That Company Sold Necco Again in September
Workers sort NECCO Wafers at the New England Confectionery Co. in Revere, Mass. The Ohio-based Spangler Processed Visitor made the winning bid for NECCO, which filed for bankruptcy in early Apr. Scott Eisen/Bloomberg via Getty Images hide caption
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Scott Eisen/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Workers sort NECCO Wafers at the New England Confectionery Co. in Revere, Mass. The Ohio-based Spangler Processed Company made the winning bid for NECCO, which filed for bankruptcy in early Apr.
Scott Eisen/Bloomberg via Getty Images
NECCOmaniacs, take centre!
The broke New England Confectionery Co., primarily known for its chalky sugar wafers and Valentine's Solar day processed conversation hearts, received an $xviii.83 million winning bid from Ohio-based Spangler Candy Company, maker of Dum Dum lollipops and Circus Peanuts, at a federal bankruptcy auction in Boston on Wednesday.
And while the time to come of NECCO processed is still uncertain, the deal may keep the company's products — which also include Mary Janes, the Sky Bar and Processed Buttons — on the shelves a piffling while longer.
That's good news for fans of the 171-year-old Massachusetts candy maker, which traces its roots back to 1847, when Oliver Chase, an immigrant from England, invented a lozenge cutter (the start American candy car, co-ordinate to NECCO). He and his brother, Silas, and so founded Chase and Co., which became the New England Confectionery Co. subsequently a merger in 1901.
NECCO claims to be the country's oldest continuously operating processed visitor. Civil War soldiers carried NECCO wafers. During WWII, the U.S. government bought them in bulk and shipped them off to soldiers, considering the candy didn't melt and was able to survive transport without breaking. In the 1930s, Richard Byrd, an American navy admiral and polar explorer, took more than two tons of NECCO wafers with him for his two-year expedition in Antarctica.
A candy company then entrenched in American history triggered somewhat of a panic when the news broke that it might shut shop. Equally NPR reported in April, NECCO fans hoarded equally much of the processed as they could, causing sales to spike.
"We're selling a lot," said Jon Prince, who runs the online retailer Candyfavorites.com, during the blitz. One caller wanted to buy his whole inventory, only Prince was limiting sales. "And the person really started to cry and they said they couldn't imagine a earth without their NECCO wafers," Prince said.
And 23-year-quondam Katie Samuels offered a candy wholesaler her 2003 Honda Accord for its entire stock of NECCO, Morn Edition's Noel Male monarch reported. The wholesaler declined, but Samuels got her candy anyway — by charging it to her credit bill of fare.
Though not anybody is a fan of the style the wafers taste — they are oft described as having a chalky, antacid-like season — some people honey them for other reasons.
As NPR reported last calendar month, Spencer Ordway, who runs an overnight camp in Maine, said he stocked up because campers use the wafers as currency to play games and buy prizes at the end-of-summer carnival.
"I had so many alumni and current staff contacting me ... proverb, 'What are we going to practice? How can we save enough NECCO wafers to comprehend us for years to come?'" Ordway said.
And many people on social media take remarked that the wafers make fantabulous shingles for the roofs of gingerbread houses.
Aside from the wafers, the company's Sweethearts are a Valentine'due south Twenty-four hour period staple, bearing a selection of well-nigh 80 messages, from the classics "Be MINE" and "Buss ME" to more mod phrases, such as "Email ME" and "CHILL OUT."
The beleaguered candy maker, which will even so operate out of Revere, Mass., for now, has recently faced other difficulties: In a letter dated May 15, the FDA detailed unsanitary weather condition throughout the plant, proverb that inspectors had found rodent droppings "besides numerous to count" besides as dirty equipment and work spaces.
And layoffs of up to 400 people were expected if a buyer was not plant.
The winning applicant, Spangler Processed Visitor, which was also founded by a pair of brothers, has been family owned and operated since 1906. Its current CEO, Kirkland B. Vashaw, is a fourth-generation family unit fellow member.
Mike McGee, CEO of NECCO, told the Boston Herald, "We started as a family-owned candy company. We're thrilled to work with a quaternary-generation processed company that'due south going to bring some new stewardship to our brand. We'll work really hard to make sure we get a successful transition."
Source: https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2018/05/24/614140906/saved-in-the-necco-time-bankrupt-candy-company-sold-at-federal-auction
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