Slideshow: Gwynedd Confectioners

Lord Mandelson may not have had personalised chocolate lollipops in mind when seeking to highlight the role of “advanced manufacturers” in the economy.

But Gwynedd Confectioners, which uses computerised design methods similar to those employed in aerospace or Formula One engineering to fashion the moulds for its products, has as much right to the label as many high-tech businesses.

At its Bala plant in north Wales, the UK chocolate manufacturer turns out 250 types of chocolate product a year, ranging from lollipops emblazoned with special lettering and decorations, to gifts made to order in the shape of flowers, farm animals or mobile phones.

“We make products that are different from what a lot of other manufacturers would think about,” says Steve Valentine, managing director and co-owner of the company.

The key to production is the design of the specialist moulds, which are made from polycarbonate plastic by contractors to Mr Valentine’s specification. They are used to turn out items in production runs of up to 250,000 at a time.

Among the company’s 39 workers is a group of decorators. They work on adapting by hand the moulds so they will produce chocolate items complete with lettering or fine details, such as the mane of a horse or the outline of a flower petal. According to Mr Valentine, it would be “ludicrous” to consider that his part of the UK’s chocolate manufacturing market could ever be displaced by chocolate imported from a low-cost country such as China.

He declined to say how big Gwynedd’s sales are, except that they are in the range of “several million pounds a year”.

The effect of the recession to date has been slight; he says revenues are up 8 per cent on last year.