Founded in 1896, in Nottingham, England by Richard Barnett - the Great Grandfather of our current Managing Director, Richard Barnett.

On November 2nd 1909, the company was registered as R.Barnett & Co. Ltd.

Richard Barnett was not called up for National Service during WWI

due to illness, so the business continued to run throughout the war.

Prior to 1926, our popular cough sweet 'Barnips' was known as 'Winter Nips'.

Here you can see our stall at an exhibition.

In the 1930's we produced a wide range of wrapped sweets, many that we still produce today!

Here you can see the original labels from our archives. 

'Lung Tablets' now known as 'Lun Jeelers'.

'Sherbet Bon-Bons' now known as 'Sherbons'.

During WWII, due to rationing of sugar, the factory were only able to produce medicated sweets.

Post WWII saw a boom in confectionery,

with the return of none rationed sugar. We invested in brand new machinery - to date we still use the exact same wrapping machines!

In 1979 we relocated from Hartley Road to our current location on Stansfield Street -  half a mile away! At the start of the 80's, Alan Barnett, father of the current MD, took over from his father Les Barnett. The 80's saw a decline in medicated cough sweets due to the closure of the coal mines.

During the 1990's there was a change in consumers behaviour towards confectionery, as supermarkets began to dominate. At this time we introduced more unwrapped products, as previously our focus had been mainly on producing wrapped sweets.

Richard Barnett, the current MD, took over from his late father Alan in 2001.

As the use of the internet increased we started to use the world wide web to find specialist retailers.

We had previously supplied mainly wholesalers and local shops. 

In 2009 the popular 'pic n mix' store Woolworths closed leading to a boom in these specialist retailers that were known as old fashioned sweet shops.

During the 2000's we experimented with more modern tastes, which lead to the birth of the world famous 'Mega Sours'. We started with 4 flavours; Apple, Cherry, Lemon & Raspberry. 

As the Mega Sour brand grew, wholesalers that shipped internationally, started to distribute the product world wide. To date, the Mega Sours are our best selling product!

Our #megasourchallenge has become extremely popular across many social media platforms.