Tunnock's teacake
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| Family company | |
| Industry | Food |
| Genre | Bakers |
| Founded | 1890 |
| Founder | Thomas Tunnock |
| Headquarters | Uddingston, Scotland, UK |
| Products | Cakes, biscuits |
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Number of employees
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550 |
| Website | www |
Thomas Tunnock Limited, commonly known as Tunnock's, is a family baker based in Uddingston, Scotland. It is currently headed by Boyd Tunnock C.B.E., grandson of Thomas. In 2013 a joint report by Family Business United and Close Brothers Asset Management named it as the 20th oldest family firm in Scotland still in operation.
The face of the Tunnock's Boy appears on nearly all Tunnock's products. Factory tours have become so popular that the firm keeps a two-year-long waiting list to manage demand.
The company was formed by Thomas Tunnock (b.1865) as Tunnock's in 1890, when he purchased a baker's shop in Lorne Place, Uddingston. The company expanded in the 1950s, and it was at this time that the core products were introduced to the lines, when sugar and fat rationing meant that products with longer shelf-lives than cakes had to be produced.
Since 2005, Tunnock's has sponsored The Tour of Mull, an annual car rally held on the Isle of Mull.
In September 2010, Tunnock's workers in Uddingston, Lanarkshire, conducted two 24-hour strikes during contract negotiations. At main issue were salaries, with management having originally offered an increase of 1%, followed by a second offer of 2% . The dispute was resolved in October 2010 with agreement on a 2.5% increase backdated to the start of July 2010, followed by a 2.5% increase in July 2011.
In an April 2012 interview with The Herald, Boyd Tunnock described himself as a Unionist on the question of Scottish independence.
In the 2014 Commonwealth Games opening ceremony in Glasgow, the teacakes took centre stage as dancers dressed as teacakes danced around the main performers near the start of the show. Sales of Tunnock's tea cakes were 62% higher at Waitrose the day after the ceremony.
In November 2015, Tunnock's made a donation of £250,000 to an appeal for an independent lifeboat station at St Abbs.
In January 2016 Tunnock's faced a boycott campaign from Scots who supported an independent Scotland, due to mistaken allegations that they had removed the Scottish lion and other Scottish branding from their products. The branding of the packaging remains the same, but advertisements found in London promoted it as a British (rather than exclusively Scottish) product.
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Wikipedia