NORTH CANTON, Ohio. If you want to be the proverbial kid in the candy store, your dreams can come true.
It was then that Fannie Mae offered a tour of their North Canton manufacturing facility and Willy Wonka peeked into his sweet operations like Willy Wonka.
In a way, chocolate is a cottage industry in Northeast Ohio, from longtime favorite Malley’s to family-run shops like Sweet Designs Chocolatier in Lakewood.
However, if you want to see the big chocolate factory in action, head to the Stark Summit County border. Making and packaging chocolate requires about 400 employees in a 220,000 square foot factory. Brand director Jennifer Peterson and vice president and general manager Rick Fossali say their work has helped the company become the fastest growing premium chocolate company in the United States.
Fannie May has a history of just over 100 years. Now hidden in the shadows of Akron-Canton Airport, just minutes away, it efficiently produces a wide range of products. As the conveyor runs, thousands of candies are covered in chocolate and various quality control measures are taken. The only thing missing is Veruca Salt and her relationship.
Henry Teller Archibald opened the first Fannie May store in Chicago in 1920. The company has sold several times over the years, including 1-800-Flowers, before being acquired in 2017 by Ferrero, the international conglomerate that owns Nutella, Ferrero, Rocher and others. It is the third largest chocolate company in the world.
A store in North Canton (you wouldn’t have a chocolate business without a shop, counter, and candy shelves, right?) was recently refurbished.
“It’s incredible that our traffic has grown every year for the last three years,” Fossali said. “It was taken away at the beginning of Covid – can you open the door, can you open the door – but since then, if you look at the numbers in retail stores, they have been unbelievable.”
A mild, slightly sweet aroma wafts through the factory as workers diligently visit assembly lines and packing stations. But before any of these chocolates turn into ready-to-eat cottage cheese, it enters the factory in liquid form.
Proprietary blends from vendors are delivered at around 115 degrees on trucks loaded with 40,000 to 45,000 lb tankers. The hose is connected from the tank to the inlet valve. In accordance with strict food safety protocols, these valves always remain closed unless the chocolate is leaking.
In one room, there are 10 tanks, similar to brewery fermenters, each holding up to 50,000 pounds of liquid chocolate. Another hall can accommodate up to 300,000 people. The remaining tanks can hold 200,000 tanks.
“So if we wanted to fill every single can in our factory, we could fit a million pounds of chocolate,” said Factory Operations Director Vince Grishaber.
When they first started working for the company in 1994, Grishaber had an “I love Lucy” look and Lucy and Ethel were overloaded on the assembly line.
“And,” he said, “you don’t know what you don’t know. You see all these devices. You think, “What happened? “You’ll soon discover that it’s not ‘I love Lucy’. This is a real operation, a real car, a real thing. In my head I’m going to go and dip in candy. path.”
Take, for example, the popular snack combination S’mores. A mixture of marshmallows and graham crackers enters the hopper and dot the assembly line. Three production lines operate in sequence, with two 10-hour shifts per day, processing 600 pounds per hour.
“We suddenly went from one line to ‘We need to produce as much as possible,’” Grisaber said of adding the line a year and three months ago. Business is going well and the company is considering setting up a new production line. They process 7.5 million pounds of morels and related products each year.
“This is something we are very good at and really good at, and our customers love this product,” he said.
On the conveyor belt, the section vibrates to shake out pieces that are too small. They are passed through a sieve and reused as much as possible in other places. The blower blows out a certain amount of chocolate to make sure the correct percentage is being used.
Then these fragments enter the cooling tunnel at a temperature of 65 degrees. The temperature dropped slightly before returning to 65 degrees. This climate-controlled process gives the chocolate its shine and elasticity. You won’t reach the right temperature, he says, and sugar crystals may form, or the chocolate won’t look as good. It still tastes the same but doesn’t look as good, he added.
“People want to make sure we have the right amount of pecans on our pixies,” Peterson said.
In the movie Casino, Sam Rothstein, played by Robert De Niro, is worried about too many blueberries in his cupcakes. Here, the workers try to achieve the consistency of the product, although not to the sickly state of Rothstein, who gets angry when his cupcakes have a few blueberries on them and his colleagues stuff them.
Quality control and safety above all else. X-rays are used to make sure there are no foreign objects in the candy. Open toe or open back shoes are not allowed. Any person, even a visitor on the floor, every time he enters, must climb into the washing machine with warm water. The plant is closed for one week a year for a thorough cleaning and inspection of the equipment.
A “quick packer” is a worker who passes a valid crate test for work. Lucy and Ethel won’t be here.
“Quality always starts with the manufacturing people, and then you have the support of the quality team to help ensure food safety and top quality products,” Grishaber said.
Grishaber has worked with Fannie May for three decades in various roles since high school.
“My joke was 28 years ago about 50 pounds,” he said. “Everyone laughed and it was, ‘No, this is really serious.’
“I tried them on time. One of the unique things about our products is that when we try our products, we enjoy them.”
He didn’t expect it to be his life’s work. Along with his enthusiasm came some basic scientific knowledge. For example, understanding how humidity affects processes and products is key.
“I fell in love with her. When you make candy, when you put a smile on people’s faces, it’s hard not to fall in love with her,” says Grishaber, who says dark pixies are my personal favorites and they often feature in films. there was a bowl in his office.
About 50 Fannie Mae stores are primarily located in the Chicago area. The company focuses its markets as far west as Davenport, Iowa, as far south as Champaign, Illinois, and as far east as Guangzhou.
Focusing on the mass production consumer market, the company emphasizes transformation and relocation. Fannie Mae sells its products at Sam’s Club, Costco, BJ’s Wholesale Club, Meijer, various pharmacies and other locations, Peterson and Fossali said.
The manufacturing facility in North Canton produces and distributes over 100 different candies. The store sells both piece products and custom-made boxes.
“When you come here, you want to have a choice. Everyone has different preferences, so we have to give people a wide choice, otherwise it won’t work,” Fossali said.
Customer Appreciation Day after Black Friday in early December is a huge sales period, as is Valentine’s Day, which actually lasts three days – February 12-14, Peterson said.
Fannie Mae’s largest seller by pounds produced and sold is S’mores. Vegan marshmallows and crunchy cereal covered in chocolate. The largest item in the store is Pixies. Seasonal offerings include spiced pumpkin pie pixies and six custard egg variations, Fossali said.
Pure chocolate without any ingredients will keep for about a year. It is said that if it has cream in it, its validity is reduced to 30-60 days.
The process of making cream began in the 1920s and is similar to today, Peterson said, adding: “There is no cream in cream actually. It’s literally a function of mixing components.”
Their products live up to the motto: “Don’t fix what’s not broken.”
Built in 1963, Mint Meltaways have a mint center coated in milk chocolate or green pastel candies.
“It’s called Meltaway because the temperature of milk chocolate and candy is different and the coating melts on your tongue. It melts and you get an intense minty flavor,” says Peterson.
Fannie Mae’s Traditional Buckeyes, Ohio’s legendary candies with peanut butter cream filling and milk chocolate, are a bit unique. Use peanut butter cream instead of hard peanut butter.
For chocolate lovers, “Buckeyes” is not a copyrighted name because it has a very broad meaning and many uses compared to “Turtle”. (Pixie is a turtle-like product from Fannie May.)
Trinidad, the centerpiece of toasted coconuts and chocolate truffles, is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year.
The whole operation involves a combination of automation (assembly line) and human-machine interaction (hand-packed boxes). The only thing missing is Lucy and friend Ethel, who fills their mouths with chocolate, shirts and hats.
RELATED: Sweet Designs Owner Chocolatier Celebrates 25 Years of Covid Era Business Growth (Pictures, Video)
Where: Fannie May is located at 5353 Lauby Road, Greene. It is adjacent to Akron Canton Airport and about 50 miles from downtown Cleveland.
Guided tours: Free guided tours are available from Monday to Thursday from 10:00 to 16:00. Reservations are required for groups of more than 15 people. Tours are designed for groups of adults and children. They last from 30 to 45 minutes depending on the group. They start with a short video.
Opening hours: Monday-Thursday from 9:00 to 17:00, Friday and Saturday from 10:00 to 19:00, Sunday from 11:00 to 17:00.
I’m part of the Life and Culture team at cleveland.com, covering topics related to food, beer, wine, and sports. If you’d like to see my story, here’s the catalog at cleveland.com. Bill Wills of WTAM-1100 and I usually talk about food and drink on Thursdays at 8:20 am. Twitter: @mbona30.
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