Cousins Confectioners founder Ernest Gibson dies at 95

Jan 27 2010 by Matt Hurst, Heswall News

TRIBUTES were paid last week to a well known and respected Hoylake businessman who died aged 95.

At the height of his career Ernest Gibson and his brother Eric employed nearly 3,000 Merseysiders at Cousins Confectioners.

Ernest, who lived in Hoylake, died on January 8 after contracting pneumonia.

His funeral took place in Wirral last Thursday.

Daughter June said: “He was a brilliant man and a great father to me.

“He cared so much about his workers and saw them as extended family.

“He always tried to promote people where he could.

“The bakery business was his life and he worked very hard on it.”

Mr Gibson opened his first bakery shop on Aigburth Road after he came back from active service in 1946.

Eric joined him a year later and they soon started to expand their business in the region.

In 1960 the company joined Associated British Foods and opened a large bakery in Speke, and by the mid-70s the company was a household name in Merseyside employing nearly 3,000 people.

The brothers opened the first in-store bakeries, sandwich services and self-service restaurants.

The large Cousins corner sign on the junction of Lord Street and South John Street (now Costa Coffee) was for many years a major feature in Liverpool city centre.