John Justice Lees accidentally invented the macaroon bar after playing around with ingredients in his father’s store in Newlands Street, just a short distance from where the factory sits now.
Lees expanded their product offering to include teacakes and snowballs and the business was thriving, confectionery bars were also added to the product range and the workforce doubled in size. Lees acquired the old cinema 200yds from Newlands shop to keep up with the expansion of the business.
At the age of 70, John J Lees steps down from his position as Chairman and Managing Director. The business under his stewardship had grown to achieve sales turnover of £850k.
Lees set up Heather Cameron foods with a joint venture partner, further expanding the product range to include meringues. The partnership lasted seven years until Lees bought Heather Cameron out in 1989.
In the 1980s trading was difficult and in 1990 the company posted record losses which resulted in the business being sold to Northumbrian Fine Foods in march 1991.
By 1993 company returned to independent Scottish ownership and began to implement a series of initiatives that would return the company back to profitability.
Lees operated out of 2 factories based in Coatbridge, one making Heather Cameron meringues and the other produced snowballs, teacakes and confectionery bars.
In August 1998 the Company moved into new premises, still in Coatbridge, a new 82,000 square foot purpose-built factory where all products in the range are now manufactured.
Lees were producing over 250 million snowballs per year and the company turnover reached £9m in its 70th year.
Lees purchased the Waverley bakery in Cambuslang, a manufacturer of ice cream cones and wafers.
Lees foods plc floated on the AIM market.
A snowball sculpture unveiled in Coatbridge to immortalise the Lees brand and shows the significance the business has had on the local people being a large employer for over 70 years.
Lees made record profits in their 80 years of business, with a turnover exceeding £20 million
Lees was delisted from the stock market following a management buyout.
Lori Marshall, a fashion student created a wedding dress using our meringues. The dress was created with 1500 meringues which were sewn and sprayed with varnish to avoid melting. The dress was modelled by Lois Weathercup (pictured) and was featured in the launch of the Scottish Wedding show at the SECC.
We relaunched teacakes and snowballs in new packaging to create a more simplistic design with a focus on using bold colours, typography and new product images to stand out on the shelf in a crowded marketplace.
Saw the redesign of the Lee’s confectionery bars, the packaging was updated to a minimalist design across the product range but utilising the same layout and typography to create a cohesive brand story across the packaging profile.
A major capital investment in the factory led us to install a new line which sees the introduction of robots in the packing line to improve production efficiencies and capacity.
Lees foods completes the sale of the Waverley bakery to Orkla food ingredients, a Norwegian company that is listed on the Oslo Stock exchange.
Lees made a reappearance on the small screen with a 20 second ad on STV featuring the 18 mini snowball sharing tub.
The factory closes for only one day during the pandemic to get processes in place for the business to function with social distancing measures being utilised.
Lees celebrates 90 years of business with a collaboration with Drygate Brewing Co to create a limited-edition Christmas snowball stout.
Lees collaborates with a variety of brands throughout the year including Glasgows Singl-End café to create a series of bakes using Lees products, Slush Puppie to create red cherry and blue raspberry teacakes and Di Maggios to create a snowball sundae which featured on their Christmas menu.
Lees of Scotland joins the Finsbury Food Group. The acquisition brings together two complimentary businesses with strong, high-quality relationships across a diverse customer base.
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