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See's Candies

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See's Candies
Company typeSubsidiary
IndustryCandy
Founded1921
HeadquartersSouth San Francisco, CA
Key people
Founder: Charles See
CEO: Brad Kinstler
ProductsChocolate, candy, brittle
Number of employees
2000+
ParentBerkshire Hathaway
Websitewww.sees.com
See's Candies headquarters on El Camino Real, South San Francisco

See's Candies is a manufacturer and distributor of candy, particularly chocolate, in the western United States. It was founded by Charles See, his wife Florence, and his mother Mary in Los Angeles, California, in 1921. The company is now headquartered in South San Francisco, California.[1] It has kitchens at its headquarters and at a second location in Los Angeles, where there is also a retail shop. It also has an office in Carson, California.[2]

The company largely markets its products only in its own stores and at those of fellow Berkshire Hathaway subsidiary Nebraska Furniture Mart, allowing it to control the standards under which they are stored and marketed. They are also available in some airports in the Western United States. Since the mid 1990s, the company has also maintained a strong Internet presence via its website. It is also well known for being one of the very early investments purchased by Warren Buffett (via Blue Chip Stamps) for his Berkshire Hathaway Corporation (in 1972), beginning the path of that company from a textile concern to being one of the world's most successful conglomerates.

See's Candies operates over 200 stores in the following U.S. states: Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota, New Mexico, Nevada, Oregon, Texas, Utah, and Washington.[3] There are also stores outside the U.S. in Hong Kong, Japan, and Macau.[4] Seasonally — primarily during the year-end holiday shopping season — See's also offers its product in select markets in kiosks at malls and other shopping centers.

On June 20, 2012, See's Candies made it into the Guinness Book of World Records, when the company built the world's largest lollipop, weighing 7,003 lbs and a length of 4 foot 8.75 inches. The previous largest lollipop record stood at a hefty 6,514 lb. (2 954.7 kg). This giant chocolate lollipop represented 145,000 standard-size See's lollipops.[5]

A See's Candies store.

History

According to the corporate website, Charles Alexander See II (1882–1949) arrived in the United States from Canada in 1921[6] with his wife Florence MacLean Wilson See (1885–1956), and his widowed mother Mary Wiseman See (1854–1939). Mary See had developed the recipes that became the foundation of the See's candy business while helping run her husband's hotel on Tremont Island in Ontario.[7] The family opened the first See's Candies shop and kitchen at 135 North Western Avenue in Los Angeles in November 1921. They leased the shop from the French Canadian pioneer of Los Angeles Amable La Mer. They had twelve shops by the mid-1920s and thirty shops during the Great Depression. In 1936 See's opened a shop in San Francisco. In 1972 the See family sold the company to Berkshire Hathaway Inc..

Warren Buffett has called See's "the prototype of a dream business." (2007)[8]

See family

Charles Alexander See II was born in Canada and came to California in 1919[9]. He came with his wife, Florence, with whom he had three children: Laurance A. See (1912-?), Margaret M. See (1913-?), and Harry W. See (1921-?), who was born after they arrived in the U.S.[9] By 1920, they were living in Pasadena, California and Charles A. See II was working as a druggist in a drug store.[10] At some point prior to her death in 1939, matriarch Mary See moved back to Ontario, Canada, where she was born.[7]

Laurance A. See's high-profile divorce from his wife Elizabeth in 1962 resulted in a landmark community property opinion, written by Chief Justice Roger J. Traynor of the Supreme Court of California for a unanimous court.[11]

References

Shop in Hong Kong
  1. ^ "About Us." See's Candies. Retrieved on January 18, 2009.
  2. ^ "Contact Us." See's Candies. Retrieved on January 18, 2009.
  3. ^ See's U.S. Shop locations See's Candies. Retrieved on August 11, 2009.
  4. ^ See's International Shop locations See's Candies. Retrieved on November 4, 2009.
  5. ^ [1]
  6. ^ See's Candies website
  7. ^ a b Mary Wiseman See, Find A Grave.
  8. ^ Peter Bevelin (2012). A Few Lessons for Investors and Managers from Warren E. Buffett. PCA Publishing and Intermountain Books.
  9. ^ a b United States Census, 1930; Los Angeles, California
  10. ^ United States Census, 1920; Pasadena, California
  11. ^ See v. See, 64 Cal. 2d 778 (1966).
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