Posted on 07/31/2024 11:02:38 PM PDT by thecodont
Annabelle Candy Factory, best known for its classic Rocky Road candy bar, will cease operations at its Hayward plant later this year.
On Tuesday, Promise Confections CEO Michael T. McGee submitted a WARN notice indicating that the decades-old confectioner is set to close on Sept. 27. A total of 43 employees, which include 17 production workers, will be laid off in light of the closure, according to the notice, which is required by California's Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act. It's unclear if parent company Promise Confections will transfer Annabelle Candy Factory candies to one of its other confectionary companies in the U.S.
The decision to shutter Annabelle Candy Factory resulted from the business's lack of “financial sustainability,” McGee wrote in the notice. SFGATE reached out to McGee for a statement but did not hear back by publication time.
Annabelle Candy Factory has a storied Bay Area history. Its founder, Sam Altshuler, immigrated to the United States from Russia in 1917 and began to sell candies off Market Street in San Francisco. With its growing popularity, Altshuler eventually opened a factory in San Francisco around 1952 and lovingly named it after his daughter, according to The Argus. By the 1960s, Annabelle Candy Factory moved to Hayward.
In the 1950s, Annabelle Candy Factory became famous for its signature Rocky Road candy bar, made with fluffy marshmallows, toasted cashews and milk chocolate. The company later acquired the Golden Nugget Candy Company and the Carident Candy Company to add Abba-Zaba, Big Hunk, plus more candy bars to its roster, according to its company website.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Loved Abba zabbas!
Must be local cause I have never heard of them.
Big Hunk was a thing when I was in junior high school. People knew you had to “whack” that nougat bar on the side of a desk to get it to break apart, otherwise you’d be chewing on it forever.
In the early 20th century there were many little local confectioners in the SF Bay Area. Some of their products became nationally famous.
I loved their unique U-No Bar, a truffle chocolate introduced long before truffle chocolates became famous. I think it remained a local delicacy.
San Francisco was famous for its many chocolate manufacturers.
Now it’s mostly famous for its fudge packing.
Curious to find out what kind of mis- or mal-management led to this.
Big Hunk of concrete is what they should have called it. I remember almost losing teeth trying to break a piece off, but instead just bending the whole thing slightly.
Carident = Dental caries?
Why, there’s plenty of Bay Area Candy Bars. All one need do is look down to the sidewalk or gutter.... :0)
And fruits and nuts...
Big hunk and AbbaZabbas were part of my childhood in So. California….
I’m not familiar with the brand. But on the candy subject, my MIL’s favorite are clove balls (hard candy). For some reason they are impossible to find right now. I don’t know if the elusive clove is extinct or somebody has cornered the market to drive up the price or global warming wiped them out.
Well, as long as we’re going down Bay Area memory lane..... We just looooved Pixie Sticks. Individual straws filled with flavored sugar.
I remember a GIANT pillar of salt in Redwood City. We remember our Governor Ronaldus Magnus, before California became Kalifornia. When President Reagan first took the White House, we knew better days were ahead.
I would say overbearing CA. regulations, extremely high property taxes, unbearable insurance costs, and safety for employees were all factors!! The Bay Area has become a ghost town, fisherman’s wharf has become completely boarded up, such a shame!!
I remember that. Loved those candy bars.
Another candy bar known for tooth problems was the Sugar Daddy candy bar. That and the Big Hunk candy bar were my all time favorites.
.
At the old Fox Theater on Market in SF the glass confection case had these delicious Ghiradelli chocolate wafers that were packaged in a brightly colored tube.
They were called “Flicks” and the wafers were a little less than the size of a quarter. I never cared for those Rocky Road candy bars.
Of the State of California? You betcha!
Regards,
Maybe they sell them here. I hope so. They may be pricey, but if f he enjoys them, maybe a Christmas gift?
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