Equipment investment sees Bristows of Devon gain key safety rating
Major investment and renovation work at UK confectionery business Bristows of Devon has seen it gain a BRC A-rating for the food safety standards of its facilities.
As the company revealed, having installed new equipment at its production site, it is now producing boiled sweets again, which are exported to a total of 32 countries.
In addition, the business is developing ranges of toffee, fudge and honeycomb inclusions for ice cream and cakes.
The company is also welcoming master confectioner Andy James back to the business as factory manager, who has over over 25 years of confectionery making experience. This has included managing the firm’ Pollards brand site.
Company chairman, Frank Bristow said the business is enjoying reviving the production of sweets made using traditional recipes, some of which are over 100 years old.
He said: “At the moment we’re all about cut and wrap fudge made with local clotted cream to cater for demand from visitors to the British seaside and tourist hot spots and the scent of hot vanilla wafting from the factory certainly has me feeling nostalgic.”
The company has also completed a new website for the business, www.bristowsofdevon.com, which includes details of its full range, including 36 flavours of sweets.
Its series of confectionery features bulk jars and bags, classic Tuckers brand bags of sweets, as its traditional chewy bonbons that have become one of its key ranges. This latter series has now been expanded with bold additional flavours include blue raspberry sours, bubblegum, rhubarb and custard and strawberry milkshake.
Managing director Robert Whittleston explained the company has seen increased interest from both domestic UK markets and overseas customers including the US.
He said: “The energy, enthusiasm and creativity of our workforce is just incredible. Everyone is pulling together to ensure that this is a business that really packs a punch and with all the new equipment in place and investment in the fabric of the building we have everything we need to produce great products for our customers and grow our brands.”
