Sheffield’s 150-year-old family-run sweet shop boasting everything from classic pear drops to bubblegum fudge

The story of Granelli’s began in 1873 in Scotland Street, Sheffield. In 1874, the shop moved to its current home - on Broad Street - originally selling ice cream, with sweets coming afterwards.

The owner of Granelli’s, Julian Hunt, says hardly anything has changed over the years, with the store keeping its original design and layout, and stocking the same sweets.

Granelli’s in Sheffield is founded by Julian’s great-great-grandfather

Julian said: “It was started by my great-great-grandfather Luigi Granelli, who came from Genoa, couldn't speak a word of English, had to learn English on the job kind of thing, and obviously it's just passed through generations over the years.

“It's 151 years in September that we've been here, one of the oldest shops in Sheffield, and we try and get all the old-fashioned sweets, and we still manage to get them pretty much. We still do the ice cream as well, we do events, we've got trailers, ice cream vans.

Granelli’s faces the COVID pandemic, a bus lane and a clean air zone

“Everything about the shop is originally how it was from day one, other than a card machine, which we had to get in the COVID pandemic, and that was the only time we ever closed when it was COVID, with the lockdowns, but we came through all that. All the COVID pandemic, all the changes in the area, bus lane, clear air zone, all made things a lot harder, but we're still here, we're still carrying on, and won't let it stop us basically.

“It was important to carry it on. We've seen so many changes, even in my 24 years, and nobody ever dreamt about the COVID pandemic happening. That was the biggest, most radical thing really to come through that, and everyone suffered so much, didn't they? And many businesses unfortunately didn't survive it. Luckily we did due to being in the industry so many years ultimately.

Granelli’s sells both old-fashioned and new flavours of sweets

“We've got the original, old-fashioned sweets, for example, your pear drops, your wine gums, your Yorkshire Mixture. They can't get the originals anymore, but we can because we've dealt with the same companies and firms for years and years down the line. Other people can get the sweets, but they're a cheaper version, they're not the proper original versions.

“Anything blue, the children love, anything blue. Blue fizzy babies, blue fizzy bottles. Then you have your traditional ones, your chocolate limes, chocolate eclairs, raspberry ruffles. There's a whole range, like your bonbons for example, we've now got seven different bonbons, Millions [sweets] for the kids and the range is getting bigger.

“There's about 15 new fudges coming out. Not just your original vanilla fudge, which we will always have in, and your choc split, for example, and your rum and raisin. They're bringing out bubblegum, which we've recently got in. They're bringing out Oreo, cookies and cream, After Eight, Creme Egg fudge, Limoncello fudge unbelievably, you name it, there's all these new fudges. We're introducing them all slowly, but we will make sure we keep our traditional, you know, vanilla fudge in at the same time.

Granelli’s is ‘an institution’ in Sheffield

“Everyone in Sheffield knows us pretty much, not many don't. We're sort of an institution in Sheffield, people tell me, and we've stuck to what worked. Yes, we're on Facebook now. Yes, we've got a card machine, but other than that, we've kept the same setup from day one basically.”