Bonds of London Wine Gums - 120g

Old sweets, new owners

When Bonds of London changed hands in April 2016, the trade press described it as one of the UK's oldest sweet businesses. The buyer was Innovative Bites, a US-foods wholesaler founded in 2008 by Vishal Madhu, and it was a multimillion-pound deal. Madhu said Bonds had historically been known for traditional British sweets such as pick'n'mix jars and hanging bags. In other words, the stuff you spent your pocket money on, by the handful, while pretending you were only looking.

Same hands on the wheel

Plenty of old firms get bought and quietly lose the plot. Bonds kept its managing director, Philip Courtenay-Luck, who stayed on after the 2016 acquisition. Then Innovative Bites kept going: a year after buying Bonds, it acquired pick'n'mix wholesaler Hancocks Cash & Carry in a deal worth about £100m. That is a serious amount of money spent by people who take sweets seriously. Good. Somebody has to.

Where wine gums actually live

Wine gums are not a sweet you eat once. They live in the glovebox, the coat pocket, the desk drawer at work that everyone knows about. They come out at the cinema and on long drives, and they are shared with exactly the right amount of reluctance. The bag goes round once politely. After that, you start counting. Somebody will swear they only had two. They did not.