HISTORY OF ICED CARAMELS
The Iced Caramels product is a unique product, produced only in Ireland by Cleeves in Newbridge.
The product originated in 1926 in the old Clarnico Murray plant in Dublin when one of the employees, Dan Monaghan, had the idea of dipping toffees in icing. The product was an immediate success and indeed so successful that Clarnico Murray considered setting up a plant in England to make it in larger volumes. However the labour intensive nature of the production process and the long and complicated drying procedure persuaded them not to proceed and ever since production has always been of a batch production nature and the plant has remained in Ireland.
Trebor, a large English company,some time later purchased the Clarnico business and then Trebor itself was acquired by Cadburys in 1990. Again the complicated production process did not suit the even larger Cadbury business and the owners of Cleeves were invited by Cadburys to enter into an agreement to take control of the plant and make Clarnico Iced Caramels exclusively for Cadburys. This arrangement continued for 16 years by which time Cadburys had become an even larger company and it was decided to move the product over to the Lemons brand and for the intervening 11 years Lemons Iced Caramels was produced for the Irish market and Buchanans Iced Caramels for the UK market.
Now in 2018, Cleeves have decided to cease arrangements with Lemons and Buchanans and to now produce and market Iced Caramels under its own brand. And so we are pleased to bring to market our Cleeves Original Iced Caramels, made to the same original recipe and method as has been enjoyed by consumers for over 90 years.