The Fawdon Factory is a confectionery factory at Fawdon, in the English city of Newcastle upon Tyne. The factory was built for Rowntree's, and since 1988 has been run by Nestlé. it was Nestlé's largest UK factory after York.
The building, but not any of Nestlé's business, is due to be transferred to Country Style Foods in 2024.
History Rowntree wanted the site of 26 acres. Rowntree was struggling to get enough workers in its main factory. The Estate and Property committee of Newcastle City Council were asked to approve the proposal on Wednesday 21 July 1954. The site would be for around eight hundred workers. Rowntree employed about 10,000 people.Birmingham Daily Gazette Saturday 17 July 1954, page 3 The council voted by 38 to 25 to let Rowntree buy the land. The Labour group on Newcastle City Council had opposed the sale, as the Labour group wanted the land to be leased, not bought.Coventry Evening Telegraph Thursday 22 July 1954, page 2
The site would make Smarties, Fruit Gums and Fruit Pastilles.
The factory would cost around £2m, and was hoped to open in March 1958. It had 22 ovens.Newcastle Evening Chronicle Friday 3 October 1958, page 10 The site was built by John Laing.Times Tuesday June 23 1959, page 17
Operation A standard working week was 42 hours on a three-shift pattern, from 8am to 4pm, and 4pm to 12am.Newcastle Evening Chronicle Monday 29 May 1961, page 7 Chocolate production began in 1971.Newcastle Evening Chronicle Saturday 9 May 1992, page 18
By 1973 the site had around 1,300 staff,Newcastle Journal Thursday 5 April 1973, page 12 and around 1500 by 1974.Newcastle Evening Chronicle Thursday 30 May 1974, page 18 Company transport was provided for women workers, but not for men.
There were around 1,200 workers in 1977; most workers belonged to the General and Municipal Workers' Union.
As built, the factory had private sidings connected to the former Ponteland Railway that formed the factory's northern boundary. Between May 1981 and July 1988, when the sidings closed, freight trains accessed the factory using the tracks of the Tyne and Wear Metro, which had taken over the former Ponteland line. The metro's Fawdon station is some to the east.
By September 1990 the factory employed around 850 workers.Newcastle Evening Chronicle Wednesday 26 September 1990, page 27 The factory had around 730 workers in 1996.
Development Rowntree Disposable income was increasing in the 1970s, and sweets were heavily advertised to children on television; so the factory likewise had to expand, but automation was beginning too.Newcastle Evening Chronicle Wednesday 12 October 1977, page 17 In 1979 VAT on confectionery was increased from 8 to 15%. Chocolate-coated biscuits were charged VAT, but other biscuits were not.Newcastle Evening Chronicle Wednesday 4 June 1980, page 11HMRC rules on VAT on chocolate coated biscuits
Around 1983, consumers cut back on confectionery. A factory in Edinburgh closed around 1986, with around seven hundred redundancies, and much production moved to Fawdon. Smarties production would be moved from Fawdon in 1986.Newcastle Evening Chronicle Thursday 29 November 1984, page 1
Nestlé In May 1988, Nestlé attempted to buy the company.
Output of confectionery doubled at the plant over the 1980s, to 33,000 tonnes; confectionery consumption in the UK was increasing.Newcastle Evening Chronicle Tuesday 28 May 1991, page 34 Production was moved from Glasgow in 1994,The Scotsman Friday 5 February 1993, page 4 and some production was moved to Dijon in eastern France.Times Friday February 5 1993, page 21 In 1996 the Norwich factory closed with 900 redundancies, with some production moving to Fawdon. Newcastle Evening Chronicle Friday 18 November 1994, page 6Newcastle Journal Friday 18 November 1994, page 24Times Friday November 18 1994, page 26 Production of the Munchies brand moved to Fawdon in 2006, from York.
In 2021 Nestlé announced plans to close the Fawdon Factory by 2023. The Caramac bar was discontinued entirely by Nestlé in 2023 rather than moving production to another site.
Sale to Country Style Foods Following Nestlé's decision to close the factory in 2023, the property was sold to a local bakery company, Country Style Foods, in a deal to be completed in early 2024.
Visits The factory was featured on Channel 4 on 30 January 1986 in From The Inside.Aberdeen Evening Express Thursday 30 January 1986, page 2
See also Nestlé Dalston, since 1992 has made packets of coffee mixes, and Coffee-Mate, on the B5299 in Dalston south of Carlisle; the factory opened in 1962
References
External links Nestlé UK & Ireland Country Style Foods