Word of mouth: Tangerine Confectionery, York When you think of the shelves in the confectionery department at Marks & Spencer, it's Percy Pigs that spring to mind - the pink pig-shaped raspberry gummy sweets. More than 1.5 million Percy Pigs are eaten each week. But since 2011 M&S has seen a resurgence in the demand for traditional sweets - rhubarb and custards, sherbet lemons and butter mints. Sales of these sweets are up 22 per cent on last year. Aoife Hanningan, the M&S confectionery buyer, says, 'A sense of nostalgia for all things British has swept the nation. Over the past few weeks we've sold more than 140,000 bags of traditional sweets as customers prepare to fill stockings. One man in particular is pleased by their return. Neil Strange, a sugar confectioner at Tangerine Confectionery in York, which has supplied M&S since the 1950s, specialises in the production of these sweets, as well as fudge and toffee. He has been making butter mints since he started working there in 1977, aged 16. It is good to see that some traditional sweets have stood the test of time," he says. Tangerine also produces giant lollies and chocolate eclairs for M&S. It supplies other supermarkets (Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury's, Morrisons), makes the strawberry lollies that you find in a Sherbet Dip Dab and has recently been working on samples for the upmarket confectioner Hope & Greenwood. Strange was born and grew up in York. His father had worked at Tangerine as a 'charge hand" (a supervisor) until his death in 1966. I have memories of my dad bringing home sweet samples when I was a child," Strange says. Starting as a 'weigh up lad" on the toffee line, Strange had the job of weighing out buckets of glucose and sugar for the sweet makers. In 35 years he has progressed through 'the pan room" (where he supervised the making of sugared almonds, among other things) to become one of the eight-strong product development team; he can now be found inventing sweets in a concept kitchen. Recently he has been working on a range of afternoon-tea-flavoured boiled sweets, including cherry bakewell and lemon drizzle cake. But he is most proud of the Cornish cream fudge and the ginger fudge he developed for Marks & Spencer's Christmas range in 2011. Those recipes have become seasonal favourites," he says. We were already producing an all butter fudge for M&S and they wanted to do some variations on that. I thought clotted cream would be even more indulgent and ginger is the opposite, more tangy. Fudge inclusions - adding pieces of ginger or perhaps fruit - is something he is currently working on further. I have been making concept samples for next Christmas with figs and some with cranberries and brandy. While the production of confectionery is less hands on than it was in Strange's father's time - 'sweets were cooked in copper pans on giant gas fires back then, whereas now syrup passes through heated steel pipes" - his job in the concept kitchen is reminiscent of Willy Wonka. I have two gas rings and steel bowls and I can make samples of between 1kg and 2.5kg in each pan," he says. The main production line in the factory can produce up to one ton an hour - about 125,000 individual sweets. Strange always has a sugar, glucose and water mix to hand, pots of colours and flavours including spinach, carrot and elderberry powders (since 2008 M&S sweets have contained only natural flavourings) and pipettes that measure from 1ml to 10ml. On a marble slab he works with cooling syrups to shape boiled sweets. I have a hook and by pulling and stretching the sugar piece I can form a shape and work on new striping techniques," he says. When he is ready to do a full-scale trial, he moves his concept to the factory floor. I need to be really certain about a sweet before I go out there," he says. If I am going to disrupt the whole production line, I need everything to be spot on. How does he know whether a sweet is a success? I take samples home for my teenagers to taste," he says. They always give me an honest opinion. They particularly like things with chewy centres and the Cornish Cream Fudge. Butter mints, £1.09 for 225g; Christmas Cornish cream fudge, £5 for 225g; rhubarb and custard, 70p for 120g 0845-302 1234; marksandspencer.com