Pearson's Candy Company is shutting down its St. Paul factory for good, ending 76 years of candy-making in the city and putting about 80 employees out of work as the plant closes at the end of September. The company says rising production costs and higher ingredient prices, including higher chocolate prices, made the 67-year-old factory unsustainable to keep running.
According to MPR News, the closure affects Pearson's St. Paul plant. Mpls.St.Paul Magazine reports that the plant is along West Seventh Street, where the company has produced its Salted Nut Roll and other candies for generations. The magazine says Promise Confections confirmed it has filed a WARN notice tied to the roughly 80 layoffs, and attributed the shutdown to rising costs and a lack of prior investment by its private-equity owners.
Promise Confections, the business tied to Pearson's brands, said it is now looking to move some of Pearson's legacy products elsewhere. The same outlet quotes the company saying, “we're looking to move certain key brands of Pearson's to a strategic partner,” though it has not identified who that partner might be or where future production could happen.
A Century of Nut Goodies and Salted Nut Rolls
Pearson's current facility on West Seventh Street dates back to 1959, per the same account, but the company's roots stretch back far longer. The Nut Goodie debuted in 1912, and the Salted Nut Roll followed two decades later in 1933, launching during the Great Depression, according to Mpls.St.Paul Magazine. Pearson's has also made Mint Patties and other candies over the years, and Mpls.St.Paul Magazine describes its Salted Nut Roll as having a vanilla nougat center, caramel, and salted peanuts on the outside.
Pearson's had also expanded its St. Paul operations before, having acquired the Bit-O-Honey brand from Nestlé USA and shifted its manufacturing from Bloomington, Illinois, to St. Paul, per a report from tradeandindustrydev.com.
St. Paul Residents Reflect on the Loss
For longtime residents, the closure lands as a loss that goes beyond a paycheck. Ruth Markowitz, who has lived in St. Paul for more than 27 years, told MPR News that the factory provided jobs, pride and another thing to be proud of from St. Paul. She said she often drove by the factory, and that the local production of a nationally sold nut roll made her happy.
Gayle Winegar, another St. Paul resident, remembered getting a Nut Goodie from her local grocery store as a child. She said the closure made her sad, but added that she still has hope for St. Paul's future.
The news also reached St. Paul natives living far from Minnesota. Anne Charlet, who is from South St. Paul but now lives in France, said she gets a Salted Nut Roll whenever she visits home, noting that peanuts aren't a big thing where she lives now. Charlet told MPR News she understands Pearson's reasoning for closing the plant, but she worries the product's quality could decline going forward, and she said the closure represents one more place shutting down.
An Industry Squeezed by Rising Costs
Pearson's shutdown comes even as chocolate remains a bright spot in the broader candy market. Chocolate candy sales reached $24.2 billion for the 52-week period ending June 14, up 7.2%, according to a report from snackandbakery.com. But the same report notes that manufacturers have faced continued volatility in cocoa and other ingredient costs, along with rising packaging, labor and transportation expenses — the kind of pressures Pearson's cited in explaining its own closure.
Consumers have altered their confectionery purchases to manage tighter budgets, and package-size options have been recommended as one response. Pearson's is not the only food manufacturer contending with cost pressures this year: a baked-goods and snacks manufacturer in Boise planned to lay off about 51 employees at its plant, according to lmtribune.com, in a separate case reflecting similar strain across the sector.
