RETRO SWEET SALES SOAR
Due to an increased appetite for retro treats, Simpkins, the UK’s first travel sweet tin manufacturer, has seen a huge increase in the sales of its established ranges of hard-boiled flavoured sweets, Nipits liquorice pellets, lozenges and sugar-free mints.
Simpkins has also introduced an online shop in August last year. This increased sales from August to December 2009 by 45% compared to the first half of the year, and overall monthly sales for 2010 have increased 100% compared with 2008.
Simpkins Managing Director Adrian Simpkin says: “People feel very nostalgic about confectionery, reminding them of happy times during their childhood. The increased popularity of retro sweets may be due to the recession making people reminisce about the past, and treating themselves with their favourite confections.
“Our online shop means that a wider range of customers can access our products. We have also spent time putting a modern twist on our original 1920s packaging, as well as creating new ranges for younger consumers who are too young to be nostalgic!”
Confectionery in Britain has developed throughout the decades, with the introduction of boiled sweets in the 1920s, pioneered by Simpkins, a taste for sherbet in the 1950s, chewy sweets favoured in the 1960s and 1970s, and ‘pick and mix’ popular in the 1980’s.
Adrian continues: “All the major supermarkets have cashed in on the retro sweets trend, producing old favourites such as Black Jacks, Mint Imperials and Flying Saucers. However, only traditional manufacturers like Simpkins, who follow the same recipes and methods used in the 1920s, can make the sweets taste exactly like they did all those years ago.”
As well as through the website www.traditionalsweets.com, Simpkins sweets are available in Yorkshire branches of Tesco, nationwide health stores, pharmacies, and independent retailers such as Harrods.
Simpkins, the only travel tin sweets manufacturer based in the UK, is a travel sweets company which boasts both innovative and traditional values.
Established in 1921 by Leslie Simpkin, the company is currently headed by his grandchildren Adrian and Karen Simpkin and is still based at its original Hillsborough factory in Sheffield, where the same ingredients, machinery, copper pans and recipes are used.
The concept for the sweets emerged when Leslie, nursed to health with glucose liquid after his WWI service, realised that glucose was not available in a solid form. He decided to produce high quality glucose confections using natural flavours and colours and was manufacturing sugar-free sweets forty years before his competitors.
The sweets were taken by Sir Edmund Hilary on his Everest quest, eaten at high altitude by pilots in WWII and presented to the pilot of the maiden transatlantic Concorde flight in the 1970s.
Simpkins exports to over 40 countries, but the UK is still its biggest market. They are stocked in Yorkshire branches of Tesco, delis, health stores, pharmacies, stately homes, airports and train stations.
The company prides itself on its innovative ranges of sweets, liquorice and lozenges, many of which have recently had packaging redesigns.
Ranges include:
- Dr Stuarts Active Botanical travel sweets, which won the “Best British New Product” award at the prestigious International Sweets Fair in Cologne.
- Nipits, which contains little pellets of liquorice. The new packaging is based on the original 1920s design.
- Cute & Kissable range of sugar-free mints, with a retro design and secret mirror for the fashion-conscious. Males are encouraged to “check collars for lipstick” with the mirrors in their blue After Beer Mint tins.
- Fairtrade range, using sugar from the Kasinthula Cane growers (KCG) smallholders project in South Malawi.
-Air, Land and Sea travel sweets range, which include natural botanical oils to help alleviate travel sickness.
- Seriously Sour, sweets which pack a punch. Upload your gurning face to the website and get the chance to feature on the next tin www.sourface.co.uk
- Olde Miners Lozenges, formulated in 1923, they incorporate natural extract of beechwood, renowned for its soothing properties to the nose and throat. It is prescribed by ear, nose and throat specialists throughout the UK, especially by the Harley Street medical division in London. The product was also used by the D’Oly Cart Operatic Group and other international singers for its soothing properties and unique taste.
Simpkins is a member of deliciouslyorkshire, the campaigning brand for the Regional Food Group for Yorkshire and Humber.
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