Nestlé Newcastle: 'You think a sweet factory will be there forever'

For more than 60 years a small part of Newcastle has enjoyed the sweet taste of success.

But there are fears almost 500 jobs will be lost at Nestlé in Fawdon, after the global food giant announced plans to focus production elsewhere.

Countless confectionery has rolled off the production line at the former Rowntree Mackintosh factory over the years, including Fruit Pastilles, Lion Bars, Smarties, KitKats and Rolos.

While its fate remains to be sealed, its colourful past holds many memories for the generations of families who walked through its doors.

"A sweet factory - you would think it would be there forever," said Sandra Keeney, shaking her head.

Her dad, Alfred Hastings, began working on the Fruit Pastilles production line in the early 1960s, when she was a little girl. Her mum, Sissy, would help out at Easter with the chocolate eggs.

"I stopped eating sweets when I was 11, because there were that many," she laughed, as she remembered the treats her father would bring home.

"He thought he was hiding them, but we always knew where they were," she said.

"There were the ones that were not right - all chocolate but no biscuit in them, all fresh but addictive. They're not the same now though, they are tiny."

Kept tucked away at home is her dad's prized cap and overall.

"It's done its time - I just wish I could put him in it," she smiled.

The factory is just four streets away from where she now lives.

"I think it's a big loss, there's a lot of local people who still work there, lots of young ones you see walking into work in the morning. What's going to happen to them?

"It's like part of your past disappearing."

For Brian and Jean Blanckley working at Rowntree Mackintosh has been a family affair.

The Sunderland couple held a number of jobs at Fawdon, at one point alongside their two sons and Jean's brother.

Brian recalls keeping tabs on the media when the then-Labour leader, Neil Kinnock, visited the shop floor in the 1980s.

Jean remembers packing Lion bars - a firm favourite among colleagues on their tea breaks - as her husband reminisces about savouring the taste of bars plucked fresh from the production line.

"If you picked a sweet off the belt after it was just enrobed in the chocolate it was totally different to buying one weeks later in the shop - it was perfect, still warm," he said.

They remember Nestlé's take over of the plant in the 1980s caused "apprehension" among the workers.

"We went to Parliament to lobby the local MP. Quite a crowd of us took a couple of buses down to put across our points of view," Brian said.

"It didn't have any effect, obviously, Nestlé took over and overall I think it went pretty smoothly."

The recollection of colleagues sneaking in home-made cakes to coat with chocolate from the machines raises a shared laugh in Brian and Jean.

"It was a lovely place to work, a nice family atmosphere, there was a lot of banter and fun times," he said.

"It has been going since 1958, it has employed a lot of people, we have both made a lot of good friends there.

"Our son still works there so we are a little bit worried on his behalf."

Paul Grant began working for Rowntree as a teenager in the 1970s - and can still see the factory from his house.

He started off packing Fruit Pastilles, but had ambitions to operate the machines.

"You weren't suppose to eat them, but obviously if you get a load coming down the line and some of the packets were open," he laughed.

"Everyone did it - you would eat them at half a dozen at a time until you got sick of the things."

It is not just the sight of his old workplace that prompts a sense of nostalgia for him - it's also the smell.

"It depends on the wind direction. In the summer it's a nice sweet smell that blows across."

He remembered the noise inside the factory from the machines, so busy it was staffed across three shifts.

"It was a friendly atmosphere and everyone got on," he said.

"It was also very tiring, I was only young and I found it hard because you had to adjust your life to what ever shift you were on - it wasn't your life it was their's, that's how it was in those days."

He said the closure would hit local families hard.

"People needed jobs and they have found jobs there - it's on a lot of people's doorsteps for work".

Nestlé said its Fawdon factory is home to "many smaller, low-growth brands and maintains a diverse and complex mix of production technique" in contrast to its factories in York and Halifax.

"The decision to propose Fawdon's closure follows significant investment and a sustained effort by the factory team to reduce that complexity and introduce new products in recent years. The skilled and dedicated team at Fawdon have worked tirelessly to deliver those changes and these proposals are absolutely no reflection on their efforts."

As a consultation was ongoing, it would not comment further.

Follow BBC North East & Cumbria on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Send your story ideas to [email protected].