Many Merseyside made "tuck-shop favourite" sweets have been loved by millions since childhood.
Taveners – and its forerunners – have a long history in Liverpool, from employing thousands of workers across the generations to producing many of the nation’s tuck-shop favourites, such as wine gums and jelly babies. First called Tavener-Rutledge, later shortened to Taveners, its origins date back to Victorian Liverpool, when William Henry Tavener branched out from pickles and sauces into producing boiled sweets at his shop in Scotland Road in 1889.
But it was his son Herbert who masterminded the transformation to a confectionery empire after WW1, persuading his father to sell him the sweet making and wholesaling side. By then, the company was in a four-storey factory in Kew Street in Vauxhall.
Read More:
- 22 photos show early days and staff at demolished Liverpool hotel
- Scandal hit nightclub and celebrity haunt that sold '30-litre Champagne bottle' for '£125K'
But in 1928, it was on the move again to the building in Beech Street, with Herbert’s younger brother Henry joining the team. By 1911, there was a Taveners factory at Edge Lane.
Over the years, Taveners became famous in the city and beyond for inventing hard-boiled fruit sweets and chocolate eclairs in 1932 and producing other family favourites like buttered brazils, treacle toffee and more. Carrying "made in Liverpool" on its well-known products and operating from sites in Beech Road, Edge Lane, Poole and Blackpool, the famous Everton Mints later became a Taveners product, with its main factory in Beech Street also being the "international centre of marshmallow excellence."
A number of images, recently rediscovered from our archives, capture life at Taveners in Liverpool through the decades. One photograph, taken in 1976, shows Liverpool FC stars Ian Callaghan, Phil Thompson, Terry McDermott and John Toshack visiting the Taverner sweet factory and watching the lollipop making process.
Other photos taken in 1991 show a number of staff and treats being made on the production line. A blast from the past, many will have fond memories of working there or tasting some of Taveners delicious treats through the decades.
Do these awaken any memories for you? Let us know in the comments section below.
Popular in Merseyside and elsewhere in the UK, it wasn't long before Taveners attracted attention from across the globe. On December 29, 1970, the Liverpool ECHO reported how an order for 48,000 tins of boiled sweets, mostly fruit drops, were being completed by Tavener Rutledge, ready for shipment to Czechoslovakia.
The article said "few British sweet makers had achieved sales there," and that the much-loved brand's main overseas market included America, Canada, Copenhagen and Denmark.
Join our Liverpool memories and history Facebook group here.
A series of upheavals and takeovers from the 1980s onwards saw Taveners eventually taken over by a Danish company and merged into its Blackpool-based subsidiary, which in turn was bought back by its own management as Tangerine. It was bought by Toms Confectionery of Denmark in 1992 and by 2007, Blackpool-based Tangerine took the firm over.
wine gums, jelly babies, fruit pastilles, real milk chocolate eclairs, humbugs, chocolate limes, dairy toffee and American hard gums, recipes were brought "up to date" to reflect "the needs of today’s health-conscious consumer."
For more nostalgia stories, sign up to our Liverpool Echo newsletter here.
At the time, Taveners brand manager, Helen Sears, told the ECHO: "These are among the most popular sweets in the UK and have been loved by millions of adults since their childhood. Many of us still can’t resist them. T
"They are old favourites you just can’t help coming back to – comforting and familiar, proper sweets just like they used to be. With the switch to natural colours and flavours, and our decision to end the use of hydrogenated fats, we hope to give people even more reason to continue enjoying them. And who knows, perhaps it will be the excuse for some people to rediscover these ever-popular sweets."
In 2008, tributes were also paid to one man who sold Liverpool’s much loved Tavener sweets around the world. John Tavener joined the family firm as a post-boy and worked his way up to export manager, but travelled the the globe selling the Taveners taste to all five continents.
At the time, his widow, Barbara, said: "He worked hard, played hard and was never dull. John will be well remembered in Liverpool because of Taveners."
In August 2018, Valeo Foods acquired Tangerine Confectionery, with the company's name later changing to Valeo Confectionery. Whilst the Taveners name lives on, many will have fond memories of when the factory was under Taveners and remember its life in Liverpool as seen here.
Read Next:
- 22 photos show lost Liverpool factory and those who worked there
- Liverpool's 'coolest' Chinese restaurant you may have forgotten existed
- 'Homely' Chinese restaurant that's been serving Liverpool families for over 30 years
- Liverpool's 'electric heated roads' that tackled the 'ice and snow menace'
- 'Chock-a-block' venue that was 'the place' everyone wanted to be