Rather like that of Vimto – to which it may or may not be related – the story of Tizer is full of contradictions. Especially if you read Wikipedia.
The self–styled "free encyclopedia that anyone can edit" describes Tizer as "the offspring of Vimto and Irn–Bru". It certainly seems to be related to Irn–Bru – as we shall see shortly – although I'm not sure what the connection to Vimto is.
It may lie somewhere in its origins. According to Wikipedia, Tizer "was launched in 1924 by Fred and Tom Pickup of Manchester." Wikipedia's only citation for this assertion is an article in The Herald (Scotland), dated 2007, which agrees with the names of the founders and the date, but doesn't mention Manchester.
Jumping on a bit, we find that the Tizer brand was bought in 1972 by A. G. Barr plc – producers of Irn–Bru. Their website tells us that "Tizer ... was started by the Pickup family in Bristol in 1907 and became a public company in 1936."
Barr's already had a connection with Tizer, which it seems was always part of the Barr's family. To find out how this came to be, we need to go back even further than 1907.
The history of the producers of Irn Bru goes back to 1830, when Robert Barr – the fourth son of a farming family from Beith in Ayrshire – started a cork cutting business in Falkirk. In 1875 his son, also called Robert, began producing and selling aerated waters – or fizzy soft drinks, as we would call them today. Twelve years later, the son of the second Robert Barr – known as Robert F. Barr – set up a separate business in Glasgow.
In 1892, Robert F. Barr decided to seek new challenges and moved to Ireland. His brother, Andrew Greig Barr, took over as sole proprietor of the Glasgow business, and the name on the labels became A. G. Barr & Co.
Iron Brew was launched in 1901, jointly by Robert Barr (Falkirk) and A. G. Barr (Glasgow). But just two years later, Andrew G. Barr tragically died, within three weeks of contracting Glanders Virus. He was just 31 years old. It was left to his younger brother, 24–year–old William Snodgrass Barr, to take over the management control of A. G. Barr & Co. (Glasgow).
And this is where the Pickups come in. (Remember them?) The Herald (in the article already cited) reported that the Pickup brothers (which is presumably what they were) were nephews of William Snodgrass Barr, which makes them the great–nephews of the second Robert Barr, who we can probably describe as the founder of the soft drinks firm. But it also makes them nephews of A. G. Barr himself (since he was William Snodgrass's brother).
According to The Herald, Barr's was moving out of its 120–year–old headquarters in Glasgow, to move to a new site in Cumbernauld (some 12 miles away, in North Lanarkshire). Chairman Robin Barr was clearing out his office "when he discovered the first Tizer recipe under a pile of old newspapers." If you believe that, I'm inclined to think, you'll believe anything; but the purpose of the Herald's report was that the company was "poised to relaunch [Tizer]" and promote it to a new generation.
The last six paragraphs have really just been background information. The important facts are what we established in paragraphs 3 and 4: that Tizer was created by Fred and Tom Pickup (who incidentally are related to the Barr family) – either in Bristol in 1907, or in Manchester in 1924.
© Haydn Thompson 2020