H.P Bulmers is a cider brewing company founded in 1887 in Hereford Engl&. The found was Percy Bulmer who took his mothers advice of getting into the food & drinks industry because they never go out of fashion. The company's two main brands are Bulmers cider & Strongbow. Percy Bulmer started the company by using apples from the orchard at his fathers rectory & an old stone press on the farm next door. Bulmers made the first cider this way & it turned into a multi million pound global companies. In 1887 Percy's elder brother Fred cam back from king college in Cambridge to work with Percy on his cider adventure. By taking out a £1, 760 loan from their father, the boys bought 8acres of land outside the city & build their first cider mill. It was little more than a barn compared to the 75 acre computerised cider making factory that they now own. In those days cider making was hit or miss, with the natural fermentation process being achieved by apple yeast occurring naturally in the apples. Fred's college friend Dr. Herbert Durham provided the innovative way to create a consistent batch of cider. He decided to introduce a wild yeast to the apples to create the first pure cider yeast culture, which would ensure the fermentations were consistent. This was the beginning of commercial cider making. It wasn't until 1911 when Bulmers were granted the royal warrant of official cider maker to her majesty the queen, & they still are to this date. The company was independent until 2003, when financial problems forced them to be taken over by brewing giants Scottish & Newcastle, which in turn were taken over by Heineken & Carlsberg in 2008. It company in Australia & New Zealand were taken over by Foster.