McCowan's Ltd was a Scottish confectionery company specialising in

toffee Toffee is a confection made by caramelizing sugar or molasses (creating inverted sugar) along with butter, and occasionally flour. The mixture is heated until its temperature reaches the hard crack stage of . While being prepared, toffee is ...

and fudge. Their most famous product is Highland Toffee.

History

McCowan's originally began life as an aerated water business run by Andrew McCowan, His wife attempted to make some extra money on the side by selling toffee from the window of their house in Stenhousemuir (however the secret recipe was bought by McCowan in a pub from a man selling the toffee for a pint). The Toffee proved more successful than the Lemonade and soon became the primary family income. Within 15 years, McCowan was producing a variety of confections including Tablet and later Rock, Snowballs, Lollypops and Macaroon were added to the company's products. But it was in the 1920s that McCowan began to produce the small toffee chews that would become the company's flagship confection - McCowan's Highland Toffee had arrived. In the early years, Andrew worked from a shop in Church Street but in 1924 he opened a factory in its current location of Tryst Road. In 1951 Andrew died, and the company passed into the hands of his son Robert McCowan. In 1959 Robert accepted an offer from the

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 ...

company, yet still operated under its own brand During the 1980s the company introduced the Wham Bar. Further development and an agreement with

A.G. Barr A.G. Barr plc, commonly known as Barr's, is a soft drink manufacturer based in Cumbernauld, Scotland. It is widely known for manufacturing the drink Irn-Bru. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Ind ...

also led to production of the Irn-Bru Bar. In 1987

merged with Rowntree's leading to a short term re-branding of McCowan's under the ''Nestlé-Rowntree'' name. In 1989 a Management Buyout occurred and the company once again became independent. In 1996 Dutch confectioner Phideas purchased the company, before the company became independent once more in 2003. In 2005 the company was purchased by Graham Wallace and Andy Allan who later that year bought John Millar & Sons as a result McCowans ceased to exist as an independent company and merged with John Millar & Sons to become

Millar McCowan Millar McCowan was a Scottish confectionery manufacturer. Owned by Andrew Walsh, who also runs Thornycroft.(A confectionery distribution company.) For the brands of McCowan’s and John Millar & Sons. Among its brands are Wham Bars, and Hig ...

After this time the McCowans brand (separate from the McCowans company) transferred to firstly to The New McCowans Ltd then in October 2011 to Tangerine Confectionery. Site is now demobilised and now lies a B&M with car park attached to a Tim Hortons. Stenhousemuir Stadium Ochilview is still in the street behind.

References

External links

* https://web.archive.org/web/20090223111608/http://www.millar-mccowan.com/ Scottish confectionery Scottish brands Food manufacturers of Scotland Brand name confectionery Companies based in Falkirk (council area) Stenhousemuir {{Scotland-company-stub