Exclusive: Sweetdreams’ sets high sustainability bar at World Confectionery Conference
Among this year’s speakers at the World Confectionery Conference is Andy Baxendale, our editorial board member and ‘Sweet Consultant’ who serves as technical director to UK firm Sweetdreams Ltd, which as he explains, is having an extremely rewarding year
Q: Having been part of our founding online show, how are you feeling about the prospect of speaking at the live event? A: I think it’s a great honour to be asked to speak. I love my connection with Confectionery Production and I’m proud to represent Sweetdreams at the event. (you can still register for the conference on 5 October at www.confectioneryconference.com
Q: You’ve worked as technical director for the company for some years now, how has it expanded over time?
A: I started doing some consulting for the business in 2014, putting in some quality systems for them when Matthew Stephenson, the owner, decided to expand the business. I became technical director in 2017, and then we put the BRC (food safety standards) in, which enabled us to grow the customer base as we satisfied a lot of requirements then, so we installed panning for our own brand, Chocolate Nibbles, as well as being able to supply business to business customers too. More recently, we’ve installed a bar line, that has given us that additional capability and created a new chocolate series, Gozo (meaning joy), which we’re now launching. So it’s a good all-round offering that we are able to provide.
Q: How has the core Choc Nibbles brand carved out its niche?
They’ve been around now for about 30 years, and the growth in the past few years has been incredible – it was up around 70 per cent. It’s a very well known and respected brand, which even featured on TV yesterday on ITV’s Good Morning as ‘retro brand,’ which was nice to see. We’ve also made them in bar form as well now. That line is wrapped in paper, which looks very good and is sustainable, wood-based paper, and is compostable, which is something that’s on trend.
Q: What are your hopes for the new Gozo (meaning joy) brand of premium chocolate? A: I think it’s going to make a lot of difference to the business, as there’s quite a story to tell from the ethical side of it in our sourcing partnership with Colombia’s Luker Chocolate. We are aiming for a simple and natural offering with these bars, and we’re introducing them as part of a series of six – three milk, two dark and a vegan bar as well. They’re all really nice, and the initial reaction to them has been very good.
Q: Having been in the industry for nearly 30 years now, what keeps you passionate about it the business? A: It’s been 29 years in the industry now – It’s the development work that keeps me passionate. I can do all the technical work, but it’s making new things that floats my boat, in seeing people eat and enjoy what you’ve made, which is the best thing ever. That’s not so much the case if people don’t like something, but that doesn’t happen that often!
For example, we’ve seen a great reaction to the flavoured versions of our Choc Nibbles, which have just flown out the door, and I’ve enjoyed working on the Gozo bars, and sourcing the ingredients for that, including freeze-dried raspberries, and salted caramel crisp, and fruit and nuts, which were all very natural. It’s a sustainable, ethical product which was very satisfying to work on.
Q: What drew you to the industry in the first place?
A: It was a total accident that I ended up in confectionery – I was just looking for a job and managed to get a role at the laboratory at the Chewits sweets factory in 1994, and I’ve never left the industry since.
It enabled me to get a masters degree from there, so I have loved it, and am never going to change, and will never do anything else. I think sweets and chocolate are in my blood now.
Q: We have seen many changes in trends over the decades. What’s been the biggest?
A: The one at the moment has to be vegan products, and maybe free-from, but it’s vegan that is really driving the market. Sustainability, and the ethical side of chocolate is also very important as well, that is making the headlines too. That’s not going to be going away – and companies are talking a lot about what they are doing in that respect and rightly so. I think Luker Chocolate in particular has a fantastic model for the way it treats its farmers
Q: Is there such a thing as a typical day for you? A: Every day is different – first thing in the morning, I could be talking to customers to see if they have any issues or queries, making something new in the pans, or something flavour-wise, or looking at our bar line. We have our BRC coming up soon, which takes a lot of work, but there’s a lot of variety, which is a good thing. We are a very small team, everyone is hands on here, which is a good.
Q: What are the sternest challenges facing the business right now?
A: Cost is impacting, as well as HFSS – it’s a great idea, but it is being used to penalise manufacturers using a big stick approach. I actually thought it had gone away, and but it’s back almost under the radar. This is causing us a few issues, but we can do it, but it is a challenge to deal with – costs have increased with chocolate being at its highest price for 20 years, so we will have to see where that goes.
Q: How are things shaping up for the business moving forward?
A: Things in general are going well for us, with sales of Nibbles continuing to increase. We’re looking forward to fully launching our Gozo series to see that gain some traction. So, it’s happy days for us.