In 1831, Carr formed a small bakery and biscuit factory in the English city of Carlisle in Cumberland; he received a royal warrant in 1841.

[2] Carr's business was both a mill and a bakery, an early example of vertical integration, and produced bread by night and biscuits by day.

[3] They could be kept crisp and fresh in tins, and despite their fragility could easily be transported to other parts of the country by canal and railway.

He was decorated for repeated escape attempts from Italian and German prisoner-of-war camps in the Second World War.

[10] However, that same month United Biscuits announced that the factory in Caldewgate, Carlisle, had experienced five feet (over 150 cm) of floodwater on 6 December 2015, which damaged the brick ovens and would result in product shortages on retail shelves.

[10][11] After closure of the works for a month to repair and clear flood damage, production and distribution gradually resumed in spring 2016.