Russell Stover Chocolates, Inc., founded by Russell Stover, an American chemist and entrepreneur, and his wife

Clara Stover Clara Mae Stover (1882-1975) was the wife and co-founder of candy maker, Russell Stover, who created Russell Stover Candies. Clara Mae solely ran the company following Russell's death. Early life and marriage Clara Mae Stover was born in O ...

in 1923, is an American supplier of candy, chocolate, and confections. The corporate headquarters are in

Kansas City The Kansas City metropolitan area is a bi-state metropolitan area anchored by Kansas City, Missouri. Its 14 counties straddle the border between the U.S. states of Missouri (9 counties) and Kansas (5 counties). With and a population of more th ...

Missouri Missouri is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee): Iowa to the north, Illinois, Kentucky and Tennessee to the east, Arkansas t ...

. In July 2014 the company was acquired by the Swiss chocolatier

Lindt & Sprüngli Chocoladefabriken Lindt & Sprüngli AG, doing business as Lindt, is a Swiss chocolatier and confectionery company founded in 1845 and known for its chocolate truffles and chocolate bars, among other sweets. It is based in Kilchberg, where its ...

for $1.6 billion.The company operates as an independent subsidiary and still based in Kansas City.

History

Russell Stover Candies did not start with candy. In 1921, Russell Stover and his partner at the time,

Iowa Iowa () is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States, bordered by the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west. It is bordered by six states: Wiscon ...

schoolteacher Christian Kent Nelson, created a chocolate-dipped

ice cream sandwich An ice cream sandwich is a frozen dessert consisting of ice cream between two biscuits, skins, wafers, or cookies. The ingredients are different around the world, with Ireland and Israel using wafers, and North America using chocolate cooki ...

. At a dinner party, Russell's wife

suggested calling it an

Eskimo Pie Edy's Pie (formerly known as Eskimo Pie) is an American brand of chocolate-covered vanilla ice cream bar wrapped in foil. It was the first such dessert sold in the United States. It is marketed by Dreyer's, a division of Froneri. In wake of the ...

. The product was a success for them, and they began

licensing A license (or licence) is an official permission or permit to do, use, or own something (as well as the document of that permission or permit). A license is granted by a party (licensor) to another party (licensee) as an element of an agreeme ...

manufacturers to produce it. As other companies soon began to release similar chocolate-dipped ice cream products, Russell Stover was nearly forced out of business. The Stovers sold their share of the company for $25,000 and moved to

Denver Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the Unit ...

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the ...

. In 1923, Russell and Clara created a new company from their home, packaging and selling boxed chocolates. They were originally named "Mrs. Stover's Bungalow Candies". However, 20 years later, in 1943, it was renamed Russell Stover Candies.

Expansion

Louis Ward Louis Larrick Ward (November 18, 1919 - February 10, 1996) was an American businessman who successfully turned the Russell Stover Candies company into an international brand after purchasing the company in 1960. Early life and education Ward ...

and a partner bought the company $7.5 million in 1960. He served as the company's chairman and president until 1993, when he retired after suffering a

stroke A stroke is a disease, medical condition in which poor cerebral circulation, blood flow to the brain causes cell death. There are two main types of stroke: brain ischemia, ischemic, due to lack of blood flow, and intracranial hemorrhage, hemorr ...

. His sons, Scott H. and Thomas Ward, took over the business. The company expanded its chocolate brands by acquiring

Whitman's Whitman's is one of the largest and oldest brands of boxed chocolates in the United States. Whitman's confections have been produced since 1842, originally by Stephen Whitman in Philadelphia and currently by Kansas City, Missouri-based Ru ...

that year and Pangburn's in 1999.

Acquisition by Lindt & Sprüngli and restructuring

Swiss chocolate maker

Lindt Chocoladefabriken Lindt & Sprüngli AG, doing business as Lindt, is a Swiss chocolatier and confectionery company founded in 1845 and known for its chocolate truffles and chocolate bars, among other sweets. It is based in Kilchberg, where its ...

bought Russell Stover Chocolates from the Ward family on July 14, 2014. Integrating Russell Stover Chocolates into Lindt group resulted in a structural reorganization of the company; this included tripling its

marketing Marketing is the process of exploring, creating, and delivering value to meet the needs of a target market in terms of goods and services; potentially including selection of a target audience; selection of certain attributes or themes to emph ...

team and shifting focus away from

seasonal A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and ...

products. Attention was also given to developing its offering of

sugar-free A sugar substitute is a food additive that provides a sweetness like that of sugar while containing significantly less food energy than sugar-based sweeteners, making it a zero-calorie () or low-calorie sweetener. Artificial sweeteners may b ...

products.

Stevia Stevia () is a natural sweetener and sugar substitute derived from the leaves of the plant species ''Stevia rebaudiana'', native to Paraguay and Brazil. The active compounds are steviol glycosides (mainly stevioside and rebaudioside), which ...

, a natural sweetener, replaced the artificial sweetener

sucralose Sucralose is an artificial sweetener and sugar substitute. The majority of ingested sucralose is not broken down by the body, so it is noncaloric. In the European Union, it is also known under the E number E955. It is produced by chlorination ...

by 2019, and the packaging was redesigned to attract a wider audience, hoping to reverse a three-year trend of declining sales. In 2020, Russell Stover Chocolates was the top sugar-free chocolate company in the United States. Spurred by strong sales in 2019, Russell Stover Chocolates announced plans to expand its Iola, Kansas,

Abilene, Kansas Abilene (pronounced ) is a city in, and the county seat of, Dickinson County, Kansas, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city was 6,460. It is home of The Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library and Museum and the ...

, and

Corsicana, Texas Corsicana is a city in Navarro County, Texas, United States. It is located on Interstate 45, 56 miles northeast of Waco, Texas. The population was 23,770 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Navarro County, and an important Agri-busines ...

facilities. It also announced that its facility in

Montrose, Colorado Montrose is a home rule municipality that is the county seat and the most populous municipality of Montrose County, Colorado, United States. The city population was 20,291 at the 2020 census, within a total area of 18.5 square miles. The m ...

and several retail stores and distribution centers across the US would close in 2021.

Response to the COVID-19 pandemic

Early during the coronavirus pandemic, Russell Stover Chocolates was among the Lindt brands which significantly discounted its

Easter Easter,Traditional names for the feast in English are "Easter Day", as in the '' Book of Common Prayer''; "Easter Sunday", used by James Ussher''The Whole Works of the Most Rev. James Ussher, Volume 4'') and Samuel Pepys''The Diary of Samue ...

candy in 2020, anticipating a decline in sales of around 14%. In June 2020, the company issued a

WARN Act The Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act of 1988 (the "WARN Act") is a U.S. labor law that protects employees, their families, and communities by requiring most employers with 100 or more employees to provide 60 calendar-day advance ...

letter stating that, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, planned closures would be happening months earlier than originally planned, with the last of the impacted employees being

laid off A layoff or downsizing is the temporary suspension or permanent termination of employment of an employee or, more commonly, a group of employees (collective layoff) for business reasons, such as personnel management or downsizing (reducing the ...

by the end of August 2020. The closure of the Montrose plant eliminated around 300 jobs. The company was among those that participated in a July 2020 virtual job fair hosted by the

Kansas Kansas () is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its Capital city, capital is Topeka, Kansas, Topeka, and its largest city is Wichita, Kansas, Wichita. Kansas is a landlocked state bordered by Nebras ...

public workforce program, designed to allow jobseekers impacted by the pandemic to find employment while still practicing social distancing measures. In April 2021, Russell Stover entered an agreement with

Topeka Correctional Facility Topeka Correctional Facility is a Kansas Department of Corrections state prison for women located in Topeka, Kansas. Built in the 1970s, in 1995 it became the only women's prison in the state. It administers a wide range of security levels, f ...

to form a

work release In prison systems, work release programs allow a prisoner who is sufficiently trusted or can be sufficiently monitored to go outside the prison and work at a place of employment, returning to prison when their shift is complete. Some work release ...

program, hiring 150 inmates to work at their Iola and Abilene facilities in Kansas. This happened as part of a general response from US employers to a perceived

labor shortage In economics, a shortage or excess demand is a situation in which the demand for a product or service exceeds its supply in a market. It is the opposite of an excess supply ( surplus). Definitions In a perfect market (one that matches a s ...

related to the pandemic.

References

External links

{{Commons category
Russell Stover website
American chocolate companies Food and drink companies established in 1923 Manufacturing companies based in Kansas City, Missouri American companies established in 1923 1923 establishments in Colorado Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the food industry 2014 mergers and acquisitions American subsidiaries of foreign companies Food retailers of the United States Food and drink companies based in Missouri