Dancing teacakes are a recipe for soaring sales

THEY were the dancing Scots biscuits seen by more than a billion viewers around the world – now sales of Tunnock’s teacakes have soared after their inspired appearance in the opening ceremony of the Commonwealth Games, according to a leading supermarket.

Tunnocks teacakes sales rose 62% after opening ceremony. Picture: Getty

Customers at Waitrose have been stocking up on the biscuit after giant dancing teacakes whirled around Celtic Park as part of a tribute to the finest qualities of Scots life. Yesterday the supermarket said that in the 24 hours following the ceremony, sales of the chocolate-coated marshmallow snack soared by 62 per cent.

David Jones, supply chain director at Waitrose, said: “We usually expect to see people marking major sporting events with a barbecue or a beer with friends and family – but the sudden demand for Tunnock’s teacakes isn’t something we anticipated. We will certainly be stocking up to meet customer demand.”

Fergus Loudon, operations director of Tunnock’s, said they had no idea that the ceremony would feature teacakes dancing, although they had given permission for the iconic image to be used. He said: “We knew they were going to use an image of the teacakes but because the ceremony was a closely guarded secret we didn’t know to what extent they were being used.

“We were absolutely bowled over when we saw there were 30 large teacakes in the ceremony. We were blown away by the exposure and we felt quite humbled that the producers of the ceremony felt that the brand merited the exposure.”

He said the company has not yet noticed a rise in sales because it takes time for the orders to filter through, but that he was not surprised by the Waitrose figures. However, he said they are expecting to see an increase in sales in view of all the attention following the ceremony.

They had, however, received a number of phonecalls from people wanting to buy copies of the costumes used in the opening display but it was explained to them that these were the property of the event organisers and not available for sale.

The iconic Scottish company was founded by Thomas Tunnock in 1890 after he paid £80 for a shop in Uddingston, South Lanarkshire, and originally operated as in a limited manner as bakers and purveyors of “quality flour confectionery” until the 1950s when it created the now well-loved caramel wafers, snowballs, caramel logs – and of course the teacakes.