![]() Entrance to Mackie's farm in Westertown | |
Mackie's of Scotland | |
Formerly | Mackies Aberdeen Dairy Company Limited (1954–1995) [1] |
Company type | Private |
Industry | |
Headquarters | Rothienorman, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, UK |
Revenue | ![]() |
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Mackie's Limited, trading as Mackie's of Scotland, is a Scottish ice cream and confectionery manufacturer based in Rothienorman, Aberdeenshire, Scotland. [3] It was founded in 1912 [4] as a dairy farm but diversified into the manufacture of ice cream in 1986, before selling the milk retail business to Robert Wiseman during 1997. [5]
In 2009 a partnership was formed with a Tayside potato farming family, the Taylors, to produce crisps, marketed under the name of Mackie's at Taypack. [6] In 2022, the Taylor family purchased Mackie's shares in the crisp business. [7] The manufacture of chocolate on the Mackie farm in Aberdeenshire began in 2014. [6]
Mackie's of Scotland makes all of its ice cream on the family farm in Aberdeenshire using fresh, whole milk. [8] The farm holds 330 cows and produces over 10 million litres of ice cream a year. [3] A range of flavours are available in the Classic range, including: Traditional, Honeycomb, Chocolate, Organic and Raspberry Ripple. In the Indulgent range are: Salted Caramel, Madagascan Vanilla and Chocolate Orange & Honeycomb. [9] Mackie's first began ice cream production in 1986. [10]
Mackie's of Scotland is best known for its Traditional flavour ice cream, which is Scotland's best selling ice cream. [11]
Mackie's of Scotland has been manufacturing chocolate on the farm since 2014, producing five flavours inspired by the flavours of its ice cream range: Traditional, Honeycomb, Orange, Dark and Mint. [12]
Mackie's of Scotland was an early adopter of renewable energy, installing its first 850kW turbine in 2005, having first trialled the idea with a smaller grid-connected turbine as far back as 1983. [13] The firm produces more than twice as much energy as it uses, feeding the excess energy back to the UK grid. [14] The farm's main source of renewable energy is wind, with four wind turbines and a total capacity of 3 MW. Annually, the wind turbines generate 8570 MWh on average, which is roughly equivalent to the amount of energy required to power over 2000 UK homes. [14]
The farm has a 10-acre site of solar panels with a capacity of 1.8 MW, a smaller array of solar panels on the byre roof and a biomass plant which produces a further 400 kW of heating power for the farm's office and houses. [15] The solar panels help to complement the wind energy harvested by the farm, particularly in the sunnier summer months of the year when it is less windy. [14]
Between 2021 and 2022, Mackie's of Scotland installed a low-carbon refrigeration system which uses the heat from a biomass boiler to be help freeze the ice cream made on site. [14] The new system will use biomass heat and ammonia, a natural refrigerant gas with no climate warming threat to cool the ice cream.[ citation needed ]
In 2017, the company opened its first ice cream parlour, Mackies 19.2, in Marischal Square, Aberdeen. [16] The parlour is named for being located 19.2 miles from the family farm.