Boyer Candy Company is an American candy company located in
Altoona, Pennsylvania
Altoona is a city in Blair County, Pennsylvania. It is the principal city of the Altoona Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA). The population was 43,963 at the time of the 2020 Census, making it the eighteenth most populous city in Pennsylvania. T ...
. The factory is located in the downtown district. Boyer Candy is privately owned by Consolidated Brands, which is owned by the Forgione family.
History
![Mallo-Cup-Split](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/ff/Mallo-Cup-Split.jpg)
Boyer was founded during the
Great Depression by brothers Bill and Bob Boyer as a means of supplementing their income. The business was originally operated from their own kitchen with their mother and sister hand-wrapping candy as Bill finished making it. Bob sold the candy door to door. Initial products included homemade fudge and nut raisin clusters, but as demand increased, they expanded their offerings and moved production to a new manufacturing facility in 1936. That year, the company's chocolatiers experimented with chocolate covered marshmallow, resulting in
Mallo Cups, a cup-shaped candy consisting of a whipped
marshmallow
Marshmallow (, ) is a type of confectionery that is typically made from sugar, water and gelatin whipped to a solid-but-soft consistency. It is used as a filling in baking or normally molded into shapes and coated with corn starch. The sugar c ...
creme center covered with
chocolate
Chocolate is a food made from roasted and ground cacao seed kernels that is available as a liquid, solid, or paste, either on its own or as a flavoring agent in other foods. Cacao has been consumed in some form since at least the Olmec civ ...
(resembling
Reese's Peanut Butter Cups
Reese's Peanut Butter Cups are an American candy consisting of a chocolate cup filled with peanut butter, marketed by The Hershey Company. They were created on November 15, 1928, by H. B. Reese, a former dairy farmer and shipping foreman for M ...
, which were introduced in 1928).
In 1969, Boyer was acquired by American Maize-Products, after Bill and Bob Boyer retired from the company.
In 1970, a new 32,000 square foot warehouse was constructed.
In June 1984, American Maize sold the company to Consolidated Brands, and Consolidated founder Anthony Forgoine became the president of the company. The corporate headquarters were moved from New York to Altoona, PA.
Following the death of Anthony Forgoine in 2001, family friend Roy Mollomo became the new president of the company. In 2008, Anthony Forgione II, son of the company's previous owner Anthony Forgione, petitioned the Florida court that put Roy Mollomo in charge of the company. Anthony Forgoine II then became the president of the company, with Robert Faith becoming the CEO.
Products
The Boyer
Mallo Cup is a coconut-laced milk chocolate cup that contains a whipped marshmallow center invented in 1936. Mallo Cup cardboard wrapper inserts are printed with illustrations of coins and can be saved and redeemed for items from the company's prize catalog.
Boyer's other products include Smoothies, a cup with a peanut butter center covered with
butterscotch
Butterscotch is a type of confectionery whose primary ingredients are brown sugar and butter, but other ingredients are part of some recipes, such as corn syrup, cream, vanilla, and salt. The earliest known recipes, in mid-19th century Yorkshir ...
confection, and Peanut Butter Cups, with a peanut butter center covered with chocolate. The company has made other cup candies such as
Fluffernutter
A fluffernutter (also called a "peanut butter and marshmallow sandwich", "peanut butter and marshmallow fluff sandwich", or "peanut butter and marshmallow stuff sandwich") is a sandwich made with peanut butter and marshmallow creme usually ser ...
, a mixture of marshmallow and peanut butter covered in chocolate, and a Minty Mallo.
In April 2017, Boyer announced its first new product in 25-years called Jimmie Stix. It is a blend of pretzels and peanut butter in milk chocolate. The wrapper is that of the vintage Mallo Cup wrapper. It captures the nostalgia of the company's brands while adding in the necessary components to keep with the trends of the industry.
![Candy-Clark-Bar-Broken](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/82/Candy-Clark-Bar-Broken.jpg)
Boyer announced in September 2018 the purchase of the
Clark Bar
The Clark Bar is a candy bar consisting of a crispy peanut butter/spun taffy core (originally with a caramel center) and coated in milk chocolate. It was the first American "combination" candy bar to achieve nationwide success. Two similar candy ...
following
Necco
Necco (or NECCO ) was an American manufacturer of candy created in 1901 as the New England Confectionery Company through the merger of several small confectionery companies located in the Greater Boston area, with ancestral companies dating b ...
's bankruptcy, keeping alive a Pennsylvania candy that has been around since 1917. Difficulties in reproducing the Clark Bar's consistency and shape led to a novel product, the Clark Cup, with misshaped bars ground and mixed with peanut butter for use as cup filling.
The Clark Bar was relaunched into the market on February 14, 2020.
Company financials
In 2016, Boyer was the only US chocolate maker to show a strong growth rate (20.9%), though its overall market share was relatively small compared to companies like
Mars
Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun and the second-smallest planet in the Solar System, only being larger than Mercury. In the English language, Mars is named for the Roman god of war. Mars is a terrestrial planet with a thin at ...
and
Hershey.
References
External links
Official WebsiteBoyer History
{{Altoona, Pennsylvania
Confectionery companies of the United States
Companies based in Blair County, Pennsylvania
Altoona, Pennsylvania
Food and drink companies established in 1936
American companies established in 1936
1936 establishments in Pennsylvania
Brand name confectionery
American brands