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Video: Cross Gates ice cream firm guaranteed to make plenty of lolly
The credit crunch is biting; the whiff of recession is in the air – but one Cross Gates firm is guaranteed to be making a load of lolly this year.
R&R Ice Cream's factory in Cross Gates is gearing up for the 2008 ice cream season by launching 21 new products - including the UK's first Fairtrade ice lolly.
* Click here for latest news in Cross Gates, Colton, Temple Newsam and Whitkirk.
The lolly, which the factory is making for the Co-op, contains mangoes from Peru, bananas from Ecuador and pineapples from Costa Rica – all Fairtrade fruit.
Rachel Firby, new product development manager at the Manston Lane factory, said the Fairtrade certification process was very stringent, with a major focus on traceability, but the firm believed it would open up significant new business opportunities.
"Sales of Fairtrade products in 2007 were worth some 500m - a staggering 92 per cent increase over the previous year - and we believe this product will sell well."
The factory, under its former Treats identity, was saved from closure in the early 1990s following a YEP campaign.
During the past few years, successive owners have invested heavily in the production facilities.
Recent investment has included a 7m factory extension and a 6m upgrade which includes a production line capable of producing more than two million ice cream products a week.
The fastest line can fire out 27,000 lollies an hour.
While the company has widened its range to mitigate the traditional seasonality of the business - last year's poor summer got a frosty reception from its bosses - the advent of warmer weather still means a big step up in production.
Employee numbers have risen, with around 100 seasonal workers now joining the payroll for the spring and summer, bringing the total workforce up to around 360.
Britain's top lolly - the FAB - is made at Cross Gates as well as the massive selling Fruit Pastil-Lolly.
Other new products to be launched this summer season include two
Thorntons-branded products made with Belgian chocolate and double cream; a Ribena smoothie; a super-size Munchies bar and a bubble gum flavoured lolly under the Treats brand.
The site also produces some of R&R's Skinny Cow range - the leading brand in the healthy ice cream sector.
"Fun, premium and healthy are the ice cream categories showing the biggest growth and products for all three markets are made at Cross Gates, so we are set for a busy year," added Rachel.
"The one thing we can't control is the weather - and we're keeping our fingers crossed that this summer will be a lot better than last year's washout."
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Weather for Leeds
Wednesday 23 May 2012
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