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It has spawned global trademarks such as 7UP, Robinsons and J2O, but the Britvic story has very humble beginnings, from the centre of Essex's county town.

It all began at the back of a chemists in Tindall Street in the 1850, when the shop owner began creating and selling vitamin and tonic drinks to his customers.

The company's current General Manager of Production for the South Plant in Widford, Chris Spray, explains how the brand quickly developed.

"What he [Chapman] was able to do was provide a great source of Vitamin C for people, particularly during the war years and post-war years when getting hold of fresh juice was probably a problem.

"We have been on the site at Widford since 1954, when Mr Chapman built what was then an absolutely state-of-the-art production facility here in Chelmsford."

Nearly 60 years on and the 12-acre factory, situated on Westway, now develops, creates and bottles products which are recognisable all around the world.

On average they produce 800 bottles per minute, or 14 per second!

Although the juice is squeezed in its country of origin [mostly Israel, Florida and South America], all of the other processes are carried out on site, such as emulsification, heat treatment, bottling, capping and labelling. Even the bottles are made on site.

The evolution of existing drinks and development of potential new products also takes place on the Widford site, from the formulating of the drink through to packaging and marketing.

The clock tower dominates the Widford skyline

Nathan is one of the people who work in the lab: "It is basically like a big kitchen," he says. "You get a formulation from upstairs and we mix them up."

Much of the product tasting is undertaken by Britvic staff: "Every morning, if we're evaluating a new product there will be people sitting in there, about 40 tasters and they'll do different types of tasting.

"There'll put down the reason why they prefer one or the other and that's maybe how we'll take it forward. Other times we'll make up a load of samples and send them out to market research and get the general public to taste them."

Over the decades, the company has employed many hundreds of people from across the borough - many of whom are from the same family.

Britvic's products are known worldwide

"We have many sons and mothers, husbands and fathers working around the site and we have a real sense of community," explains Chris Spray.

"We've just said goodbye to one of our employees who was actually here from the opening of the factory. He was employed as a cabinet maker and came here just to make the wooden crates that the products went out in."

Janet Buckley is another long serving employee. As she explains, the Buckley family has had a long association with Britvic.

"I started working here in 1978 for six years, then left to have my children," she says. "My husband has worked here since he left school, also his brother and his mother.

"My son also works here now, he's been here for four years - we've also had aunties and uncles work here."

Janet says she feels a lot of pride towards the company.

"Just recently we've been over to Cyprus and out there in a supermarket I picked up a bottle which was actually produced on our line and it was our shift that had produced it," she explains.

"When you go to supermarkets you feel great pride in the product - it is a great place to work and I think we're all proud to work for Britvic."