Under their management the business made major changes. In 1878 they built a large shop at the corner of Wakefield Street and Divett Place. With continuing success they expanded the factory, and bought the Goode and Durrant warehouse in Divett Place and the Wheelwright’s Arms Hotel in Roper Street. In the 1880s the business moved into the biscuit trade and closed the grocery section.
By the 1890s the firm was operating as W. Menz & Co., which became a limited company in 1919. This became a public company in 1951 and by 1979 was part of Arnott-Motteram-Menz.
In time Menz became a household name in South Australia. The family business and the company were associated with the Wakefield Street premises for more than a century. All biscuit production was transferred to premises at Marleston in 1953, followed by the offices, then the remaining operations by 1979.
Of architectural as well as historical significance are the two-storey Italianate block extending along Wakefield Street from Divett Place to Roper Street, and the original section at the western corner, which dates from 1878. Major additions were made by architects F.W. Dancker in 1911-12 and McMichael and Harris in 1946.
The complex includes a chimney at the rear that emphasises its important industrial role and reflects the city’s pre-eminence as an industrial centre in the 19th and early 20th centuries. An engraving by S. Calvert dated 1876 reveals more than 30 such chimneys in Adelaide. Now there are only three.
The factory interior has been frequently altered, once after a large section was gutted by fire. Conversion and adaption have restored the original shopfront and balconettes on the Wakefield Street/Divett Place corner.
Despite the construction of much larger public buildings nearby during the 1970s, the Menz Biscuit Factory and the Wakefield Hotel provide a valid reminder of Wakefield Street's nineteenth century scale of development.
