Sweet! NECCO Has Sold at Auction for Almost $19 Million
The Revere candy-maker will keep going, for now.
Photo by Olga Khvan
NECCO has been saved, at least for now, and fans of the Revere candy-makers iconic wafers have the folks behind Dum Dum pops and Circus Peanuts to thank.
The New England Confectionery Co. has sold at a federal bankruptcy auction for $18.83 million to Ohio’s Spangler Candy Co., bringing a fraught couple of months for NECCO fans to a sweet conclusion.
This comes after the company announced in March that it may have to abruptly close and lay off hundreds of employees at its factory, which in addition to the chalky disks churns out the Valentine’s Day staple Sweethearts, candy buttons, and other old-fashioned treats. The sale means that production will continue at the factory through the summer and into the fall.
“I’m a fourth-generation Spangler; my great grandfather was the one who founded it back in 1906, and they’d be very proud of us today,” Kirk Vashaw, Spangler’s chairman and chief executive, told the Boston Globe. “We’re very excited . . . well, because it’s candy.”
The news will likely be a relief to the apparently rabid fans of the NECCO wafer, who were so worried about what might happen to their favorite candy that they were buying them in large numbers in a panic. It will also mean that a bid to crowdsource enough money to buy the company can be put to rest.
There is some, uh, other news about NECCO as well. Health inspectors reportedly found evidence of what appears to be a pretty serious rodent problem at the factory. The Globe‘s Jon Chesto shared a letter posted on the Food and Drug Administration’s website, on Twitter Wednesday. Among with some other violations, the FDA says it found feces and gnaw marks in the factory, a leaky ventilation duct, and a foot-long dead rat in its parking lot. “You should take prompt action to correct the violations noted in this letter,” reads the letter, dated May 16. “Failure to do so may result in regulatory action by the FDA without further notice, including, without limitation, seizure and injunction.”
