Athlone Sweets are the royalty of confectionary

Anton Shevlin jokes that Athlone Sweets are now “the Barry's Tea of sweets” winging their way all over the world in parcels to Irish people.

It's just one of the positive lockdown effects for the local brand who are bucking the trend as people reach for sweet treats, not just for themselves, but also for friends and family all over Ireland and abroad.

Anton was speaking on Friday last after receiving a remarkable thank you letter and photo showing Stella Lakey from Wales celebrating her 100th birthday with her card from the Queen and a bag of all her all-time favourite Athlone Sweets!

Her son Peter and his wife had lived in Cavan for several years, and he says on her numerous visits, even in her late nineties, no trip to Dublin airport was complete without stopping off at Whites Garage in Virginia, in order to stock up on her favourite Athlone wine gums.

“We had been unable to find a comparable jelly in the UK with the same traditional taste and quality, so I was indebted to Mr Gareth Keane of Guard Rail Ltd of Wexford, who found time to locate and deliver several bags of Athlone Sweets which subsequently made mum's birthday more special,” Peter details in the letter, which is just one of many Anton says they have received since Covid-19 hit telling them how much their sweets are loved and the many places they are sent.

“It's a lovely touch,” Anton says. “That letter is particularly different because she's 100 holding a picture of the Queen and Athlone Sweets. Everyone I've shown it to says it's fantastic. She's 100 and she looks so well,” he explains as he prepares to send sweets to Mrs Lakey.

Asked why he thinks the sweets are so popular during lockdown, Anton describes their 29 different varieties of bagged sweets as a “good priced product”.

“I was in a shop the other day and I watched a man and he picked up 12 bags of our sweets, so I went over and said who I was and asked him why so many. 'I'm sending them to my son in Australia,' he told me. We get a lot of that. We get a lot of WhatsApp photos of people (from all over the world) with their Athlone Sweets too,” he says.

Athlone Sweets had another reason to celebrate recently, after winning a contract to supply 190 Circle K outlets nationwide which Anton Shevlin describes as a “big boost” to the company, trading for 30 years this year and employing 15 people between drivers and office staff.

Even before that positive news, sales were up 10% in line with other confectionary brands who are also experiencing an upsurge in trade.

“Our business is way up because of Covid. Dunnes, Tesco, SuperValu and the bigger petrol stations are much busier because of Covid (restrictions). The smaller petrol stations less so but generally speaking business is well up,” Anton says.

“It's very good for us. It leaves us the largest bagged sweets company in the country. We have 10 vans on the road every day. It's a little local success story,” he enthuses, adding that his son Mark looks after much of the business now, before joking that he only comes in to deal with any problems.

Athlone Sweets became known as the first company to bag boiled sweets like clove rock and barley sugar which proved very popular for many years but the fizzy jelly varieties are now the best-sellers, along with newer products like their gluten-free sweets.

“We're very well supported locally by the shops,” Anton, who previously ran a sweet shop in Church Street many years ago says in tribute. The Athlone Sweets range is also stocked in Dunnes, SuperValu, Tesco, Costcutters, Spar, Applegree and Circle K outlets nationwide.