How Sweet It Is
Inc magazine published their list of the fifteen best industries in which to start a business. The first on their list was candy.
It got me realizing how our love of a quick sugar fix has actually produced a vast marketplace for many stable and long-lived brands. Somehow, candy brands don’t die. Necco started in 1847. The kindly old Werthers grandpa has only been around for a decade, but the company itself dates from 1903. Hershey’s was founded around the turn-of-the century, and its stock has paid a regular dividend for the past two decades. I don’t know anybody who enjoys old-timey candies like Circus Peanuts, Wax Lips, Bit-O-Honey, Oh Henry, or the great taste of Charleston Chew, and yet a market clearly still exists for these 80-100 year old candies.
So if you’re one of those entrepreneurial types focused on sustainability and the long term, I second the call to create a new candy recipe. Caramel wasabi cakes, anyone?
