With a heritage dating back to 1817, Ernest Jackson has 200 years experience and expertise in developing, manufacturing and marketing medicated confectionery and vitamin pastilles.

Ernest Jackson offers a wide range of well-known branded products, as well as a comprehensive contract manufacturing service.

At the factory site in Devon, Ernest Jackson has the capability to manufacture pastilles, sugar boiled lozenges and paste lozenges, made to exacting standards. Some product formulae have been handed down by generations and others to meet the ever evolving market requirements.

Based in the South West of England, Ernest Jackson currently employs over 150 people across two sites and is a member of the Mondelēz International family of companies.

Drawing on our unique experience of the healthcare and confectionery markets, our company vision is making healthcare easier.

In 1817, a Crediton based pharmacist, William Searle, was asked to prescribe ‘something effective but soothing’ for a troublesome sore throat. As a result, he developed a range of medicated lozenges which he manufactured and sold from his Pharmacy on Crediton High Street. In 1891, William Searle sold the company to Edward Ernest Jackson. Today, Ernest Jackson employs over 150 people and Ernest Jackson's brands and products are available throughout the UK and many countries worldwide. Through years of experience in developing, manufacturing and marketing a vast array of medicated confectionery products, Ernest Jackson has become one of the biggest players in the UK medicated confectionery market.

1817 – William Searle starts making medicinal lozenges in Crediton
1891 – Edward Ernest Jackson buys the business from Searle
1896 – Ernest Jackson diversifies into Pastilles & Pellets
1916 – Ernest Jackson becomes a private limited company. Buys Union Road Factory
and starts making compressed tablets
1923 – Imps liquorice and menthol pellets launched
1925 – Throaties medicated pastilles launched
1930 – Ernest Jackson dies. Son William becomes MD
1964 – Proctor's brand acquired
1973 – Union Road Factory sold (compressed tablet production ceased)
1974 – Vigroids brand acquired
1977 – Vitamin C pastilles launched
1980 – William Jackson dies
1984 – Ernest Jackson merges with Bassetts Foods PLC
1989 – Cadbury Schweppes take over Trebor Bassett
Special Recipe brand acquired
1991 – Potters Catarrh Pastilles and Zubes brands acquired
1992 – Victory V and Hacks acquired by Trebor Bassett
1995 – Bassetts Soft & Chewy Vitamins were launched
Kia Ora Fruit Pastilles were launched
2000 – Confectionery unites in the UK as Cadbury Trebor Bassett
2003 – Adams acquisition brought Halls into Ernest Jackson
2005 – Bassetts Soft & Chewy Omega 3 products launched
2008 – Bassetts Soft & Chewy brand was re-launched
2011 – Kraft Foods acquires Cadbury PLC
2013 – Mondelez International is spun off from Kraft Foods Inc
2015 – Bassetts Vitamins re-launches and introduces a brand new liquid offering
for under 3s
2017 – MAC re-launches and introduces two brand new offerings for sore throats
2021 – Bassetts Vitamins launches a new range of pastilles for adults