Have you ever wondered where all your favourite pick ‘n’ mix and other sweet treats come from?
Chances are they’ve come via Hancocks, which is the largest specialist confectionery wholesaler in the UK.
The company, which opened its Glasgow depot in 1997, is celebrating its 60th birthday this year and The Glasgow Times was invited along to its site in Blochairn.
Stocked to the brim with everything from well-known chocolate brands and traditional favourites to every flavour of lollipop imaginable, the location is a one-stop-shop for many specialist sweet shops, convenience stores, bakers, and leisure outlets across Glasgow and beyond.
Walking up and down the aisles, store manager Kerr McLaren explained: "Pick ‘n’ mix is our bread and butter.
"We’ve got our own brand, with about 80 to 90 lines, and it’s our best performing aisle in the store.
"It’s what the company built its name on to a certain extent."
Kerr, who has been store manager since October 2020, says it's in these aisles that you can find his personal favourites.
He said: "I like my sweets.
"My favourites are various lines from our pick ‘n’ mix range.
"The quality of our pick ‘n’ mix is excellent even compared to other well-known brands. My favourites are fizzy watermelons or fizzy dummies."
As the only Hancocks depot in Scotland, last year the store created an aisle dedicated to Scottish sweetie suppliers, as well as another dedicated to American candy brands.
Kerr said: "We are the biggest wholesaler of American goods.
"We’ve got loads of contracts and we’re tied into manufacturers so we’re the first port of call in the UK.
"We created this last year and it’s been pretty big for us as more and more American products are flooding the market now.
"As a company, if you were to see American products in Tesco, Morrisons, it comes from us, likewise even brands like TK Maxx, Primark, we generally service them."
Further dedicated aisles include a desert aisle that stocks every imaginable accompaniment for ice cream, an aisle for kids’ novelty sweets and a seasonal one which will be flipping to Christmas stock around the end of August.
To celebrate its 60-year history, the company is holding a special event at a different depot each month.
The Glasgow store held its event last month, which Kerr said "couldn’t have gone any smoother".
He said: "We got in touch with a lot of our customers alerting them it was one day only, and it was the best deal they’ll probably ever get, particularly with all the price increases that keep happening right now.
"We had prizes, we had the store dressed up, we had cakes made and various other things.
"We just tried to make it a really fun day and bring back some older customers who maybe haven’t been in for a while and things like that and re-engage.
"It couldn’t have gone any smoother and nobody was queuing for more than 10 minutes at any point. The car park was full up at all times and it was great.”
"It was a great day, staff enjoyed it and I think all customers left happy."
Hancocks was set up in the Midlands in 1962 by Ray Hancocks and his wife Elizabeth and now has 14 depots across the UK.
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