Scottish Maker of Toffee Bars Goes Into Administration

A maker of sweet treats for Scots may face a sour fate.

Confectioner New McCowans Ltd., which makes Highland Toffee bars, Wham chew bars and Bonbons chewy candies, has gone into administration, according to the BBC.

In the U.K., a company that goes into administration must hand over control to an independent administrator who then works to find a way to pay creditors, often through a sale of the company. In this case, advisory firm Grant Thornton took over, and a spokeswoman told the Guardian there were interested buyers for New McCowans, which is closed for the time being.

According to the BBC, the confectioner’s Highland Toffee is “one of Scotland’s oldest and best-loved sweets.” New McCowans, which has been around since the 1920s, sells 140 million bars of the sweet stuff each year.

New McCowans, formerly known as McCowan’s in honor of founder Andrew McCowan, has changed hands several times throughout its lifespan. According to the BBC, it was sold to Nestle in the 1960s, bought by management in the 1980s and acquired by a Dutch company in the mid-1990s. Management took another bite at a buyout in 2003, and the company went into receivership two years later, where it was rescued by an investor group.