Kinnaird Kitchen, the artisan fudge maker founded in the pantry of Kinnaird Castle in Angus, has moved its production to ONE SeedPod.
The move will enable a quadrupling of production.
Husband-and-wife team Scott Bell and Stephanie Friend launched the business as a lockdown side project in 2021 using a 100-year-old family recipe. It now supplies customers including Balmoral Castle, Tomatin Distillery, the Royal Scotsman and luxury hotels, but working from a domestic kitchen limited production to around two batches a day.
Needing more space, the business moved into a manufacturing kitchen at ONE SeedPod in September 2026 under a three-year agreement. The purpose-built, food-safe unit was ready to use with no costly fit-out, and its specialist equipment means two batches can now be made side by side in around an hour, with greater consistency, lower costs and better energy efficiency.
The move also gives the team access to ONE SeedPod’s technical advisers and development chefs, who are helping them refine recipes and create new products, and to a community of fellow producers. They are already working with fellow tenant Vanilla Labs on a new vanilla fudge.
Co-founder Stephanie Friend said: “It was really difficult to find something that was suitable and didn’t need a lot of money spent on it. Coming here, it’s ready to go. For the first five years, we felt we were on our own. Coming here, we’ve had help with pointing us in the right direction for grants and moving our business forward. It has helped us immensely.”
Kinnaird Kitchen is also developing four heritage-inspired loaf cakes and plans to grow sales, take on more staff and strengthen its position with premium hospitality and retail customers.
Alan Thorpe, Director of Food and Drink at Opportunity North East (ONE), said: “ONE SeedPod is Scotland’s food and drink innovation hub, so it is fantastic to welcome out of region food and drink producers like Kinnaird Kitchen into our growing community. These purpose-built food safe manufacturing kitchens and access to onsite technical expertise and experience make ONE SeedPod the perfect place for Kinnaird Kitchen to develop new products, get them to market quicker and ultimately grow and scale faster.”