The advent of war put an end to the buoyant pre-war sales. Average annual sales plummeted to about £20,000. Anticipating war, the company had amassed a large stock of timber but, in October 1939, almost all of it was requisitioned by the government. In later years the Admiralty took over part of the stores on Millbank Street and the Ministry of Food took possession of another part of the premises for the storage of eggs. In 1941, incendiary bombs destroyed the original company offices. After five years of running the company from improvised offices, a new purpose-built office block was built in Millbank Street in 1950.