Heading to Derbyshire to escape the Blitz proves a very sweet move!

Swizzels-Love-Hearts

It is 80 years since the maker of Rainbow Drops and Love Hearts moved to Derbyshire to escape the London Blitz – and it’s still going strong. Steve Brown reports.

Part of the Swizzels Matlock factory at New Mills, backing onto the Peak Forest Canal

MANY readers might be surprised to know that the largest independent, British-owned sugar confectionery business in the UK, which is also still family-owned, is located here in Derbyshire in the shadow of Kinder Scout. On a sloping site in New Mills, between the Peak Forest Canal and the former Midland Railway line between Manchester and Sheffield, located in a former Victorian textile mill, is Swizzels Matlow, the maker of such well-known sweet treats as Love Hearts, Parma Violets, Drumsticks and Fizzers. Yet why are they here? And what’s the secret of their success with some of the longest-running brands, so fondly remembered by so many?…