Sheffield sweet makers enjoy bigger taste of success

A Sheffield family business that has been making and exporting sweets all over the world since 1921 has increased its turnover by 20% by modernising and refocusing the business.

A L Simpkin and Co Ltd’s core product is the round tin of travel sweets found in train stations, airports and pharmacies all over the country. Whereas the sweets themselves are familiar to many, the name ‘Simpkins’ is lesser known.

Until recently, the firm had been run on a strictly family-only basis, but in 2003 when John Simpkin started to cut back on his workload, his children, joint-managing directors Adrian and Karen Simpkin, decided to get an outsider’s point of view and brought in Business Link South Yorkshire adviser Ken Morgan to look at the business with a fresh pair of eyes.

Ken said: “The history locked behind those doors off Middlewood Road is just incredible. It’s amazing that the business has achieved so much, but so few in Sheffield have heard of it.”

The business was started by Adrian and Karen’s grandfather, Leslie Simpkin, when he returned from World War One. He was given liquid glucose to aid recovery from his shrapnel wounds, and it was then he decided to make and sell ‘High Grade’ glucose sweets. Advised by fellow Sheffield sweet-makers, the Bassett family, not to go into the highly competitive confectionery market, Leslie targeted Britain’s pharmacies instead, and within three years he had opened 10,000 accounts, covering 80% of chemists in the UK.

“Since then, Simpkins sweets have been eaten by fighter pilots in World War II, were taken by the pilots on Concorde’s maiden voyage and were the first sweets to reach the top of the world with Sir Edmund Hilary in 1953 when he conquered Everest,” said Adrian. “In fact, they’re still there – Hilary left a selection of Simpkins sweets at the top as a gift to the gods!”

In 2003, Karen and Adrian brought in Business Link South Yorkshire for help in focusing the aims of the business. “We were a victim of our own success in a way,” explained Adrian. “We were making too many different products, so Ken helped us decide where the focus should be. As a result, we have developed our UK market more and we now supply 95% of train stations and airports in the UK.”

Caroline Roney is the sales & marketing manager. “We have narrowed down the number of countries we export to and concentrate mainly on the USA, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa and, oddly enough, Mongolia, where our sweets are really popular. We have also expanded our range of sugar-free confectionery, launched a new product range to compliment the travel tins called ‘Tubs 2 Go’ and started selling on the website.”

Additionally, A L Simpkin has contracts with retailers at the top end of the market, supplying custom-branded tins to Harrods and Macy’s in New York. They also sell to the luxury car market, including Jaguar, Lexus and Audi. 

“Not long ago, Bentleys rang us up to check the dimensions of the tin, to make sure their cars’ glove boxes could fit the sweets in!” said Caroline. 

“Simpkins is such a fascinating company to work with,” said Ken Morgan. “The factory continues to use the traditional method of slow cooking in copper pans and the sweets are as high quality as they were back in 1921, as they’ve always insisted on using natural flavours and colours. But Adrian also recognises how important it is to constantly move with the times.”

Adrian added: “With the cost of manufacture going up in the UK, if we hadn’t have made these changes, we would have had to move production abroad. As it is, we are the only privately owned travel sweet manufacturers in the UK, and we remain committed to Sheffield, recently gaining the Made in Sheffield accreditation. Business Link’s help has ensured the future of the business, and we are constantly looking at further projects to help grow and secure the future of A L Simpkin.”