On the table was a bowl of untempered chocolate discs, and he snapped one up and ate it before talking. He sat down in the company's conference room, which hadn't been redecorated in decades, to tell Elmer's history. Nelson, 54 but with a boyish glow, is now the CEO. Rob Nelson's great-grandfather bought Elmer Chocolate in 1963 from the Elmer family. Candies like Polar, Love Nest, Big Alarm and Old King Tut wouldn't bring even a flicker of recognition if you traveled too far from their factories. (Gold Brick came later, in 1936, daring to sell for 10-cents when other bars were a nickel.)īy necessity, sweets used to be regional, because chocolate couldn't travel far in the days before refrigerated transport. The Golden Age of candy bars were the years between World War I and the Great Depression, says Steve Almond in his book "Candy Freak." Roughly 30,000 brands were introduced, among them Heavenly Hash in 1923. That's not lean manufacturing," Kimmerle said. "Can you imagine bringing in all the ingredients to make a hundred different types of candy. Today the company, one of the last family-run candy makers in the South, says its Heavenly Hash, Pecan Eggs and Gold Brick Eggs, introduced in the early decades of the 20th century, outsell all other Easter candies from Beaumont, Texas, to Mobile, Ala.
Growing up in New Orleans, Easter for Kathy Cunningham McKoin meant Heavenly Hash, a core of marshmallow fluff studded with almonds and covered in chocolate, Pecan Eggs, bricks of sticky nougat rolled in caramel and chopped pecans, and crinkly foil packets with Gold Brick pecan “melt-a-ways.” Not until she got to college did McKoin learn that other kids’ baskets were filled with Hershey’s, Reese’s and the same candies sold year round at groceries and drug stores.Įlmer Chocolate, in Ponchatoula, La., about an hour from New Orleans, makes all those Easter sweets that McKoin grew up on and now buys for her own kids. The pandemic did not impact production & distribution of Easter candy, which was already complete by February of that year. They also wanted to customize the training as much as possible to focus on their product category, chocolate confections.Editor's note : This story was originally published in April 2020. Sending several employees to a public class can be costly and is oftentimes more cost effective to have team members trained in-house. The Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) was in its roll-out phase and they needed to get several employees trained to become PCQIs (Preventive Controls Qualified Individuals) so they could develop their food safety plans to comply with the new FSMA regulations.
Maintaining Training Excellence In-house trainingĮlmer Chocolate was one of our first customers when we started out in 2016. Easter favorites Gold Brick®, Heavenly Hash and Pecan Eggs outsell national leaders five to one along the Gulf Coast. In 1914, Elmer’s sons signed on to what is now known as Elmer Candy Corporation.Įlmer is currently the second largest heart box manufacturer in the country with products distributed to more than 100 retailers in 13 different countries. Around the turn of the century, the company’s name was changed to Elmer-Miller. His son-in-law, Augustus Elmer, eventually joined him. In 1855 in New Orleans, Christopher Henry Miller turned his pastry chef experience into the Miller Candy Corporation. Largest Small Heart Manufacturer in the US
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