It started with macaroons

In 1932, in the heart of Glasgow's Gorbals, an Italian woman from the Verrecchia family decided to start making confectionery. The Verrecchias were one of Glasgow's most established Italian café dynasties — Pasquale Verrecchia had opened the University Café on Byres Road back in 1918, and the family ran cafés across the south side of the city. They knew the trade inside out.

When asked what her new business would make, the story goes that she replied — in her best Scottish accent — "I'll do macaroons." And that, more or less, is how the name Aldomak was born.

The company was registered as Aldomak (Biscuits) Limited, and from a small factory in the Gorbals she began producing biscuits, macaroon bars, snowballs, and confectionery to supply the Italian café network that stretched across Glasgow and beyond. By the 1930s, there were over 300 Italian-run cafés in Glasgow alone, and every one of them needed a steady supply of the sweets, wafers, and treats their customers expected. Aldomak was built to serve exactly that need.

 

A family trade, passed through generations

Over the decades, the business passed through the hands of Glasgow's close-knit Italian community — a network of families from southern Italy and Tuscany who had built cafés, ice cream parlours, and restaurants across the west of Scotland, and who relied on each other as suppliers, partners, and often as family.

In 1974, the company was re-incorporated by three Italian families working together: Alessandro Durante, G. Di Meo, and the Riccomini brothers — Enzo, originally from Lucca in Tuscany, and Columbo (as he weas known on the companies house document). Alessandro Durante was the son-in-law of Gerardo Porrelli, who had founded Porrelli Ice Cream in Paisley in 1925 after emigrating from San Biagio Saracinisco in southern Italy. Alessandro had married Gerardo's daughter Gina, and the Durante family would go on to run Porrelli for generations — Dario Durante, Alessandro's Grandson, still leads the business today, now in its 100th year. The connection between Porrelli and Aldomak made perfect sense: Porrelli made the ice cream, Aldomak supplied the wafers, cones, nougats, oyster shells, macaroon bars and tablet that sat alongside it on every café counter in the west of Scotland.

Over the years that followed, it was the Riccominis who took the lead. Enzo's Glaswegian wife Brenda handled the accounts and marketing, and together they steered the business through some lean years — investing their own savings when times were tight, never compromising on quality. In 1992, Enzo bought out the Durante and Di Meo partners, and the company became fully family-owned under the Riccominis.

It was Brenda who established one of the principles we still follow today: no artificial preservatives, no additives. She was allergic to E-numbers herself, and insisted that everything leaving the factory should be something she'd happily eat. It wasn't a marketing strategy — it was personal. And it stuck.

From father to son

In 2001, Enzo and Brenda's son Dario took over as Managing Director. He'd been working in IT and systems at Intelligent Finance, but the family business called him back. He started on the factory floor, learning every recipe and process from the ground up, and set about building Aldomak into a modern manufacturer while keeping the handmade methods that make our products what they are.

The product range evolved with the times. What began with biscuits in the 1930s had grown through ice cream condiments in the 1960s to a full confectionery range by the 1970s - snowballs, macaroon bars, tablet, and fudge. Under Dario, the range expanded further: new flavours, oat bites, meringue and the development of what would become our three brands. We won Great Taste Awards. We secured our first export order to Abu Dhabi. We earned a BRC AA accreditation - one of the highest food safety ratings in the industry.

Through all of it, the core hasn't changed. We still make everything by hand. Our tablet is still boiled in open pans and poured onto cast-iron cooling tables. Our fudge is still slow-cooked for hours and finished with AAA organic Madagascan vanilla. Our macaroon bars still use the same well-fired toasted coconut that's been our secret weapon since the beginning.

Three brands, one factory

Today we trade under three names.  Aldomak  is our trade and wholesale brand — you'll find our products on supermarket shelves across the UK and in independent shops from the Borders to the Highlands. Confectious  is how we sell direct to you — handmade Scottish tablet, fudge, macaroon bars, and oat bites, shipped free from our Glasgow factory to your door. And  Bonnie Glen  is our premium gifting range for those occasions when the packaging needs to match what's inside.

We're still based in Glasgow, still family-owned, and still making confectionery the way it's been made here since 1932. Four families, 94 years, and one unbroken tradition: if it doesn't taste fantastic, it doesn't leave the factory.