News / Young couple take on popular fudge shop
AN AWARD WINNING confectionery business in Lerwick is under new ownership after being taken over by a young Shetland couple.
Magnus Johnston, 31, and Nicola Duthie, 25, officially took up the reins at Shetland Fudge Company from the firm’s founder Gillian Ramsay on Friday.
Duthie, who first worked at the shop on Saturdays from the age of 14, will run the shop along with three full time employees. Johnston will help out when he is not tied up with his existing day job, as an engineer for Johnson Marine.
They are already getting to work on making some “big differences” to the shop, while keeping its core offerings, including the signature Puffin Poo sweet treats, intact.
Duthie said it had been her desire to take over the shop since Ramsay first said she would consider offers three years ago.
“I feel like I’ve never left,” she told Shetland News. “I’ve always loved it in here. I never, ever once thought I didn’t want to go to work when I worked here. The whole manufacturing process – you’re not just selling, you’re making it, and I like that feeling.”
She said it was a passion which has grown over the years, and she hopes to get some new ideas when she goes away to do a chocolatier’s course with South Africa-born chocolate master Ruth Hinks this autumn.
“I’m obsessed with the history of chocolate,” Duthie said, “and it’s like a science. I’m really looking forward to learning more about it, and I think it’s important for me as a manager. I want to go to more courses, more shows, with new products, and learn.”
For Johnston’s part, he says the whole enterprise is a “learning curve”: “I don’t know anything about chocolate or business management,” he laughed.
But both see great potential in an established business, which has now been existence for over a decade.
The couple have already begun investigating possible new ranges: Duthie thinks a Shetland Fudge drinking chocolate would go down particularly well in the lead up to Christmas, and they hope to expand the range of hand-made chutneys, jams and marmalades on offer.
Their first day of trade was Saturday. Johnston said they were “amazed at how busy it’s actually been”, and the pair have been bowled over by the warm support from local businesses and folk in the wider community.
“We want to say thank you to everybody that has supported us in doing this,” Duthie said.
“The amount of unkan folk that have come into the shop and wished us best of luck – we’ve been overwhelmed by the amount of support we’ve had.”
Johnston agreed, saying the response to date has been “unbelievable”, especially from local firms such as the nearby Peerie Shop.
“All the local ones that we’ve spoken to so far, they’ve been really good to us [with] words of encouragement,” he added.
Shetland Fudge Company hit the headlines under Ramsay’s ownership in 2009 after seeing off a trademark claim from supermarket giant Asda over the Puffin Poo product.
She will continue to run the Shetland Arts Company craft shop upstairs from the fudge premises.
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