Fannie May
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- For the federally sponsored mortgage corporation, see Federal National Mortgage Association.
Fannie May Confections, Inc. (commonly called Fannie May) is a Chicago based chocolate confectioner. H. Teller Archibald opened the first Fannie May store in downtown Chicago in 1920. Fourteen years later in 1934, there were four-dozen stores in Illinois and its surrounding states in the Midwest.
Fannie May was one of the companies during World War II to not change their recipes because of the scarcity of ingredients. Because they made this choice, most of the stores were forced to close early in the day because they would sell out of their smaller amounts of finished candy. In 1946, just after World War II, Fannie May created its most well-known candy to date, the Pixie. In the 1970s and 1980s Fannie May continued to develop new candy flavors with the introduction of the Trinidad in 1970 possibly their most well known candy, and the creation of the Eggnog Creams in 1989. In 1991, Fannie May made the decision to make some of their candy with sugar-free chocolate, which made it available to diabetics and dieters. In 1992, Fannie May bought similarly-named competitor Fanny Farmer.
Fannie May's parent company, the Archibald Candy Corporation, closed because of an unshakable debt, forcing Fannie May to close as well and declare bankruptcy. The closing attracted Alpine Confections, Inc. They bought Fannie May out of bankruptcy hoping to make a profit with the history of the confectionery's brand and reopened it in October 2004.
In April 2006, Fannie May was sold for $85 million to Internet retailer 1-800-Flowers. Alpine Confections continues to operate the company.
[edit] References
- Fannie May Confections, Inc. History
- Yahoo! Finance Page on Alpine Confections, Inc.
- Consumer M&A Article on Alpine Confection, Inc.'s Purchase of Fannie May
