Leaf Candy Company

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The Leaf Candy Company (also known as "Leaf Gum," and "Leaf Brands") was a major American producer of candy and trading cards. The company was originally founded by Sol S. Leaf in Chicago, IL. Mr. Leaf started various candy companies beginning in the 1920’s, and they were merged into Leaf Brands in 1947. In the early days the company was located on the corner of Hubbard and Washburn Streets on Chicago’s near-west side. Later the company moved to a large factory and office building at Cicero and Division Streets. The company headquarters were later moved to Bannockburn, Illinois before Leaf Brands was eventually sold to Hershey . [6] Its history includes a number of mergers, acquisitions, and divisions, as well as several name changes.

[edit] Company history

1940 Leaf Confectionery Company introduces Rainblo Bubble Gum. Rainblo gum balls were the first gumballs with a hollow center and the first that had coloring and flavoring throughout the gum, rather than just on the surface of the gumball. [6]

1947 Overland Candy Company merged with Chicago Biscuit Company, Leaf Gum and Leaf Machinery.

1948 Leaf issues its first set of baseball cards, considered one the of the first sets of "modern" baseball cards.

1949 Leaf Brands reintroduced malted milk balls under the name of Whoppers Malted Milk Balls.

1960s The Whopppers Malted Milk Balls brand, along with other products manufactured by Leaf Brands, was purchased by W.R. Grace.

1976 Candy brands were repurchased by Leaf.

1983 Leaf acquires Jolly Rancher. [1]

1983 Leaf Candy Company in Illinois was purchased by Huhtamäki Oyj of Helsinki, Finland, and merged it with Phoenix Candy (the maker of Now and Later) and another candy company it had acquired, all under the Leaf name [4, 6]. Huhtamaki Oy acquired the Donruss trading card division of General Mills at about the same time and merged it into Leaf. [3, 8]

1986 Leaf purchased some confectionery brands from Beatrice Foods, the producer of Milk Duds.

1986 Leaf, Inc. sold Phoenix Candy to Kouri Capital, a Finnish investment firm and change that company's name to Phoenix Confections. [6]

1988 Hollywood Brands, the maker of Payday and Zero, was purchased from Sara Lee by Huhtamäki Oyj and became part of Leaf, Inc. [5, 8]

1989 Heath bar was purchased by Leaf [8].

1990's Leaf had become one of the world's top ten confectionery companies; it was especially strong in non-chocolate products such as pastilles and chewing gum. [4]

1993 Leaf is the forth largest candy producer in North America [8].

1996 Hershey Foods Corporation acquired the Leaf North American confectionery operations from Huhtamaki Oy. Over the next few years Leaf manufacturing and sales became integrated into existing Hershey manufacturing and sales operations, effectively ending Leaf's existence as a separate operating unit in the US. [1,2,4]

1996 Pinnacle Brands acquired the rights to produce trading cards under the Leaf and Donruss imprints from Huhtamäki Oyj [7].

1998 Pinnacle/Donruss filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The Donruss company itself is shut down and only the name lives on. Playoff acquired the rights to produce trading cards under the Leaf and Donruss imprints from Pinnacle in a bankruptcy auction.