For over 40 years, Leaf Brands have been introducing America’s favorite candy to people all over the world. Originally, Leaf Brands® was started in the 1920’s by the members of the Leaf family. Leaf was responsible for producing such candy classics as Whoppers®, Milk Duds®, Jolly Rancher® and Rain Blo Bubblegum®, just to name a few classic Leaf brands. The company was later sold to Hershey Chocolate & Confectionary Corporation, in the late 1990’s, and the Leaf name discontinued.
Leaf Brands was originally founded by Sol S. Leaf in Chicago, Illinois. Mr. Leaf started various candy companies beginning in the 1920s, and they were merged into Leaf Brands in 1947. In 1983, the Leaf Candy Company in Illinois was purchased by Huhtamäki Oyj of Helsinki, Finland, and merged it with Phoenix Candy (the maker of Now and Later) and another candy company it had acquired, all under the Leaf name. Huhtamäki Oyj acquired the Donruss trading card division of General Mills at about the same time and merged it into Leaf. In 1986, Leaf purchased some confectionery brands from Beatrice Foods, the producer of Milk Duds. Also in 1986, Leaf, Inc. sold Phoenix Candy to Kouri Capital, a Finnish investment firm, and changed that company’s name to Phoenix Confections. In 1988, Hollywood Brands, the maker of Payday and Zero, was purchased from Sara Lee by Huhtamäki Oyj and became part of Leaf, Inc. In 1989, the Heath bar was also purchased by Leaf. By the 1990s, Leaf had become one of the world’s top ten confectionery companies; it was especially strong in non-chocolate products such as pastilles and chewing gum and by 1993, Leaf was the fourth largest candy producer in North America before finally being purchased by Hershey’s Candy.
Making their official debut at the 2011 Sweets & Snacks Expo in Chicago May 24 – 26, members of the Leaf family assembled together once again to revive the Leaf name and its famous image. LEAF Brands™ have been synonymous with high-quality and exciting new products and the company is now working on bringing more nostalgic products back to the candy market, as well as launching fun new products. Currently they make Farts® Candy, Astro Pops®, tart n’ tinys® , Wacky Wafers™, Hydrox™ Cookies™, Bonkers!™ and David’s “Beyond Gourmet”® jelly beans products.
“As a big fan of Astro Pops®, I was so unhappy that Spangler stopped producing the pop that I decided to buy the rights and re-introduce the brand,” said Ellia Kassoff, CEO of Astro Pop®, LLC. “The product had a huge following for over 40 years.
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