User:LavaBaron/FCC

Ferrara Candy Company (formerly Ferrara Pan Candy Company) is a United States-based confectionery manufacturer, the third largest candy company in the United States and one of the world's two largest producers of gummi candy. Headquartered in the Chicago area, the company was founded in 1908, merging with Farley's & Sathers Candy Company in 2012. Its brands include Trolli, Brach's, Now and Later, and Lemonhead, among others. A majority of Ferrara is owned by Catterton Partners, a private equity firm.

Founding
Ferrara Candy Company was founded in 1908 in Chicago by Italian immigrant Salvatore Ferrara. Originally a bakery located in Chicago's "Little Italy" neighborhood, Ferrara soon found candy sales surpassed baked goods and partnered with Salvatore Buffardi and Anello Pagano to expand and refocus the company on confectionery. (The company remained under Ferrara family CEOs until its merger in 2012 with Farley's & Sathers Candy Company. )

Extreme candies
With the introduction, in the 1930s, of Red Hots, Ferrara became an early leader in "extreme" candies (candies considered unusually hot or sour). Ferrara's Atomic Fireball debuted as a penny candy in 1954. The product was developed following the 1952 Ivy Mike hydrogen bomb test; its name is a reference to the heat and shape of a nuclear blast - at one time packaging showed the candy rising out of a mushroom cloud. In an interview published in 2009, then CEO Nello Ferrara stated his belief that the intense spiciness of the Atomic Fireball had served as a sinless substitute for drugs among adolescents testing each others mettle, explaining that "many young people went the fireball route who might have gone the marijuana route".

Mergers, acquisitions, and partnerships
A 1990s licensing agreement with Germany-based Black Forest Gummy Bears led to Ferrara ultimately purchasing that brand in 2005.

In 2012 Ferrara merged with Farley's & Sathers Candy Company, making it the third largest United States candy manufacturer after Mars and Hershey. The merger brought the iconic candy brands Trolli, Brach's and Jujyfruit under the Ferrara umbrella. As of 2013, annual sales of Ferrara products were estimated by Candy Industry to be more than one billion dollars.

In 2015 the company began producing a multi-brand candy mix called Kiddi Mix using Ferrara products, as well as popular candies manufactured by other companies. The discovery that one of those candies, Red Vines, had been infested with rice weevils, prompted a lawsuit by Ferrara against Red Vines manufacturer American Licorice Company.

The same year the company's sales of Trolli increased $167 million and it inked an endorsement deal with James Harden.

Brands
The company's portfolio of brands includes products in a number of candy categories including chewing gum (Super Bubble, Rain-Blo, and Fruit Stripe) and hard candy (Atomic Fireball. Red Hots, and Lemonhead). The company's Trolli brand of gummi candies is one of the two largest gummi candy brands in the world. Other brands include Black Forest, Brach's, Jujyfruit, Sathers, Now and Later, Boston Baked Beans, and Chuckles.

Competitors
Ferrara's competitors include Mars, Nestle, Hershey, and Haribo.

Operations
Ferrara, which employs approximately 800 persons worldwide, is headquartered in Oakbrook Terrace, Illinois and has manufacturing facilities in Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Tennessee, and Mexico. In 2015, the company began relocating some of its Mexico-based operations back to Chicago-area facilities in response to a move by Wal-Mart, which retails Ferrara products, to increase sourcing of United States-produced products carried in its stores.

Also in 2015, the company announced the discovery of a new formulation process for gummi candy. Using a combination of starches, the company claimed it could create the texture traditionally associated with gummi candies while complying with organic food labeling guidelines. The first products produced under the new process were a line of organic Black Forest gummi candy.

According to the company, it owns 21 of the 40 starch moguls in the United States.