By Ian McConnell

ICE-cream producer Mackie’s of Scotland has won supply deals for its new orange-flavoured chocolate bar in Sainsbury and Asda stores north of the Border.

Aberdeenshire-based Mackie’s said the 120-gramme bars would be available on promotion in 34 Sainsbury stores and 52 Asda outlets from November 18 until January. It noted the chocolate was also available in its flagship Aberdeen ice-cream parlour, Mackie’s 19.2, “where it is also transformed into a hot chocolate drink”, as well as at independent retailers in and around its home patch.

Stuart Common, commercial director at Mackie’s, said: “In 2014, we turned our tractor shed into a state-of-the art chocolate factory and began with four flavour variants in dark and milk chocolate…which were reminiscent of our ice-cream range. Since then we’ve been working on a continual improvement of our chocolate and investing in more machinery to make sure the range is consistently high quality.”

Flagging support from retail partners Asda and Sainsbury, he added: “We’ve continued on new product development work, to research potential new flavours, looking for something new to add a little excitement to the range. We are delighted to be launching an orange milk chocolate in time for Christmas.”