Over the years Lemon & Co. produced such lines as Lemon’s Saturday Assortment, Lemons’ Seasons Greetings, Peggy’s Leg, Lettered Rock, Lemon’s Luxuries, Lemon’s Romance Assortment , Lemon’s Fruit Gems, Lemon’s Rum & Butter Toffees, Lemon’s Liquorice Toffees, Lemon’s Irish Butter Toffees, Lemon’s Taste of Ireland Tins, Lemon’s Orchard Jellies, etc.
In 1984, because of financial difficulties, the factory closed. Eventually, the site was sold and College Manor a modern in-fill housing development replaced the distinctive factory building.
The brand name was bought by the Robert Roberts company who continue to supply a lot of the old Lemon's favourites.
ORIGINS
The Confectioners Hall at 49 Lower Sackville Street (now Lower O’Connell Street) greatly contributed to the distinctive character of Dublin’s main street. One 19th century writer in describing Sackville Street noted that:
"Perhaps the most interesting windows of all, particularly at Christmas time, was that of Lemon’s Sweet & Confectionery Shop. Every year during the festive season one of the two windows displayed an attractive winter scene".
Graham Lemon prospered in his business and owned property throughout Dublin including "Little Grafton Street" which was renamed "Lemon Street" in his honour in 1871. Graham died in 1886 and his family managed the business until the 1920’s when it was sold to an English sweets company, based in Liverpool, called Barker & Dobson.
In the 1940s through to the 1960s, Lemons Pure Sweets advertisements were a feature of The Irish Times newspaper. The Lemon’s ‘This is Saturday, this is Lemon's Day’ is a famous 30-year legend of the Irish advertising industry.
Barker & Dobson got into financial difficulties itself around 1980 and, following this, the Drumcondra factory closed in 1984. Robert Roberts purchased the brand and kept some of the products alive - although they had to import the sweets.
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