Mar 15, 2026
Mackie's of Scotland growth and innovation
In 2025 Scottish ice cream and chocolate maker Mackie’s has achieved the fastest growth in its history. For a fourth-generation family farm business in Aberdeenshire, the record results were driven predominantly by continued UK sales growth, with the brand’s products landing on 2,110 more retail store shelves.
Mackie’s ‘Full Cream Ahead’ marketing campaign has also helped win new customers across Scotland, England and Wales. Plus, 10% of revenue now comes from international markets, particularly Taiwan, South Korea and China.
Managing Director Stuart Common put it simply: “These results come down to sticking to what we believe in and not cutting corners.”
Building a brand is a labour of love, talent, total commitment, unwavering determination and, usually some luck. Even success is more often punctuated by two steps forward, one back, rather than an unstoppable rocket-fuelled trip to the stars. Stickiness is key.
Two things from the #wbd playbook strike us about the Mackie’s success story – both are key for brands trying to scale.
-
Brand First. Growing a brand does not allow you to constantly ‘go with the flow’ it needs a total commitment to authenticity and quality, delivered through actions as well as words. Stand for something, define your points of stickiness! This is the basis of the brand’s distinctiveness (all magnified through the Scottish provenance, the founder story and ‘sticking to what we believe in’ mindset).
-
Physical Availability matters! We all get excited about creativity and marketing, but distribution is often the component that leads to step change growth. A lack of it is usually the key barrier to reaching the next level. It does not matter how great your product is, or how strong and distinctive your brand or comms are… if people can’t find your product, they can’t buy it. Everyone knows Byron Sharp’s seminal work on penetration barriers. He does a fabulous job of explaining all this and Mackie’s is doing a good job of demonstrating it.
