it conveys a much milder connotation than any actual curse.

The term was used in July 2003 by British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw ("a complete Horlicks") to describe irregularities in the preparation and provenance of a dossier regarding weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

See also

• Malted milk
  • Ovomaltine
  • Nestlé Milo

External link

• Horlicks company website (http://www.horlicks.co.uk/)
• What Do Brits Mean by "Horlicks"? (http://slate.msn.com/id/2085337/) by Brendan I. Koerner