Jobs hope as Toffee Roll comes home

A confectionery firm plans to create 200 jobs in Yorkshire by opening a toffee making factory

Ella Riley has secured the intellectual property rights for the Riley Toffee Roll Confection from the US confectionery company Kraft.

Ella Riley's director – Freya Sykes – is the great-grand niece of the Riley brothers who created the toffee roll in Halifax in the early 1900s.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Last night Mrs Sykes said she was talking to private investors and banks with a view to establishing an environmentally friendly factory within the next five years, which she hoped would create around 200 jobs.

Mrs Sykes, who said the discussions were at a very early stage, anticipated that the building costs for the factory would be around 1.2m. Possible locations for the factory include Wakefield and Kirklees in West Yorkshire.

"We are holding tentative talks with various councils,'' she added.

Ella Riley has 12 staff and a turnover of around 120,000. The company, which was founded a year ago, already has shops in Wakefield and Holmfirth in West Yorkshire. There are plans to open shops in Leeds and York.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Mrs Sykes said: "We're delighted to be able to announce we have secured the ownership of the intellectual property rights for the Riley's Toffee Rolls.

"My grandmother Ella Riley, after whom I have named the company, handed me down the original handwritten Riley's Toffee Roll recipe so we are over the moon to be able to bring a little taste of history back to the UK."

Mrs Sykes acquired the rights to the Riley Toffee Roll confection for a modest sum when Kraft failed to renew it. She added: "It's our intention to grow the retail business alongside the factory and manufacturing side of the business, so in five to seven years we will have an operation that covers the UK in terms of retail outlets and will be something akin to Thornton's."

Ella Riley's Toffee and Traditional Sweet shops are the only places selling the toffee rolls.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

The company said: "The directors felt it was an important part of the company's growth plans to be able to secure the IP for the toffee rolls so they could be produced without legal interruption in the UK once again."