Scottish confectioner Aldomak acquires meringue brand

Purchase of The Handmade Meringue Co. brand dovetails with private-label manufacturer’s first Middle East order.

Aldomak, a Scottish private-label producer of fudge, macaroons and oat bars, has acquired The Handmade Meringue Co. brand for an undisclosed sum.

The company already manufactures meringue for The Handmade Meringue Co. and will now improve its margins through ownership of the brand. The meringue business, which is based in Thornliebank, East Renfrewshire, already has a listing in all seven Waitrose shops in Scotland.

Managing Director Dario Riccomini, who has overseen the Aldomak family business since 2001, said “This is an opportunity to extend our product range, which was too good to miss.

“We are also currently in talks with a number of prospective new customers on the supply of our existing range and by acquiring The Handmade Meringue Co. brand, we can now add this attractive offering. The brand also benefits from supplying Waitrose's seven Scottish branches.”

In addition, he said that the company “…just secured our first overseas order from a retail chain in Abu Dhabi; it’s a small order which will be shipped before Christmas, but we are hopeful this will lead to stronger export links to this market in the future.”

Aldomak co-manufactures products for several major brands as well as supermarkets, including Aldi’s Specially Selected range.

Earlier this year, the company was awarded Grade A British Retail Consortium (BRC) status. The BRC Standard is a globally recognized mark of quality and safety. It is the first Food Safety Standard to be benchmarked by the Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI), the consortium set up in 2000 to set an international “Gold Standard.”

Aldomak has been in existence since 1932 and in the Riccomini family’s hands since the 1970s.

With more than 30 years experience in B-to-B reporting, writing and editing — the bulk of which was dedicated to covering the bakery, confectionery and snack industries — Pacyniak has chronicled changes within the food industry since the early 1980s. A Boston University journalism degree graduate, he worked for a variety of publications before joining BNP Media in 1994 as editor of Snack Food & Wholesale Bakery magazine. In 2001, he took over as editor-in-chief of Candy Industry until 2018.