Lees of Scotland

Lees Foods Limited, commonly known as Lees of Scotland, is a manufacturer of branded confectionery and meringues in Coatbridge, North Lanarkshire, Scotland.

Lees Foods Limited
IndustryConfectionery
Founded1931 in Coatbridge, North Lanarkshire, Scotland
FounderJohn Justice Lees
Headquarters
Coatbridge
,
Scotland
Area served
United Kingdom
ProductsMeringues, snowballs, teacakes and confectionery bars
Number of employees
200 (2017)
Websitewww.leesofscotland.co.uk

History

The company was founded in 1931 by John Justice Lees, the son of a grocer on Newland Street in Coatbridge.[1][2] Lees had been attempting to create a smooth chocolate fondant bar in a workshop above the family shop in Newlands Street. Although unsuccessful, he attempted to coat the bar in coconut as an experiment, leading to the recipe for the Lees Macaroon bar.[2]

The original products manufactured by Lees are the Lees Macaroon bar and the Lees Snowball.[3] The company subsequently added other products, later adding tablet, fudge and coconut ice bars.[4][5]

In 1982, Lees set up Heather Cameron Foods, expanding the company to manufacture meringues. Lees bought out the company seven years later, becoming the outright owner. The company suffered losses during the 1980s, and was sold to Fine Foods in 1991. Two years later, it regained independent ownership.[2]

Operations

Lees ran two factories based in Coatbridge, one making Heather Cameron meringues and the other snowballs, teacakes and confectionery bars. In August 1998, the company moved into a 82,000 square feet (7,600 m2) premises which catered for the entire company's product range. The factory employs around 200 people around Coatbridge, and reported a £26.4m turnover in 2017.[6] It houses nine separate production lines, and uses cloud computing technology to operate a just-in-time supply system.[7] The company makes 80% of its sales in Scotland, as the rest of the United Kingdom is less familiar with tablet or macaroon.[2]

The company slogan is "Lees, Lees, more if you please".[8]

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References
  1. "More of the same please, for Lees". Daily Record. 21 July 2010. Retrieved 29 April 2019.
  2. Northrop, Alasdair (November 16, 2011). "THE BIG PROFILE – CLIVE MIQUEL, LEES FOODS: Sweet supremo generates tasty profits". Business Insider.
  3. MacLennan, Chris. "Will of successful Scottish sweets company director revealed".
  4. "Lees of Scotland". Scottish Retro Sweets. Retrieved 29 April 2019.
  5. "New designs for Lees Confectionery Bars". Talking Retail. 25 November 2014. Retrieved 29 April 2019.
  6. Northrop, Alasdair (July 28, 2017). "Insider Big Profile Blast from the Past: Clive Miquel, chief executive of Lees Foods". Business Insider.
  7. "Processing innovation : Confectionery and meringue specialist turns to cloud technology to improve productivity". Confectionery News. 16 October 2018. Retrieved 1 May 2019.
  8. Symon, Ken (September 10, 2018). "See who has topped the tenth annual Insider SME300". Business Insider.
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