Farley's & Sathers Candy Company: Difference between revisions
mNo edit summary |
|||
| Line 52: | Line 52: | ||
===Trolli=== |
===Trolli=== |
||
{{main|Trolli}} |
{{main|Trolli}} |
||
Trolli gained a license to sell gummi products from Mederer in Germany in 1981. In 1997 when Favorite Brands purchased them, they had 10 years remaining on the license. |
|||
Trolli's main production plant is in Creston, Iowa. |
|||
===Henry Heide Candy=== |
===Henry Heide Candy=== |
||
Revision as of 21:38, 28 September 2009
The confectionery business segment is made up of many small companies, often with intertwined relationships and histories. Farley's & Sathers Candy Company, Inc. was created as an umbrella to roll-up many small companies, brands and products under a common management team.
Catterton Partners formed the Farley's & Sathers Candy Company in 2002 as a vehicle for the purchase of some of the former Farley Foods Company and Sathers Candy Company assets and brands from Kraft.
Phillip Morris owned Kraft Foods in 2000 when Phillip Morris purchased Nabisco for $18.9 billion and then merged the two companies. Both Kraft and Nabisco had confectionery and snack divisions when merged. As part of the merger process as well as part of the plan for the company as a whole, product lines, assets and businesses were assessed.
Nabisco had purchased Favorite Brands International in 1999, shortly before Nabisco's sale to and merger with Kraft Foods. Favorite Brands had been formed in 1995 when an investor group purchased the Kraft-branded caramel and Jet-Puffed marshmallow brands from Kraft. The Kraft caramel business enjoyed a greater than 50% marketshare when purchased, while the Kraft marshmallow business enjoyed a greater than 60% share. In 1996 Favorite Brands purchased several other confectionery businesses, including the Sathers and Farley Food Companies, the Trolli Gummi Company and Kidd Marshmallow Company. In 1997 Favorite Brands added the Dae Julie Gummi Company to their portfolio. After the purchase of Dae Julie, Favorite Brands became the, distant, fourth largest confectionery company in the United States, after Hershey, Nestle and Mars.[1]
History
Sathers
John Sather, a local grocer in Round Lake, Minnesota, established the Sather Company in 1936.[2] John's son, Kenneth, joined the business after graduation from high school and continued in the business, after his tour of duty during World War II.
By the early-1960s, Sathers distributed products to the five state Midwest region. The territory grew and product lines and operations changed to include the addition of a nut roasting operation in the 1960’s. With the addition of telemarketing in 1967, the customer territory expanded to eleven Midwest states. With this increase, Sathers added tractor trailer units to its trucking fleet.
The company continued to expand. In 1972, Sathers went nationwide with product distribution. From 1983 to 1994, Sathers expansion continued with the company purchasing five companies to increase the packaging and distribution of product. This now included three manufacturing facilities and two additional distribution centers.[3][4]
Farley
In 1870, Gunther Farley and two of his brothers founded Gunther Chocolate Company. Gunther Chocolate Company later merged with another, smaller, Farley-family-owned candy company in 1891, becoming Farley Candy Company.
Farley Candy moved its operations from Superior Street in Chicago to the north suburb of Skokie in 1951. It passed to a third generation of the Farley family, represented by Preston Farley, who managed it until 1968. In that year, Preston Farley sold a majority interest in the company to Raymond Underwood.
During the Preston Farley and Underwood years Farley was primarily a manufacturer of jell products, manufactured in starch moguls; Farley also produced cinnamon imperials, a panned product and a line of hard candies including sanded lemon hard candy. Preston Farley invented the Farley Jet Cooker, subsequently licensed to the Staley Company which is still producing this under the name of the Staley Jet Cooker. The Jet Cooker is still used widely today in the manufacture of confections and paper.
In 1974 William Ellis purchased 100% of the company. In the same year he purchased the Lakeside Candy Company, located in Zion, Illinois and commonly known as Zion Candy, which produced a full line of individually wrapped hard candies such as starlight mints and butterscotches.
In 1981 Farley was operating out of its plants in Skokie and Zion Illinois when a third plant was added. A 103,000 square foot plant, formerly used to produce the York Peppermint Patty and Power House bar was purchased from Peter Paul-Cadbury. This plant became Farley Candy Company's primary chocolate manufacturing site, though other products were produced as well.
In 1985 Farley bought a vacant 265,000 square foot warehouse in Chicago on 31st Street, and proceeded to convert it for confection manufacturing. This large plant became the primary manufacturing facility for Farley when it came online in June, 1986.
In 1988, Farley’s established a 50,000 square foot packaging and distribution center on the West Coast in Compton, California, as well as leasing a 253,000 square foot warehouse distribution center in Bedford Park, Illinois. With four candy manufacturing plants and two distribution centers, Farley Candy Company had the second largest bag candy manufacturing facility in the United States and the largest private label general line candy manufacturer.
In 1990, Farley purchased a 142,000 square foot former E.J. Brach's factory located in Melrose Park, Illinois. This plant was used for a wide range of products, but primarily to produce hard candies, eventually replacing the plant in Zion, Illinois and concentrating production facilities within a smaller radius of the warehouse/distribution center.
In 1993, facing capacity shortages, Farley (which had changed its name to Farley Foods USA to allow for future expansion to products outside of confections) purchased a 144,000 square foot manufacturing plant in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. This plant had been the main production facility of the Bunte Candy Company since 1959 before being sold to the American Candy Company in 1990, which then sold the plant to Farley.
In 1994 Farley leased a 480,000 warehouse and distribution center on 43rd Street in Chicago, closer to expressways and closer to its major production facility at 31st Street. This new warehouse replaced the 253,000 square foot Bedford Park facility.
In September 1995, William Ellis received a heart transplant at the age of 71. In August 1996 Farley Foods was sold to Favorite Brands International with Ellis taking a 14.3% ownership stake in the new company.
Dae Julie
Founded in the 1960s as a candy importer by David Babiarz, it became a manufacturer with a 120,000 square foot plant located in the Chicago suburb of Des Plaines, Illinos. The primary product focus of Dae Julie was Gummy candies, though the starch-molding equipment could be used for a wide range of products. At the time of its acquisition in early 1997 by Favorite Brands, it was considered one of the top Gummy manufacturers in the country, with annual sales of over $40 million.
Brach and Brocks Candy
Trolli
Trolli gained a license to sell gummi products from Mederer in Germany in 1981. In 1997 when Favorite Brands purchased them, they had 10 years remaining on the license.
Trolli's main production plant is in Creston, Iowa.
Henry Heide Candy
Bobs Candies
Favorite Brands International
Sathers Candy Company, then with sales of approximately $180 million annually, and Farley Foods USA with annual sales of over $300 million, came under common ownership under the umbrella of Favorite Brands International in 1996.
Favorite Brands International (FBI) was formed in 1995 to purchase the branded and private label caramel and marshmallow businesses from Kraft Foods for an estimated $200 million.[5] It was funded with investments from the Texas Pacific Group (TPG) and InterWest Partners. The president and CEO of FBI, Al Bono, formerly CEO of California Gold Dairy Products of Petaluma, California, was quoted as saying: "Business is business, whether it's dairy or chocolate confections or selling lamps". David Bonderman speaking for TPG which had invested $512 million in the venture, was later quoted to say that Favorite Brands was one of the worse investments his group had ever funded.[6][7]
Currently
In 1999, Nabisco purchased the assets of Favorite Brands out of bankruptcy. In 2000, Kraft Foods purchased Nabisco. In 2002 Kraft Foods sold some business units it had acquired through its purchase of Nabisco, mostly from the former Farley Food and Sathers Candy Companies, to Catterton Partners, forming the Farley's & Sathers Candy Company, Inc.
Assets purchased by Catterton Partners did not include all the candy lines that had been acquired by Favorite Brands in their purchase of the Sathers and Farley's Companies, most notably the Fruit Snack and Fruit Roll business of Farley was not included. The Fruit Snack/Roll business line was later sold to the Kellogg Company, along with its primary manufacturing plant. The sale from Kraft in 2002 did include the Dae Julie gummi business and property which had been rolled into the Farley Business Unit within Favorite Brands.
On September 17, 2007, Barry Callebaut AG announced their intention to sell Brach's Confections to Farley's & Sathers.[8] The acquisition completed on November 16, 2007 for an undisclosed amount.[9] This acquisition brought with it Brach's existing fruit snack business as well as its other general line candy products.
Now an independent company, Farley's & Sathers Candy Company, Inc. operates three manufacturing facilities, three packaging and distribution centers, and a trucking fleet consisting of 90 trucks. Many orders are delivered on Sather Trucking Company’s fleet of trucks. The company’s headquarters and Sather Trucking are located in the packaging and distribution center in Round Lake, Minnesota. A manufacturing, packaging and distribution center is also located in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Facilities in Creston, Iowa, and Reynosa, Mexico, manufacture and package products, as well. These facilities combined employ approximately 1,000 people.
Summary Timeline
To summarize:
1860's Henry Heide Candy Company begins business
1890's Farley Candy Company established
1900's Brach's Candies begins production in the backroom of a Chicago store. Brock's Candy of Chattanooga begins production of penny candies, peanut brittle and jelly candies.
1920's Bobs Candies is formed
1930's Sathers Candy Company begins operations
1960's Dae Julie begins business as an importer, later as a manufacturer
1980's Trolli Gummi's begins production
1994 Brach's Candy purchases a controlling interest in Brock's Candy of Chatanooga
1995 Favorite Brands International created with purchase of Kraft Caramel, Marshmallow, Dinner Mints and Peanut Brittle businesses. Henry Heide, Inc is sold to Hershey Foods.
1996 Favorite Brands International acquires Farley Foods, Sathers Candy and Kidd Marshmallow businesses
1997 Favorite Brands International acquires Dae Julie and the Trolli Gummi businesses
1999 Nabisco buys Favorite Brands International
2000 Nabisco is merged with Kraft Foods by Phillip Morris
2002 Catterton Partners form Farleys & Sathers Candy Company made up of assets from the former Farley Foods, Sathers Candy Company, and the Kraft Taffy business from Kraft; Chuckles and several other Henry Heide brands purchased from Hershey Foods.
2003 Catterton Partners continues its acquistions with the purchase of 4 old-line gum lines from Hershey Foods.
2005 Catterton Partners buys the Trolli Gummi business, which had been part of the Favorite Brands group of products, from Wm. Wrigley Jr. Company, which had acquired it as part of a larger group of businesses from Kraft. Bob's Candies is acquired.
2007 Catterton Partners buys the Brach & Brock Candy Company
References
- ^ Farley and Sathers Candy Company History. Reference for Business. 2009-09-26. URL:http://www.referenceforbusiness.com/history2/68/Farley-s-Sathers-Candy-Company-Inc.html. Accessed: 2009-09-26. (Archived by WebCite® at http://www.webcitation.org/5k59xguuM)
- ^ Farley's History
- ^ Fink, Laurie, "Sweet Success",Corporate Report-Minnesota, March 1992, p. 28
- ^ Tiffany, Susan, "Sathers Secures Niche as Manufacturer", Candy Industry, July 1995, p. 51
- ^ Rewick, C.J., "Uphill battle in Candyland: How Life Soured For Favorite Brands",Crain's Chicago Business, April 12, 1999, p. 3
- ^ Riva D. Atlas and Edward Wong. Texas Pacific Goes Where Others Fear To Spend. New York Times. 2009-09-26. URL:http://www.nytimes.com/2002/08/25/business/texas-pacific-goes-where-others-fear-to-spend.html?pagewanted=all. Accessed: 2009-09-26. (Archived by WebCite® at http://www.webcitation.org/5k58yJKOb)
- ^ Roger Yu, Terry Maxson, and Katherine Yung along with kgw.com reporters Abe Estimada and Jim Parker . Texas Pacific Group at Center of PGE buyout financing. Dallas Morning News. 2009-09-26. URL:http://www.kgw.com/business/stories/kgw_111803_news_texas_pacific_group.1b09fad4.html. Accessed: 2009-09-26. (Archived by WebCite® at http://www.webcitation.org/5k59c2oUu)
- ^ Press Release
- ^ Conclusion of Purchase, The Chattanoogan