Originally Posted by cadbury's

At a recent Sales conference Mr Berry, a sales manager, told a story of how Flake became associated with ice cream and how "99" Flake came by its name.
"When I first came north in 1928 I found that some of the Italian soft ice cream makers in County Durham were trying ways of introducing other lines to increase their sales, which in those days were largely in the form of sandwich wafers. The possibilities were obvious if we could get a suitable line, both in shape and size and texture - and the most promising was Flake, which at that time only sold as a 2d line, and therefore had to be cut with a knife to reduce its size.
However, it proved very successful and its popularity quickly spread. After successive introductions of half penny and 1d Flake, both of which were sold with ice cream, the Sales Committee finally agreed to produce a special size to fit the sandwich and Mr Berry visited a number of Italian customers in the area. After this of course the cornet with the Flake placed temptingly in the top of the ice cream became very popular.
In the days of the monarchy in Italy the King had a specially chosen guard consisting of 99 men, and subsequently anything really special or first class was known as '99' and that his how '99' Flake came by its name."