The D. L. Clark Company was founded in 1886 in Allegheny, Pennsylvania, now part of Pittsburgh, by David L. Clark (1864–1939), an Irish-born candy salesman. In 1921, Clark Brothers Chewing Gum Company was spun off as a separate corporation (and later sold to Philip Morris). The D. L. Clark company was family-owned until sold in 1955 to Beatrice Foods, who sold it in 1983 to the Pittsburgh Food and Beverage Company. Richard L. Kamins was its president from 1967 thru 1977.
The Pittsburgh Food and Beverage Company entered bankruptcy in 1995, and many assets from the D. L. Clark Company, such as the rights to the Clark bar and Zagnut bar, were sold. With some of the remaining assets, Clark Bar America, Inc., was created; this was acquired by Necco (New England Confectionery Company) in 1999.