The Natural Confectionery Company

The Natural Confectionery Company or TNCC was founded by a young Julius Lighton and his son-in-law, Walter Eger. Initially, the two bought out Jupp & Sons, a small confectionery business in Abbotsford, Melbourne and started Sunrise Confectioners (Aust) Pty Ltd. Two years later, another of Julius Lighton's sons-in-law joined him, Rudi Moser and in 1949, they acquired a second small confectionery company, E. & H. Ihles, in another Melbourne suburb, Camberwell.

The official logo for Sunrise Confectioners.

Three years later, after the phenomenal success of his confectionery companies, Julius Lighton purchased a large factory in Greville Street, Prahran, Melbourne to consolidate production.

Over the years, Sunrise Confectioners produced a multitude of confectionery. Including jersey caramel and chocolate bullets, boiled confectionery such as acid drops, bullseyes and barley sugar, toasted marshmallows, hundreds & thousands (Sunrise Confectioners introduced the blue hundreds & thousands first), and traditional jellies, such as aniseed rings, fruit rings and soft fruit jubes.

In the 1960s, Rudi Moser was joined by two of Walter Eger's sons, Michael and Andrew Eger. Over the next twenty years the trio strengthened the company, firmly establishing its place in the Australian market, and the overseas market, in particular England.

Shortly after Rudi Moser's son-in-law, Ken Klooger, had joined the company in 1987. He identified a need for larger production facilities and premises were acquired at Notting Hill, in Melbourne's south-east, and after substantial renovations, production at this new site began.

In 1991, inspired by trends in the European market, Sunrise Confectioners founded The Natural Confectionery Company. A company that embodied using no artificial colours and no artificial flavours in any of its products. It began as a small range named Binka's, consisting of 3 products aimed at a niche market, but has evolved to meet considerable demand. In June 1997, the emphasis shifted from Binka's to The Natural Confectionery Company. The company revived the range with new packaging and new recipes for the confectionery. In April 2003 The Natural Confectionery Company was bought out by Cadbury Schweppes group of companies.

The official logo for Binka's.

Today The Natural Confectionery Company product range consists of 18 products, including sweet, sour and soft jubes. The Natural Confectionery Company's jellies have become the most popular jelly product on Australian supermarket shelves today. The company has also diversified into beverages.

In 2008 Cadbury Schweppes introduced products under "The Natural Confectionery Company" brand in the United Kingdom and used advertisements that gave the sweets voices and often surreal catchphrases such as "Bring on the trumpets!" voiced by British actor Matt Berry.

External links

• Official The Natural Confectionery Company website