Lyons Maid is a brand of ice-creams and ice-lollies created in 1925 as a spin-off from the
J. Lyons and Co.
J. Lyons & Co. was a British restaurant Chain store, chain, food manufacturing, and hotel conglomerate founded in 1884 by Joseph Lyons (caterer), Joseph Lyons and his brothers in law, Isidore Gluckstein, Isidore and Montague Gluckstein. Lyons’ ...
retail organisation. It is now owned by the
Froneri
Froneri is a global ice cream manufacturer with its headquarters in Leeming Bar, North Yorkshire, England. It is the largest producer of ice cream in Europe by volume, and the second-largest in the world, after Unilever.
Froneri was establish ...
joint venture.
Well-known brands produced by Lyons Maid included: Zoom (no longer in production), Strawberry Mivvi, Orange Maid, Lolly Gobble Choc Bomb,
Fab and
Haunted House
A haunted house, spook house or ghost house in ghostlore is a house or other building often perceived as being inhabited by disembodied spirits of the deceased who may have been former residents or were otherwise connected with the prope ...
''.''
History
Its most commercially successful period was probably during the 1970s when a vast range of ice-lollies were sold. This range often had tie-ins to well-known characters from TV and film and included free gifts. It often involved inventive wrapper designs, and cartoon strips were also launched.
Examples include a tie-in with ''
Space: 1999'' with free cards of episodes inside the wrapper, ''
Star Wars
''Star Wars'' is an American epic film, epic space opera multimedia franchise created by George Lucas, which began with the Star Wars (film), eponymous 1977 film and quickly became a worldwide popular culture, pop-culture Cultural impact of S ...
'' with free masks of major characters and film facts on the wrappers, ''
The Six Million Dollar Man
''The Six Million Dollar Man'' is an American science fiction and action television series, running from 1973 to 1978, about a former astronaut, USAF Colonel Steve Austin, portrayed by Lee Majors. After a NASA test flight accident, Austin is reb ...
'' TV series, ''
Superman
Superman is a superhero who appears in American comic books published by DC Comics. The character was created by writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster, and debuted in the comic book ''Action Comics'' #1 (cover-dated June 1938 and publi ...
'' and even a Goal lolly with lolly sticks containing famous footballers of the day.
The Lyons Maid brand logo, sometimes known as the 'Good Time Sign' but more generally referred to in house as the 'Dancing Children' was initially developed by advertising agency
Young & Rubicam
VMLY&R is an American marketing and Marketing communications, communications company specializing in advertising, Digital media, digital and social media, sales promotion, direct marketing and brand identity consulting, formed from the merger of ...
to identify the brand in
sweet shops and later on packaging and on ice cream vans but was eventually phased in across the whole product range where it continued to be used on branding and shop signage until Lyons Maid was sold to
Nestlé
Nestlé S.A. (; ; ) is a Switzerland, Swiss multinational food and drink processing conglomerate corporation headquartered in Vevey, Vaud, Switzerland. It is the largest publicly held food company in the world, measured by revenue and other me ...
in 1992. At that time, Nestlé combined its standard international blue-and-white ice cream logo with the Lyons Maid logotype and the three dancing children from the Good Time Sign until 1998, when the Lyons Maid brand was dropped in favour of a standardised Nestlé ice cream logo.
Lyons Maid's chief rival was
Wall's ice cream Wall's is formerly an ice cream and meat products brand, now split into two businesses:
*Wall's (ice cream), a brand owned by Unilever that makes ice cream
*Wall's (meat)
Wall's is a brand of meat products in the United Kingdom, best known for i ...
now owned by
Unilever
Unilever plc is a British multinational consumer goods company with headquarters in London, England. Unilever products include food, condiments, bottled water, baby food, soft drink, ice cream, instant coffee, cleaning agents, energy drink, t ...
.
In 2008, Lyons Maid was revived when
R&R Ice Cream
Froneri is a global ice cream manufacturer with its headquarters in Leeming Bar, North Yorkshire, England. It is the largest producer of ice cream in Europe by volume, and the second-largest in the world, after Unilever.
Froneri was establish ...
decided to restore the brand. Charlotte Hambling, senior marketing manager of R&R, stated at the time: "By bringing back the Lyons Maid brand to family dinner tables across the country, we will be tapping into the great nostalgia the brand enjoys, as well as the strong consumer heritage and high levels of consumer awareness and trust within the brand. With our new Lyons Maid products, we are taking advantage of these factors and introducing a range of family favourites, as well as re-establishing the brand".
See also
*
List of frozen dessert brands
This is a list of frozen dessert brands. Frozen dessert is the generic name for desserts made by freezing liquids, semi-solids, and sometimes even solids. They may be based on flavored water (shave ice, sorbet, snow cones, etc.), fruit purées (suc ...
Footnotes
{{reflist
External links
More information on Lyons and images of Lyons Maid ice-lolly wrappers
Brand name frozen desserts
British brands