Mackie's Limited, trading as Mackie's of Scotland, is a Scottish ice cream and confectionery manufacturer based in Rothienorman, Aberdeenshire, Scotland.[2] It was founded in 1912[3] as a dairy farm but diversified into the manufacture of ice cream in 1986, before selling the milk retail business to Robert Wiseman during 1997.[4]
 Entrance to Mackie's farm in Westertown | |
| Mackie's of Scotland | |
| Formerly | Mackies Aberdeen Dairy Company Limited (1954–1995)[1] |
| Company type | Private |
| Industry | |
| Headquarters | Rothienorman, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, UK |
| Revenue |  £20.8 million (2023[1]) |
| £1.3 million[1] | |
In 2009 a partnership was formed with a Tayside potato farming family, the Taylors, to produce crisps, marketed under the name of Mackie's at Taypack.[5] In 2022, the Taylor family purchased Mackie's shares in the crisp business.[6] The manufacture of chocolate on the Mackie farm in Aberdeenshire began in 2014.[5]
Ice cream
editMackie's of Scotland makes all of its ice cream on the family farm in Aberdeenshire using fresh, whole milk.[7] The farm holds 330 cows and produces over 10 million litres of ice cream a year.[2] A range of flavours are available in the Classic range, including: Traditional, Honeycomb, Chocolate, Organic and Raspberry Ripple. In the Indulgent range are: Salted Caramel, Madagascan Vanilla and Chocolate Orange & Honeycomb.[8] Mackie's first began ice cream production in 1986.[9]
Mackie's of Scotland is best known for its Traditional flavour ice cream, which is Scotland's best selling ice cream.[10]
Chocolate
editMackie's of Scotland has been manufacturing chocolate on the farm since 2014, producing five flavours inspired by the flavours of its ice cream range: Traditional, Honeycomb, Orange, Dark and Mint.[11]
Renewable energy initiatives
editMackie's of Scotland was an early adopter of renewable energy, installing its first 850kW turbine in 2005, having first trialled the idea with a smaller grid-connected turbine as far back as 1983.[12] The firm produces more than twice as much energy as it uses, feeding the excess energy back to the UK grid.[13] The farm's main source of renewable energy is wind, with four wind turbines and a total capacity of 3 MW. Annually, the wind turbines generate 8570 MWh on average, which is roughly equivalent to the amount of energy required to power over 2000 UK homes.[13]
The farm has a 10-acre site of solar panels with a capacity of 1.8 MW, a smaller array of solar panels on the byre roof and a biomass plant which produces a further 400 kW of heating power for the farm's office and houses.[14] The solar panels help to complement the wind energy harvested by the farm, particularly in the sunnier summer months of the year when it is less windy.[13]
Between 2021 and 2022, Mackie's of Scotland installed a low-carbon refrigeration system which uses the heat from a biomass boiler to be help freeze the ice cream made on site.[13] The new system will use biomass heat and ammonia, a natural refrigerant gas with no climate warming threat to cool the ice cream.[citation needed]
Ice cream parlour
editIn 2017, the company opened its first ice cream parlour, Mackies 19.2, in Marischal Square, Aberdeen.[15] The parlour is named for being located 19.2 miles from the family farm.
References
edit- ^ a b c "Mackie's Limited overview - Find and update company information - GOV.UK". Companies House. 31 May 1954. Retrieved 18 February 2024. Cite error: The named reference "CompaniesHouse" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
- ^ a b Main, Callum (5 December 2017). "Everything you need to know about Mackie's ice cream parlour in Aberdeen". Aberdeen Evening Express. Retrieved 7 December 2017.
- ^ "About Mackie's". Mackie's (official website). Retrieved 7 December 2017.
- ^ Moulds, Josephine (15 November 2017). "To milk it in ice cream you need to keep changing". The Times. Retrieved 8 December 2017.
- ^ a b Ranscombe, Peter (11 September 2017). "Milking it". BQ Magazine Scotland. Retrieved 8 December 2017.
- ^ "Mackie's at Taypack to change brand after share buyout". BBC News. 22 July 2022. Retrieved 25 July 2022.
- ^ "Mackie's Traditional Luxury Dairy Ice Cream 1 Litre". Tesco. Retrieved 7 December 2017.
- ^ "Ice Cream Flavours | Explore Our Range". Mackie’s of Scotland. Retrieved 13 October 2021.
- ^ "Our History | Mackie's Over The Decades | Mackie's of Scotland". Mackie’s of Scotland. Retrieved 13 October 2021.
- ^ "A yearning for indulgence sees Mackie's capture an increasing market share". Grampian Online. 14 February 2021. Retrieved 25 July 2022.
- ^ "Mackie's Chocolate Range | Browse Flavours". Mackie’s of Scotland. Retrieved 13 October 2021.
- ^ "Green Resolutions". Mackie’s of Scotland. Retrieved 25 July 2022.
- ^ a b c d "Environment & Sustainability". Mackie’s of Scotland. Retrieved 13 October 2021.
- ^ "Our environment". Mackies Ice Cream. Retrieved 25 February 2021.
- ^ "Mackie's parlour scoops first Marischal Square shop spot". BBC News. 5 December 2017. Retrieved 7 December 2017.