Council demands National Crime Agency probe into overseas firms running Oxford Street sweet shops

The battle to reclaim Oxford Street from nearly 30 American candy stores began today with a call for the National Crime Agency to investigate them.

The shops selling overpriced sweets and souvenirs have popped up across Britain after first emerging in Oxford Street, the country’s busiest shopping district.

More than £1million worth of illegal and counterfeit goods – including vapes with unlawfully high levels of nicotine – have been seized from the stores and souvenir shops over the past 15 months.

According to Westminster Council, there are now 29 American candy stores on Oxford Street, and they owe up to £9million in unpaid business rates.

Westminster Council leader Adam Hug will tell a meeting tomorrow that the government must give more support to tax authorities and the NCA should investigate the overseas ownership structures of companies running the stores.

One positive piece of news for opponents of the stores came last week with an announcement by music retailer HMV that it is to reopen its flagship Oxford Street store, which was turned into an American candy outlet after the firm’s departure in 2019.  

Westminster trading standards officers seized £22,000 worth of fake Wonka chocolate bars from one shop last year

Mr Hug will tell Westminster’s scrutiny commission: ‘The rash of candy shops emerged during lockdown and in most cases the traders took advantage of those who simply wanted to fill empty shops to avoid paying business rates.’ 

At tomorrow’s meeting, Mr Hug will also call for more support for the tax authorities and the NCA to investigate the ownership structures of the companies running the stores. 

The council is writing to the freeholders of shops to ask them to consider what they can do to improve Oxford Street.  

The Council has consistently lobbied central Government to give more support to both the HMRC and the NCA.

It believes Companies House lacks any effective oversight and companies can be set up with virtually no checks on who is behind them.

The Oxford Street stores illustrate the issues of ‘shop voids, opaque ownership structures and the need for reform of business rates,’ Councillor Hug is expected to explain.   

Officers have been liaising with officials on the Economic Crime Bill which is currently progressing through the House of Lords. 

But Councillor Hug will argue that the bill does not go far enough to address concerns. 

It comes after news last week that music retailer HMV is to reopen its flagship Oxford Street store, which was turned into an American candy outlet after the firm’s departure in 2019. Above: The HMV store on Oxford Street is pictured in 2018 shortly before it closed (left) and in its current form as ‘Candy World’, one of the gaudy American sweet shops in the area (right)

Councillor Adam Hug (pictured) said in March that Westminster City Council need ‘the new Economic Crime Bill to help clamp down on these loopholes and to provide Government agencies’

The council is exploring ways to try to further crack down on the stores.  

This may include strengthening risk management requirements, creating a high-risk property use list and requiring the identification of a liable individual.

Westminster has led nationally on a mix of enforcement and court action to close down candy stores, with £250,000 in unpaid business rates recovered in recent weeks. 

They have also confiscated more than £1million in unsafe or illegal goods through raids, including vapes with unlawfully high levels of nicotine. 

And last year, the council seized £22,000 worth of fake Wonka chocolate bars in one shop alone. 

The stores took off after businessman Chase Manders started importing American sweets to Britain in 2004 and found they were a massive hit with locals in South Yorkshire.

Companies House now lists Mr Manders as the sole director of London-based Kingdom of Sweets Ltd which was incorporated in 2017.

Manders opened his first Kingdom of Sweets Oxford Street shop in 2012 and his stores were very much the main player in that market for the next few years with five other shops opening across the capital.

Around the same time the M&M’s World in Leicester Square, owned by the confectionary giant Mars, opened in 2011, which was 14 years after the company’s first outlet was launched in Las Vegas.

But by 2018, competitors such as Candy Shop, American Candy and American Candy World began to emerge – with Kingdom of Sweets claiming that rivals were visiting their stores and taking photographs.

Trading standards suspect that in some cases the counterfeiters buy own brand supermarket chocolate and rebadge it as something else – which means a bar worth around 43p can be sold for £8 upwards.  

In October last year, a joint operation staffed by investigators from HMRC and Westminster City Council, alongside local police, targeted seven shops along the landmark stretch.

They included the American-themed stores that have dogged the area for months.

The council said it seized more than 14,000 items, with an estimated value of £215,000 from two shops. 

Some stores were suspected of selling counterfeit Rolex watches, phones, hoodies, PlayStation controllers and power banks with no safety labelling.

In March, Councillor Hug said: ‘Westminster City Council has energetically pursued unscrupulous traders who sell unsafe or fake goods and fail to pay business rates, but we have always maintained this is a whack-a-mole activity.

‘We are dealing here with a sophisticated operation which is skilled at exploiting UK legal loopholes. 

‘There is a glaring lack of governance around setting up companies in the UK with only cursory checks on who the directors are – there are more checks involved if you want to get a local authority library lending card.

‘We need the new Economic Crime Bill to help clamp down on these loopholes and to provide Government agencies such as Companies House and HMRC with the powers and funding they need. 

CANDY STORE TAKEOVER OVER THE WEST END – BEFORE and AFTER: HMV’s flagship store has been unceremoniously turned into a ‘Candy World’ 

CANDY STORE TAKEOVER OVER THE WEST END – BEFORE and AFTER: The ‘American Sweets and Souvenirs’ shop on Oxford Street (right) was once a Ryman stationery shop (left). There is no suggestion any of the shops featured in MailOnline’s article are being investigated by the council

‘As a council we are doing all we can, but we need increased cross-Government support to make life sour for the sweet shop racketeers.’

There are at least ten candy stores between Marble Arch and Tottenham Court Road stations alone – equating to roughly one every 200 yards. 

There has been a boom in videos where youngsters try super-sour or sweet American treats and drinks for the first time. 

Others filmed staff giving visitors, including some apparently still in primary school, free sweets just for popping in and giving a fist bump. 

The stores have been branded ‘the modern day childcatcher’, with some selling treats so sweet that they would be illegal to manufacture in the UK. 

Campaign group Action On Sugar said the stores are exploiting a loophole that means imported US chocolates and candy do not face the same restrictions on sugar content as UK-made products. 

It means the American-themed stores sell products containing almost treble the amount of sugar a British child should consume daily, even in a small single serving. 

BEFORE and AFTER: The ‘Candylicious London’ store on Oxford Street (right) was once a Schuh shop (left)

BEFORE and AFTER: A Coast clothes store on Oxford Street (left) was once in the place of what is now Kingdom of Sweets (right)

Children are being targeted with TikTok videos such as this one, which shows a child trying super sour sweets outside an American Candy Store in central London

In another social media film, this child was shown winning a competition to get ‘free candy’ 

Two children dancing with excitement outside a Kingdom of Sweets store, which has been compared to a theme park for candy

BEFORE and AFTER: The ‘American Candy Store’ on Oxford Street (right) is in a shop that once housed a Footasylum (left)

BEFORE and AFTER: The ‘Americandy’ store with Wonka branding (right) is in a former Accessorize and Monsoon store (left)

BEFORE and AFTER: ‘American Sweet Dreams’ (right) is on the site of a smaller Holland and Barrett next to an Ann Summers (left)

BEFORE and AFTER: A Phones 4U store (left) used to be on the site of what is now a ‘Welcome London’ souvenir shop (right)

BEFORE and AFTER: A Boots store (left) used to occupy the space where the ‘American Candy Shop’ is now located (right)

BEFORE and AFTER: A JD Sports store (left) was once in the retail space now used by a store called ‘Candy Shop’ (right)

Action On Sugar called the targeting of children ‘appalling’. 

HMV shut its flagship store in 2019 after falling into administration before a rescue takeover by Canadian Doug Putman’s Sunrise Records.

It is understood that HMV has signed a deal to replace the current occupant, Candy World, whose lease is set to expire in around six months.

In the face of intense competition from cheaper online retailers and streaming services, HMV – which stands for His Master’s Voice – has come up with an ‘evolved retail concept’ and will stock a wide range of pop culture merchandise, vinyl, film, TV and music technology. 

HMV said the return to 363 Oxford Street was the ‘latest sign of a dramatic turnaround’ after collapsing four years ago, with the firm bouncing back to profit last year.

The store will feature the company’s new logo and store layout, which it has been rolling out since 2021.

The retailer has shifted further towards pop culture merchandise, vinyl, music technology, such as headphones, and live music and signings in stores amid waning demand for DVDs and CDs.