Skegness Magazine

SWEET FIRM EYES EXPORT MARKET

A SWEETS factory which has existed for 20 years on the second floor of what used to be stables will soon move into new premises which will enable the firm to double their production to about 14 tons a week and
build up an export trade. All F. Fravigar Ltd are waiting for is planning permission for which they applied last month.
At present they are turning out 31 varieties of boiled sweets in a long narrow building in Thrall’s yard, Wainfleet Road. Their new building, for which the footings have been dug and the frame ordered, will be situated on land off Wainfleet Road which they have bought from the council.
It was will be on the road which is shortly to be made linking Lincoln Road with Old Wainfleet Road.
The owner, Mr Frederick Fravigar, employs nine people, including his three sons, John, Neville and Michael.
AUTOMATIC WRAPPER
He started making rock and selling it at what is now Lowe’s in Lumley Road. After moving to the, present building, then used by Dunkley’s as a joinery and undertaker’s workroom, the firm dropped rock and . concentrated on boiled sweets instead.
They have just bought a second automatic wrapper able to handle 500 sweets a minute but have no room for two complete production lines. Yet they find it hard to meet the demand for their products, more space is the only solution.
Mr Fravigar said of the new place: “It will be different altogether. We have to have an electric crane to get everything up and down here. You’re handing the stuff two or three times over. And it’s been inconvenient getting cars and vans here you can’t move.”
Even working from 5 am to 7.30 pm, and on Saturdays too, they cannot produce enough sweets to keep up with orders. one customer at Newcastle, for instance, has been kept waiting two months.

ALL AUTOMATIC
Mr John Fravigar said: We’ve been trying to get out of this place now for several years. We’ve had several sites and every time we’ve got moving it’s been cancelled for one reason or another.
“It should improve things no end, especially for cleaning out. It’s the width we want, not the length. In the new place it will all be automatic.”
Instead of having to cool the sweets on a slab he hopes they will be taken on an endless belt through a refrigerator tunnel to speed up the process.
NEW PROCESSES
The new factory will measure 50 by 60ft instead of 120 by 17 at present. Its shape would open the way for quite a few new processes as well as giving them two production lines with the same labour force. There would be scope, too, for further expansion.
Mr John Fravigar has his eyes on the export market. He was in Germany three weeks ago, making inquiries about the possibilities of supplying them with sweets. Their own, he said, are expensive and not so good as ours.

Source: Skegness Standard 16th July 1969