CIVIC leaders from York maintained one of the city's long-standing traditions when they visited Nestl's Haxby Road headquarters.

Among the civic party was the Lord Mayor, David Horton, the Lady Mayoress, Kathleen Gibson, the Sheriff Martin Brumby, and Sheriff's Lady Annette Brumby.

They were shown the Dairy Box and Black Magic assortment production line, as well as the two-finger Kit Kat and the new Nestl Double Cream production areas.

Coun Horton said Friday's visit was his first tour around a food production factory, and he found the experience "very interesting".

He said: "The visit has taken place annually for a lot of years. Nestl, or Rowntree, has always been one of the city's major employers and it has always done a lot of community work, so the civic party's visit stemmed from that.

"It was very enjoyable, good to see how the factory operates behind the scenes and also to keep an important tradition going."

Updated: 14:14 Monday, September 16, 2002