History
Its most commercially successful period was probably during the 1970s when a vast range of ice-lollies were sold. This range often had tie-ins to well-known characters from TV and film and included free gifts. It often involved inventive wrapper designs, and cartoon strips were also launched.
Examples include a tie-in with Space: 1999 with free cards of episodes inside the wrapper, Star Wars with free masks of major characters and film facts on the wrappers, The Six Million Dollar Man TV series, Superman and even a Goal lolly with lolly sticks containing famous footballers of the day.
The Lyons Maid brand logo, sometimes known as the 'Good Time Sign' but more generally referred to in house as the 'Dancing Children' was initially developed by advertising agency Young & Rubicam to identify the brand in sweet shops and later on packaging and on ice cream vans but was eventually phased in across the whole product range where it continued to be used on branding and shop signage until Lyons Maid was sold to Nestlé in 1992. At that time, Nestlé combined its standard international blue-and-white ice cream logo with the Lyons Maid logotype and the three dancing children from the Good Time Sign until 1998, when the Lyons Maid brand was dropped in favour of a standardised Nestlé ice cream logo.
Lyons Maid's chief rival was Wall's ice cream now owned by Unilever.
In 2008, Lyons Maid was revived when R&R Ice Cream decided to restore the brand. Charlotte Hambling, senior marketing manager of R&R, stated at the time: "By bringing back the Lyons Maid brand to family dinner tables across the country, we will be tapping into the great nostalgia the brand enjoys, as well as the strong consumer heritage and high levels of consumer awareness and trust within the brand. With our new Lyons Maid products, we are taking advantage of these factors and introducing a range of family favourites, as well as re-establishing the brand". [2]
Dolly Madison is an American bakery brand owned by Hostess Brands, selling packaged baked snack foods. It is best known for its long marketing association with the Peanuts animated TV specials.
Baskin-Robbins is an American multinational chain of ice cream and cake specialty shops owned by Inspire Brands. Baskin-Robbins was founded in 1945 by Burt Baskin and Irv Robbins in Glendale, California. Its headquarters are in Canton, Massachusetts, and shared with sibling brand Dunkin' Donuts. It is the world's largest chain of ice cream specialty stores, with more than 8,000 locations.
Kit Kat is a chocolate-covered wafer bar confection created by Rowntree's of York, England. It is produced globally by Nestlé, except in the United States, where it is made under licence by the H. B. Reese Candy Company, a division of the Hershey Company.
Häagen-Dazs is an American ice cream brand, established by Reuben and Rose Mattus in the Bronx, New York, in 1960. Starting with only three flavors: vanilla, chocolate, and coffee, the company opened its first retail store in Brooklyn, New York, on November 15, 1976. The Pillsbury food conglomerate bought Häagen-Dazs in 1983, and now the brand is sold worldwide, as cartons, ice cream bars, ice cream cakes, sorbet, frozen yogurt, and gelato.
Cadbury Dairy Milk is a British brand of milk chocolate manufactured by Cadbury. It was introduced in the United Kingdom in June 1905 and now consists of a number of products. Every product in the Dairy Milk line is made with exclusively milk chocolate. In 1928, Cadbury's introduced the "glass and a half" slogan to accompany the Dairy Milk chocolate bar, to advertise the bar's higher milk content.
Butterfinger is a candy bar manufactured by the Ferrara Candy Company, a subsidiary of Ferrero. It consists of a layered crisp peanut butter core covered in a "chocolatey" coating. It was invented by Otto Schnering of the Curtiss Candy Company in 1923. A popularity contest chose the name.
Aero is an aerated chocolate bar manufactured by the Vevey-based company Nestlé. Originally produced by Rowntree's, Aero bars were introduced in 1935 to the North of England as the "new chocolate". By the end of that year, it had proved sufficiently popular with consumers that sales were extended throughout the United Kingdom.
Dreyer's Grand Ice Cream, Inc. ("Dreyer's"), is an American ice cream company, founded in 1928 in Oakland, California. The company's two signature brands, Dreyer's Grand Ice Cream and Edy's Grand Ice Cream, are named after its founders, William Dreyer and Joseph Edy. The Dreyer's brand is sold in the Western United States and Texas, while the Edy's brand is sold in the Eastern and Midwestern United States.
Dove is an American brand of chocolate owned and manufactured by Mars. Dove produces a wide range of chocolate candies, as well as other chocolate products such as milks, cakes and ice creams.
Wall's is an ice cream and frozen dessert brand in the United Kingdom owned by Unilever and is part of the Heartbrand global frozen dessert brand.
Froneri is a global ice cream manufacturer with its headquarters in Leeming Bar, North Yorkshire, England. It is the largest producer of ice cream in Europe by volume, and the second-largest in the world, after Unilever.
Fab is an ice cream brand made by Nestlé. Both the ice lolly on a stick brands 'Zoom' and 'FAB', were introduced in United Kingdom by J. Lyons & Co. Ltd., and were brought out in order to take advantage of the popularity of Gerry Anderson's television series Fireball XL5 and Thunderbirds.
Mövenpick Ice Cream is a brand of ice cream of Swiss origin produced initially by Nestlé. Since 2016, Froneri - a joint venture between Nestlé and R&R Ice Cream - manufactures it.
Moro is the brand name of a caramel and nougat layered chocolate bar currently made by Cadbury and sold in Australia, New Zealand, and the Middle East. This type is similar to the Mars bar or American-style Milky Way bar.
Allen's, earlier A. W. Allen Limited, is an Australian brand of confectionery products produced by Nestlé. Allen's is the top brand of sugar confectionery in Australia. It is best known for Minties, a soft chewable mint-flavoured confectionery, and their varieties of 'Party Mix' lollies.
J. Lyons and Co., Greenford was a major food production factory located in Greenford, west London. Developed post World War I by J. Lyons and Co., it covered 63 acres (25 ha) at its height, and produced tea, coffee, grocery products and Lyons Maid ice cream. Ready Brek instant porridge breakfast cereal was developed at the site. After the merger of Lyons with Allied Bakeries in the 1980s, and the focus of the new Allied Domecq business to focus on spirits, with the sell off of the businesses associated with the factory, the need for the facility dwindled. Redeveloped from 1998, today it is known as Lyon Way Industrial Estate.
Nesquik is a brand of food products made by Swiss company Nestlé. In 1948, Nestlé launched a drink mix for chocolate-flavored milk called Nestlé Quik in the United States; this was released in Europe during the 1950s as Nesquik.
Frosty Paws, formerly Pet79 and Fido Freeze, is a brand of ice cream, specifically formulated and sold for dogs. It is produced by Nestlé, under their Nestlé Dreyer's Ice Cream Company ice cream unit, branded under the Purina brand name.
Pingviini is a Finnish brand of ice cream owned by Fronen Finland. Known for its logo featuring a penguin, Pingviini brand ice cream has been sold in Finland since the 1930s.
