Overview of Andrew Greig Barr

Father of Irn Bru. Born in Falkirk, Barr was educated at the High School there and at Daniel Stewart's College in Edinburgh. Barr began a career in banking. However, his father, Robert, started production of aerated water and lemonade in Falkirk in 1880. In 1887, his elder brother Robert Fulton Barr, began an offshoot of this fizzy drinks business in Parkhead (Glasgow). By 1892 this new venture was so successful that Andrew resigned from his bank and joined the company. Taking charge, he rapidly developed the business and, in 1901, introduced his coup-de-gras Iron-Brew (or later Irn Bru).

This almost-legendary drink, with its equally famous advertising slogan "made in Scotland from girders", was made to Barr's own secret recipe and has subsequently held its own against competition from the American multi-nationals Coca-Cola and PepsiCo.

Barr married at Dollar in 1903, but took ill and died just weeks later, aged only 31.

A.G. Barr and Co. Ltd. became a publicly-listed company in 1965. Today Barr's are the largest British-based manufacturer of soft drinks, although Irn Bru is almost unknown outside Scotland, where it is known as "Scotland's other national drink". They remain headquartered in Glasgow, with production plants in Cumbernauld, Pitcox, together with Mansfield and Atherton in England.