Thorntons Chocolate Factory... Oct 2016

[YORBEX]

Following the take over of Cadburys by the food giant Kraft, Thorntons are now the largest independent chocolate manufacturer in the UK. In recent years, Thorntons have not had an easy time and many high street stores were closed in an effort to cut overheads.
Thorntons Belper or Castle factory was originally used by Rolls Royce to store aircraft engines during the war and in 1947 Thorntons took the site over and began to manufacture boiled sweets there. The company moved to the larger site in Alferton in 1999.​

 

[krela]

I didn't even know Thorntons made boiled sweets! Crazy that they're the biggest chocolate maker in the UK now.

 

[Dirus_Strictus]

I didn't even know Thorntons made boiled sweets! Crazy that they're the biggest chocolate maker in the UK now.

If you look at a decent history of the early family Company, it appears that in the 1920's Special Toffee and boiled sweets were a large proportion of the sales. Some of the on line histories seems to gloss over or emits these facts. Chocolate coated sweets first appeared in large quantities after 1921 - when they purchased their first 'enrobing' machine, before that all coating was done by hand. Brings a whole new meaning to 'sticky fingers'!

 

[mookster]

Wasn't most of this demolished a few years back?

 

[Potter]

That fire exit is a bit strange. I checked that Twitter handle, and it's protected.