How the handmade makers of delicious Scottish Fudge came to be.
Tom Gardiner
Daniel Gardiner
Gardiners Dairy Ice-Cream business was established. Tom Snr worked alongside his father Daniel manufacturing dairy ice-cream from their Fish and Chip shop in Abeygreen, Lesmahagow. The ice-cream was sold in the shop and door to door from their ice-cream vans and at the local agricultural market in Lanark.
In the mid 70’s Tom Snr took over the reins and purchased a larger Ice-Cream van. Tom attended events such as The Royal Highland Show and The British Open Golf Tournament around the UK and grew the business substantially.
In 1977, a small unit in Church Square, Lesmahagow, saw the first production of their own nougat wafers and oysters, becoming an integral part of the ice-cream trade.
Turfholm Unit
Due to increasing demand, the move was made to a larger industrial unit at Turfholm. During the making of Oyster shells, there was a significant amount of chocolate and coconut left over, planting the seed in Maureen’s mind to make Macaroon bars.
Butter tablet was next, and in 1985 Tom Jnr joined full-time. The family made the decision to focus solely on manufacturing confectionery.
As production, packaging and storage capacity was becoming an issue larger premises were needed once again. Tom Jnr introduced new flavoured fudges to the process, new packaging ideas were created, and the iconic Gardiners brand identity began to flourish.
The past 17 years have seen Gardiners of Scotland Ltd flourish world-wide. In 2018, Tom Jnr received the award for Food and Drink Excellence in Lanarkshire, marking another milestone in our family journey from Lesmahagow.
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