Fudge Kitchen’s Flagship Bath Shop Celebrates 35th Birthday with a Full Refit

Fudge Kitchen’s flagship Bath shop celebrates its 35th birthday with a full refit to reflect the brand’s big personality as part of a £100k Fudge Kitchen extensive rebrand across seven shops and packagings.

Changing pre-confections… 

It is 35 years since the Bath Fudge Kitchen opened its doors, importing an American concept of fresh, whipping cream fudge, made to an authentic 1830s recipe and introducing the pioneering concept of ‘retail theatre’. The shop still hand makes fudge in full view of the customer, using traditional techniques involving copper cauldrons of bubbling fudge, poured onto marble (below) and ‘loafed and slabbed,’ using huge spatulas to turn the cooling fudge and achieve that FK famed creaminess.

The combination of this daily spectacle, the incomparable quality and texture of their multiple award-winning fudge and the famously entertaining banter and generous sampling by the staff, has placed Fudge Kitchen at #5 of Things to Do in Bath on Trip Advisor. And earned them Best Local Confectionery in the 2017 Bath Good Food Awards, voted for by the people of Bath.

The first major refit of Fudge Kitchen shops in 10 years will be completed in March 2018, moving away from the luxury chocolate aesthetic of the last branding, to embrace and communicate the collective, big personality and values of the company.

“We have successfully repositioned and educated people that fudge, done properly, with natural, and good quality ingredients can be something rather special and spectacular,” says MD Sian Holt.

“Fudge Kitchen has grown-up and now is the time to let our own, very unique identiity and strong brand shine through in its own right. Quirky straplines and design features reflect the group personality of the fudge family, and lighter-brighter colours let the hero of the piece, our fudge, stand out on a fresh, contemporary stage all of its own.“

Design concept-tionery… 

Jamie MacFarlane, Director of Let’s Talk Agency, which was tasked with the rebranding, explains how:
“As the branding agency for Fudge Kitchen, we’ve helped the brand update its image to bring out its personality more consistently. Previously, each of the stores had different interior designs that only followed a loose branding theme. Our designs make the branding consistent across all stores, while letting each shop  retain its individual flavour.

"We chose each store’s colours according to the new brand colour palette, and implemented common features that would be present in each store. Every shop now has a large cocoa powder explosion graphic on its walls, expressing the energy, passion and fun of the brand, and highlighting the big copper pot where the fudge is made – the focal point of the stores”

The result is bright, light, and artisanal functional; with clear, colour-coded signage, flavour and allergen information and a layout designed for both efficiency and as a stage for the fabulously theatrical process that is traditional fudge making, which customers specifically visit to watch. Yet, with the quirky details that differentiate the brand – from the rubber duck and chainsaw listed on the Fudge Tooling board, to sage advice accompanying the Fudge Flavours: ”Remember, more is more and less is lazy” “Don’t Tap on the Glass. It Scares the Fudge”…

Says Bath manager Ian McCluskey, “We love the new refit and are getting loads of positive comments from our regular customers. Our new hanging sign is really drawing people in as well.”

Bath Brew House and Bath Fudge Kitchen collaboration…

The Bath shop is currently collaborating with the Bath Brew House to create a fudge-based beer, involving a dark chocolate fudge (pictured right), created in the Fudge Kitchen shop with their master brewer Max Cadman

Says FK Manager Ian McCluskey: "I’ve had a meeting with their head brewer and we’ve been through all the sciency, flavour profile stuff to come up with a beer that nods to fudge but isn’t super sweet and gross."

This will be brewed in a milk stout on 7th March from 9am at Bath Brew House, amidst a day involving plentiful fudge samples too. The finished beer will be available on tap at Bath Brew House from March 26th 2018, until it runs out, and in 50 limited edition bottles in the Fudge Kitchen Bath shop. The prize of a 5L keg of the brewed beer and a box of hand made Fudge Kitchen fudge is up for grabs for the best name for it. Tweet suggestions to @BathBrewHouse or facebook @FudgeKitchenBath to win…

A few Bath Fudge Kitchen facts …

• The Abbey Churchyard shop is Grade II listed and dates from the 1790s.
• The shop makes about 25 tonnes of fudge per year, 7 tonnes of which is Sea Salted Caramel – Bath’s favourite.
• It is a hub of innovation, regularly creating new flavours, including Buttermint, Butterscotch, Lemon Drizzle and Lemon Sherbet, which were all adopted by the other six nationwide shops.
• The Bath fudgeteers are a multi-talented bunch: Steve and George are musicians, Tia is a dancer, Lise is an artist, Breffni is a trainee blacksmith, who makes his own weaponry, Pete is an actor, Beth makes movies and Jessika is an author!
• The shop recently had Olympian Amy Williams making fudge in their shop, for A Question of Sport film sequence.

Bags of personality…

This same celebration of the unique Fudge Kitchen sense of fun regularly makes social media stars out of the rebranded bags, which bear straplines including …

Does My Fudge Look Big This?
[Help] I’m Not Gonna Make It Home In One Piece
Are You Lookin’ At My Fudge?
[Woah] Get The Fudge Out of Here!
[Caution] I’m Stuffed with Fudge 

With the laughs come eco-credentials, however. Fudge Kitchen is serious about Corporate Social Responsibility; from actively reducing waste in production to annually supporting a chosen charity to tackling the packaging issue head-on.

The new bags are recyclable paper and the redesigned Fudge Kitchen gift boxes have been reduced in size to minimise packaging waste (pictured right), while still retaining that luxury feel… and keeping their fudge nice and snug! As part of this extensive rebrand, a shiny new Fudge Kitchen website will follow in Summer 2018.