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Company type | Confectionery Manufacturer |
---|---|
Founded | 1927 |
Defunct | 2012 (Brand and products still produced by Valeo Confectionery) |
Headquarters | Letterkenny, County Donegal, Ireland |
Area served | Worldwide |
Products | Confectionery |
Number of employees | 95 (peak) |
Parent | Zed Candy Ltd. |
Oatfield was a chocolate and confectionery manufacturer located in Letterkenny, County Donegal, Ireland. The company was the oldest confectionery manufacturer in Ireland.[ when? ]
The business began as a wholesale and retail outlet on the Port Road in the town. The McKinney family began to make their own sweets, and on 15 August 1927, the first sweets were made on an open coke fire in a shed at the back of the shop. The land on which the factory stood was purchased in November 1929, the first sod was cut in February 1930. Six people were employed at the time.
The company at the time was known as Mayfield Confectionery but the name was changed soon afterwards as another company in Manchester traded by this name. The company name was changed to Oatfield. The land on which the factory was built was known as Oatfield. The May was dropped and Oat was substituted and hence the name "Oatfield". The weekly production of confectionery was about 3 tons. Today the company produces approximately 65 tons a week.[ citation needed ]
Sugar was purchased in the 1930s from Tate & Lyle. Glucose came from Manchester. They were delivered by ship and rail via Derry to Letterkenny railway station. Later, glucose was shipped from the Netherlands to the Letterkenny Port. In later years, only Irish sugar and Irish glucose were used. Butter had always been Irish Creamery Butter.
By 1960, Oatfield decided to stop marketing packed sweets made by Cadbury's, Rowntree, Urney's Chocolates, Bassetts Licorice Allsorts, Jacobs Biscuits, William and Wood, Ritchies Mints and Milroy Confectionery and focus entirely on selling Oatfield sweets. This was a major decision and proved a major success for the company. Exporting began in August 1964. The first sweets were 'exported' to Northern Ireland. At the peak of the company's popularity, the sweets were exported worldwide to countries including the United States, Canada, Hong Kong, Australia, Kuwait, Greece and France.
Donegal Creameries PLC purchased the company in February 1999 for £783,750. [1] [2] In 2007, Zed Candy—an Irish confectionery company famous for its Chewing Gum—bought the brand from Donegal Creameries. [3]
Up until closure, the factory employed approximately 15 people and up to 65 tonnes of sugar and chocolate confectionery were produced each week. The main production lines were Emerald, Toffees, Eclairs, Boiled sweets. The biggest sellers were Emerald, Colleen Assortment and Orange Chocolate.
The factory was closed by the current operators, Zed Candy, on 27 May 2012. [4] Production was soon after moved to the UK. In May 2014 the factory was demolished. [5] Since then, the Oatfield brand and all its products continue to be manufactured by Valeo Foods and are still sold across Ireland.
Confectionery is the art of making confections, or sweet foods. Confections are items that are rich in sugar and carbohydrates although exact definitions are difficult. In general, however, confections are divided into two broad and somewhat overlapping categories: bakers' confections and sugar confections.
Caramel is an orange-brown confectionery product made by heating a range of sugars. It is used as a flavoring in puddings and desserts, as a filling in bonbons or candy bars, or as a topping for ice cream and custard.
The Heath bar is a candy bar made of toffee, almonds, and milk chocolate, first manufactured by the Heath Brothers Confectionery in 1928. The Heath bar has been manufactured and distributed by Hershey since its acquisition of the Leaf International North American confectionery operations late in 1996.
Fudge is a type of confection that is made by mixing sugar, butter and milk. It has its origins in the 19th century United States, and was popular in the women's colleges of the time. Fudge can come in a variety of flavorings depending on the region or country it was made; popular flavors include fruit, nut, chocolate and caramel. Fudge is often bought as a gift from a gift shop in tourist areas and attractions.
Crunchie is a brand of chocolate bar with a centre of honeycomb toffee. It is made by Cadbury but was originally launched in the UK by J. S. Fry & Sons in 1929.
Sugar candy is any candy whose primary ingredient is sugar. The main types of sugar candies are hard candies, fondants, caramels, jellies, and nougats. In British English, this broad category of sugar candies is called sweets, and the name candy or sugar-candy is used only for hard candies that are nearly solid sugar.
Maltesers are a British confectionery product manufactured by Mars Inc. First sold in the UK in 1937, they were originally aimed at women. They have since been sold in Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, United States and Middle East. The slogan is "The lighter way to enjoy chocolate".
Parma Violets are a British violet-flavoured tablet confectionery manufactured by the Derbyshire company Swizzels Matlow, named after the Parma violet variety of the flower. The sweets are hard, biconcave disc-shaped sweets, similar to the Fizzers product from the same company but without their fizziness. Swizzels Matlow have also released a line of Giant Parma Violets.
Quality Street is a line of tinned and boxed toffees, chocolates and sweets, first manufactured in 1936 by Mackintosh's in Halifax, West Yorkshire, England. It was named after J. M. Barrie's play Quality Street. Since 1988, the confectionery has been produced by Nestlé. Quality Street has long been a competitor to Cadbury Roses, which were launched by Cadbury in 1938. Nestlé does not distribute Quality Street in the US, but it may be ordered online for delivery, or found in specialty candy shops.
Kendal Mint Cake is a sugar-based confection flavoured with peppermint. It originates from Kendal in Cumbria, England. Kendal Mint Cake is popular among climbers and mountaineers, especially those from the United Kingdom, as a source of energy.
Elizabeth Shaw Ltd is a Bristol-based company owned by Colian Holding that markets chocolate-based confectionery, including the brands Famous Names liqueur chocolates and Elizabeth Shaw Mint chocolates. The modern company was formed from several mergers of well established confectionery companies, first by J A & P Holland and then by James Goldsmith in the 1960s as part of his creation of his food conglomerate Cavenham Foods.
Ballyraine is a district of Letterkenny, County Donegal, Ireland, located in the parish of Aughaninshin. Ballyraine Linear Park is found here. Ballyraine National School, a co-educational primary school which is under joint management of the Church of Ireland and Presbyterian Church, is also located in the area.
Needler's was a sweet manufacturer based in Kingston upon Hull, England. The company was founded in the 19th century and sold to Hillsdown Holdings in 1986.
A hard candy, or boiled sweet, is a sugar candy prepared from one or more sugar-based syrups that is heated to a temperature of 160 °C (320 °F) to make candy. Among the many hard candy varieties are stick candy such as the candy cane, lollipops, rock, aniseed twists, and bêtises de Cambrai. "Boiled" is a misnomer, as sucrose melts fully at approximately 186 °C. Further heating breaks it into glucose and fructose molecules before it can vaporize.
K.C. Confectionery Limited is one of the largest confectioners in the Caribbean region. Founded in 1922 by Ibrahim Khan as a cottage industry and developed as a factory in 1957, but it was fully automated in the early 1990s. Today 65% of the goods are exported. The main Foreign Markets of this company are targeted in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Dominican Republic, Dominica, Grenada and Carriacou, Guyana, St Kitts and Nevis, Anguilla, St Lucia, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Jamaica, Suriname, British Virgin Islands, Curacao, Aruba and Guadeloupe.
The Oatfield Emerald is a type of chocolate toffee sweet native to Ireland and is considered one of the country's most popular sweets and one of the "iconic names of the Irish sweet world".