Not many confectionery companies have their grand opening attended by the Duke of York, However, U.K.-based Champion & Reeves isn’t just any sweets supplier. Thus, earlier this year, on March 17, Prince Andrew, Queen Elizabeth’s second son, paid a visit to the fledgling manufacturers of nougat, butterscotch and cream toffees.
 
Founded by entrepreneurs Jacqueline Champion and Andrew Reeves two years ago, the Shrewsbury, U.K.-based company is focused on a singular simple premise: pure luxury.
 
“Our aim is to produce the finest 100 percent natural confectionery money can buy, and to create a joyous confectionery experience with a satisfying, complex taste structure, packaged in premium, silver-foiled presentation boxes, lined individually with wrapped pieces of delicious confectionery,” the company’s website declares.
 
Conscious of a demand for famed Callard & Bowser’s nougat and butterscotch products — items that were discontinued by parent company Wrigley when it moved Altoids production from the UK to America in 2005 — the two food enthusiasts determined there was a market for these nostalgic but very fine sweets.
 
“One of the products that really stood out was the range of nougat they produced, memories of unwrapping the long box and removing the beautifully packaged silver foil paper to uncover a rice paper wrapped sweet evoked memories for millions of consumers around the world,” the two explain on the company’s website.  
 
Based on a classic nougat recipe — the nougat de Montelimar, which contains 23 percent almond, nine percent pistachio and 29 percent honey — Champion & Reeves’ Dessert Nougat integrates nostalgic delight visually and sensually, from the beautifully wrapped box to the first bite.
 
“We believe we are the only confectionery company in the world to add both blanched almonds and roasted pistachio to our nougat,” the website points out. “In addition we add as much as three times more premium honey to our nougat than any of our competitors. We use the finest Italian cherries in our Rose Dessert Nougat and our vanilla is the most expensive, ten-fold concentrated extract money can buy.”
 
Producing out of a 3,000-sq.-ft. production kitchen at the Shropshire Food Enterprise Centre in Shrewsbury, the company has quickly gained an appreciative audience in the U.K. and now abroad. Its products, of course, are also sold at Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle.