Historic Liverpool sweet factory could be pulled down for new homes

Valeo Confectionery closed their site on Edge Lane last year

The home of a former Liverpool confectionery institution could be pulled down for dozens of new flats and houses. Bosses called an all-staff meeting at the Valeo Confectionery factory at Edge Lane in March 2024 to announce their intention to close the Liverpool site.

It had been home to iconic confectionery brand Taveners – a Liverpool institution dating back to the Victorian era. The Edge Lane site employed around 100 staff making sweets such as caramels, mallows, gums and jellies.

Valeo, which was headquartered in Pontefract, acquired the brand in 2018 and the company had six factories operating across the country. Proposals have now been put forward to Liverpool Council’s planning department to raze the vacant factory building to make way for 69 new homes.

Taveners – and its forerunners – had a long history in Liverpool, from employing thousands of workers across the generations to producing many of the nation’s tuck-shop favourites, such as wine gums and jelly babies.

First called Tavener-Rutledge, later shortened to Taveners, its origins date back to Victorian Liverpool, when William Henry Tavener branched out from pickles and sauces into producing boiled sweets at his shop in Scotland Road in 1889.

By 1911, there was a Taveners factory at Edge Lane.

A series of upheavals and takeovers from the 1980s onwards saw Taveners taken over by a Danish company and merged into its Blackpool-based subsidiary, which in turn was bought back by its own management as Tangerine.

It was bought by Toms Confectionery of Denmark in 1992 and by 2007, Blackpool-based Tangerine took the firm over.

In August 2018, Valeo Foods acquired Tangerine Confectionery, with the company’s name later changing to Valeo Confectionery.

Now Breck Homes Ltd and Partner Construction has lodged a bid with the city council to reimagine the site. In its application, the firm said the new properties “will provide much needed affordable housing in this location”.

It said: “The new homes will be built to a high specification and will be energy efficient. It is anticipated most new homes will be occupied by young working families who will assist with increasing local expenditure on convenience and comparable goods.”

The design and access statement said the proposed development would deliver a mix of two, three and four-bedroom houses along with one and two-bedroom apartments and maisonettes.

It added: “Without redevelopment it is very likely the site would fall into disrepair and could become a target for anti-social behaviour.

“The redevelopment of the site will enhance the local area including adjacent residential properties.”