Nimble bread tv advert uk from the 70s.

Hovis is a UK brand of flour and bread, now owned by Premier Foods.

The word “Hovis” was invented by London student Herbert Grimes in a national competition set by S. Fitton & Sons Ltd to find a trading name for their bread, which used a patent flour that was rich in wheat germ. Grimes coined the word from the Latin phrase hominis vis – “the strength of man”.

The Hovis process was patented on 6 October 1887 by Richard “Stoney” Smith (1836-1900), and S. Fitton & Sons Ltd developed the brand, milling the flour and selling it along with Hovis branded baking tins to other bakers. They became Hovis Limited in 1918.

After a succession of mergers, Hovis eventually became part of Rank Hovis McDougall in 1962, now the quoted food conglomerate RHM, which also owns the Mother’s Pride and Nimble bread brands. The bread making division has been known as British Bakeries since 1955.

The Hovis part of the business still specialises in high wheatgerm wholemeal flour, the bread being baked independently.

In 1973, Hovis became lodged in the public imagination through an evocative television advertisement, “Boy on Bike” (a.k.a. “Boy on the Bike” and “Bike Ride”), directed by Ridley Scott though Collett Dickenson Pearce & Partners and featuring the slow movement of Antonín Dvořák’s Symphony No. 9 rearranged for brass. The ad was filmed on Gold Hill in Shaftesbury, Dorset. This advertisement was repeated on British television for a 10-day run in May 2006 to commemorate the firm’s 120th anniversary. The boy on the bike, Carl Barlow, then aged 13 became a firefighter in East Ham in 1979.

A horse born in 1986 was also given the name “Hovis” with the permission of the company for which its owner worked.

In July 2008 work commenced on filming a new Hovis TV commercial in the Liverpool 8 area, again directed by Ridley Scott.

Info taken from Wikipedia