Pedro Irizarry, director of production/maintenance, checks on Charlie Martin as he pulls rock candy out of the aqua dye and places it on a rack to dry.
Largest U.S. rock candy producer poised to take advantage of its confectionery manufacturing capacity through branded, contract manufacturing and private-label segments.
Photos by Tom Stock
222 CANDY INDUSTRY November 2016 WWW.CANDYINDUSTRY.COM (Left) Heather Primeau, director of quality, and Sam Davis, document control specialist, examine a gourmet mint while Ben Greco, quality control tech, takes a closer look at a test sample. (Above) John Almaviva, senior v.p. of operations, ladles in color, giving Alicia Duesler a hand during panning of gourmet mints.
By Bernard Pacyniak // EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
een awhile since you exactly the sexiest segment within the had a piece of rock confectionery industry. At the same time, candy? Perhaps you the “old favorite” represents a $7-million saw it at a Cracker niche for the company. BBarrel Restaurant, that food service haven Aside from being sold in the of all things nostalgic? Or was it at the aforementioned Cracker Barrel and Party Party City store, stocking up on favors for City outlets, rock candy can be found your child’s birthday? in various foodservice and hospitality At-a-Glance And yes, America, people still purchase venues, often doubling as barista and and consume rock candy, a treat once swizzle sticks. It even doubles as bling in reserved only for the very rich and Tiffany-like settings. Richardson considered to have therapeutic qualities. “You’ll find our rock candy sticks Brands Co. One might even say that rock in jewelry stores in display cabinets,” candy qualifies for consideration as Tucciarone says. “They are colorful and Headquarters: Canajoharie, N.Y. the “mother of all candies,” its origins they sparkle, so it’s a great decoration for Plant: 180,000 sq. ft. dating back to Persia and India. It the jewelry on display.” Employees: 170 certainly represents candy in its But rock candy, albeit the company’s Products: Rock candy, soft simplest and purest form, essentially a oldest brand (Dryden & Palmer rock candy mints, panned mints, reception recrystallization of pure cane sugar. was introduced in 1880), represents only sticks, panned candies, gum, Ironically, for something that’s so one nostalgic jewel in the company’s cooking and seasoning sauce. simple and pure, producing it isn’t. The portfolio of brands. The classic Richardson Brands: Richardson, Dryden process is actually very labor-intensive Mints debuted in 1893, Beechies gum & Palmer, Beechies, Bogdon’s and time-consuming. Moreover, in was introduced in 1936, and Bogdon's GravyMaster the United States, there’s only one reception sticks appeared in 1945. In major manufacturer of rock candy; it’s addition, GravyMaster, a seasoning Output: 12 million lbs. annually Canajoharie, N.Y.-based Richardson sauce that’s a byproduct of rock candy Sales: $22 million Brands, which also manufactures production, hit the shelves in 1935. Management team: soft mints, reception sticks, and As one might expect, it’s not easy James Tucciarone, cfo/coo; panned products. The company also carving out a niche for products that John Almaviva, senior v.p. of markets Beechies, a gum, and owns, are more nostalgic than nouveau in operations; Tracey Burton, v.p. manufactures and markets GravyMaster, today’s highly competitive marketplace. of financial operations; Heather a seasoning sauce. Nonetheless, Tucciarone and his Primeau, director of quality Jim Tucciarone, the company’s coo/ management team are doing it, preserving control; and Pedro Irizarry, director cfo, acknowledges that rock candy isn’t a way of life in the community while of production/maintenance.
WWW.CANDYINDUSTRY.COM November 2016 CANDY INDUSTRY 223 After seeding, the racks are rolled over to a temperature- controlled incubation room The process of making rock candy begins and placed into sugar solution. with seeding. Here, a worker places 448 The seeds extract the sugar ball-tipped sticks into a stainless steel rack. and "grow" onto the sticks. Once the rack is filled, it's dipped into a The 24-hour process produces supersaturated solution of glucose syrup. purified rock candy.
Richardson Brands' management team: (Sitting, l. to r.) Tracey Burton, v.p. of financial operations; John Almaviva, senior v.p. of operations; and Jim Tucciarone, coo/cfo. Standing: Heather Primeau, director of quality control; Members of the rock candy crew demonstrate their handiwork. in the back, and Pedro Irizarry, director of production/maintenance. just recently dyed rock candies dry in their racks for 24 hours. delivering high-quality specialty confections to loyal and new Recognizing the need for an operations person while he fo- customers alike. cused on sales and marketing, D’Angelo brought in Tucciarone as Having been acquired by Founders Equity, a private equity his chief financial officer and de facto chief operating officer. To- firm, on May 11, 2006, the company’s new ownership faced its gether, the two zeroed in on the need for organizational changes first crisis shortly thereafter when the Mohawk River spilled over and established a new management team, which consists of its banks on June 28. The 100-year flood engulfed the entire town Heather Primeau, director of quality control; John Almaviva, se- in several feet of water, including the 180,000-sq.-ft. Richardson nior v.p. of operations; Tracey Burton, v.p. of financial operations; Brands manufacturing facility. and Pedro Irizarry, director of production/maintenance. The flood’s aftermath slowed the equity investors’ plan for “We saw a significant need, but at the same time a lot of growth, although the company did acquire Bogdon Candy Co. on promise,” Tucciarone explains. “There were organizational August 14, 2009. Frustrated at the lack of progress made toward and financial circumstances that needed improvement. The profitability, Founders Equity brought Arnie D’Angelo out of company was struggling.” retirement in late 2011 to bring about change. Given that the company had to deal with U.S. sugar prices D’Angelo had founded and owned International Marketing being nearly double global prices, purchasing this critical Systems of Connecticut, a marketer and distributor of branded ingredient compounded the situation. It contributed to cash food products including coffee creamers, chocolate drinks, flow issues, which prevented strategic re-investments. imported Belgian chocolates, co-branded Arizona Iced Tea and “It wasn’t long before we corrected the Land O’ Lakes products. cash flow issue, thanks to a loan from His experience in marketing Webster Bank,” he says. And thanks a broad range of branded and to the managers on staff, other private-label food products issues were resolved as well. including Bigelow Tea, where he Primeau, charged with over- was the “father” of the ubiquitous seeing R&D, quality control, tea-chest offered in restaurant, sanitation and food safety, re- hospitality and foodservice calls the challenge posed to her. locations, was seen as an ideal fit “They were having trouble to stimulate growth for Richardson. passing third-party audits,” she
224 CANDY INDUSTRY November 2016 WWW.CANDYINDUSTRY.COM (Clockwise)To produce Bogdon's reception sticks, an 82-lb. batch of candy is fed into a former, producing a rope that's sized, rolled, cooled and cut. The cut sticks are put into tubs and then fed into another cooling tunnel before they are enrobed in chocolate. After being cooled again, they head toward a flow- wrapper and then toward secondary packaging. says. “I found myself essentially building Getting SQF certification “isn’t hard extends to production as well. Enter John a quality assurance and food safety in concept, but there’s a significant Almaviva, senior v.p. of operations. Here, program from the ground up.” amount of documentation and due too, it was a matter of adding structure. The 20-year food industry veteran diligence required, and even more “I was charged with setting up a immediately focused on sanitation. As hours to achieve,” she adds. costing system and improving overall Primeau explains, “A good quality foun- It’s all about “continuous plant efficiencies,” he explains. “It was dation begins and ends with sanitation.” improvement,” Primeau explains, applying cost-accounting practices and She simultaneously started with “building on our core business. It’s all applying it to our operation. And while teaching workers how to conduct “self- about improving what we know and what this may have been straightforward audits.” Encompassing everything from we do well.” to most experienced record-keeping, documentation, safety, To emphasize operations professionals, Good Manufacturing Practices (GMPs), that in a very clear Richardson Brands the condition of the physical plant and way, the head of wasn’t any ordinary housekeeping, the self-audits had the quality control confectionery plant.” effect of making everyone responsible is personally As Almaviva goes for the area in which they worked and involved in heading on to explain, his taking ownership. up continuous experience was in the “It had never been done before,” Prime- education courses on au says, “but the effect was immediate.” food quality and food Within a year, the plant was acing third- safety for employees. party audits, such as inspections from the “It’s mostly web- American Institute of Baking and Siliker’s. based courses, but She’s also beefed up the quality assurance, there’s plenty of food safety and sanitation departments, hands-on instruction bringing total personnel to 30. as well,” she says. “We The company has already applied are showing them real- for Safe Quality Food (SQF) certifica- life examples of how it tion — a global food safety manage- pertains to improved ment system — and expects its initial quality and safety.” audit this December. Primeau hopes to The lead-by- pass the rigorous review by March 2017. example approach
WWW.CANDYINDUSTRY.COM November 2016 CANDY INDUSTRY 225 The ‘mother of all candies’
It is, by all accounts, one of the and dipped into a sugar solution, the simplest and purest forms of candy, seeds extracting the sugar molecules a recrystallization of sugar. It is not, from the solution. however, easy to produce rock It’s here that the temperature candy. Rather, the process takes five and viscosity of the solution control days and involves plenty of manual the growth of the sugar crystals, and labor and several days of seeding, hence, the size of the rock candy, incubation, dying, cooling and finally explains Pedro Irizarry, director of “fingering” before the confections are production/maintenance. After ready for packing. 24 hours, the racks containing the The process begins with seeding. formed rock candy are taken into Using 4- , 5- and 6-in. wooden sticks the dying room. Racks are individually with ball tops, workers will place these lifted and submerged into a tub of manually in stainless steel racks holding dye, then placed on a holding rack candy. Fortunately, in 1935, Dryden & between 448 and 672 slots. Once the to dry. Drying typically takes another Palmer discovered a way to use the rack is filled, the sticks are dipped in 24 hours. byproduct of rock candy production a “secret sauce,” a supersaturated Prior to packaging, the rock and combine it with herbs and solution of glucose syrup. candies are manually “fingered” spices to produce GravyMaster, a It is here that the seeding takes to remove any crystals not firmly seasoning sauce used in gravies and place. The racks are rolled into an attached. They are then cooled for 24 in marinating meats. incubation room that’s kept at 90° - hours and manually packed into bags Today, rock candy is sold in a 100° F, which allows the seed to grow. or bulk boxes. variety of ways, as traditional treats After 24 hours, the racks are moved It takes about 10,000 lbs. of cane and as barista and swizzle sticks for to another climate-controlled room sugar to produce 2,000 lbs. of rock foodservice operations. cosmetics industry. ignited a 10 percent And while every increase in sales of production concern the elegant and pre- entails an ingredients- mium confections. in, products-out The uptick in process, working overall efficiency has within the confines of enabled Richardson a five-story, 108-year- Brands to pursue old structure requires private-label and some added flexibility. contract manufactur- For example, the ing opportunities, to-do list included which showcase the needed repairs resulting from the 2006 flood, energy- potential Tucciarone saw when he joined the company. saving improvements and every facility’s never-ending Recently, the company has contracted with a major concern, a new roof. Add to that the five totally different club store chain to produce chocolate-covered strawberry- production lines in operation — rock candy, gourmet flavored centers. The panned product rivals offerings from mints, soft butter and pastel mints, reception sticks and the majors, says Primeau, who developed the product. GravyMaster seasoning — and Almaviva recognized that in “We have plenty of panning capacity and have the addition to introducing structure and organization, there skilled workforce to produce just about anything,” she would be a learning curve. adds. In fact, the company hosted the PMCA’s panning He, with the help of Pedro Irizarry, director of short course in early November (1 – 4). The move stemmed production/maintenance, slowly introduced the from Primeau wanting to sign up for a short course. operational framework that was “long overdue.” Employees “When they told me that there wasn’t any course being were exposed to the importance of not only food safety and offered because there was no one available to host it, we improved efficiencies, but to documentation as well. jumped at the opportunity,” she explains. It didn’t take long for the plant to see results. That probably best sums up Richardson Brands currently; “Our operating efficiency went from 60 percent to 94 per- the company is ready to jump at opportunities, be they retail cent,” Almaviva says. The increased efficiency numbers dove- or foodservice. tailed with investments into new packaging equipment, as “We have a management team that’s really stepped up; well as spurring the relaunch of Bogdon’s reception sticks, hard they’ve taken Richardson Brands to a new level.” One that’s candy sticks enrobed in chocolate. That rebranding effort has well above the banks of the Mohawk River.
226 CANDY INDUSTRY November 2016 WWW.CANDYINDUSTRY.COM