A SURGE in Australian demand for sweets made in York is expected any day now.

About 250 workers at Tangerine Confectionery, in Nether Poppleton, are preparing to manufacture even more Taveners Proper Sweets after the firm signed a distribution deal with Australian Bulk Foods to supply the fruit pastilles as well as Sherbert Fountain brands to leading supermarkets Down Under.

The value of the export contract has not been revealed, but the firm calculates its Australian exports will reach 70,000 cases of stock including three million Sherbet Fountains annually.

It should go some way towards Tangerine’s aim to double export revenue to ten per cent of turnover generated by its plants in York, Pontefract, Liverpool and Cleckheaton.

Taveners Proper Sweets are made at the York site set back from Low Poppleton Lane, but they are also made at Pontefract, which will also supply the Australians with Sherbert Fountains.

A spokesman for the company said that the deal would be unlikely to mean more jobs at the York plant. “We have the capacity to cope,” he said.

Steven Joseph, executive chairman of the £160 million turnover business, believes that there is a major opportunity to grow the company’s current level of exports further.

He said: “The export potential of brands like the Sherbet Fountain and Taveners is huge, especially in what you might call former colonial markets such as Australia, South Africa, Canada and Hong Kong.

“The pound’s weakness against other currencies presents an export opportunity and we plan to double our exports in the next three to five years.”

Geoff Sharp, of Australian Bulk Foods, said: “Like the UK, we are seeing a revival of iconic English confectionery in Australia. The Sherbet Fountain is one of the most memorable and long established confectionery brands and is ideally placed to capitalise on the wave of nostalgia.”

Australian Bulk Foods also distributes other Tangerine brands, including liquorice allsorts, wine gums, jelly babies, dolly mixtures and fruit jellies products.