# Necco may soon shut down **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 14, 2018, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/necco-may-soon-shut-down/812431 "2018-04-14T22:46:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2018, 12:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/necco-may-soon-shut-down/812431/21 "2018-04-16T12:37:39Z")
News from the Revere (MA) Journal a year ago: > **[Necco CEO says Business is Booming, No Changes to be Expected Now | Revere...](http://reverejournal.com/2017/05/12/necco-ceo-says-business-is-booming-no-changes-to-be-expected-now/)** > > By Seth Daniel The chief executive of Necco Candy company said this week that the company is experiencing growth and will continue operating in its location on American Legion Highway – one week after it was announced that the plant had been sold... > [@](#): > > The chief executive of Necco Candy company said this week that the company is experiencing growth and will continue operating in its location on American Legion Highway – one week after it was announced that the plant had been sold of to two Boston developers. > > … > > “We’ve been a tenant at our 135 American Legion Highway plant since 2007 and we’re still a tenant,” he said. “We have a new landlord. Necco Real Estate received a very good value for the property.” > > … > > The new owners have signed a lease with Necco Candy through Aug. 1, 2018, and it is renewable, but the new owners said they intend to meet with Mayor Brian Arrigo to talk about future development opportunities. > > … > > According to McGee, things are still working well. > > He said they plan to continue manufacturing their candies and growing their brand in Revere. Allow me to doubt the truth of that statement. As I said, nobody answers the phones, and hasn’t for most of the past year. They sold the building years ago, and have been leasing it, but the last lease was for only one year? There are fewer than 100 employees now (all line workers, I assume), down from 400: > **[NECCO Employees Prepare for Future | Revere Journal](http://reverejournal.com/2018/04/13/necco-employees-prepare-for-future/)** > > Less than 100 NECCO employees are biding their time, facing layoffs on May 4. At one time the bustling plant on American Legion Highway employed 400 people and made iconic candies known around the world. Now the plant is producing only the famous... Does that sound like a company that’s trying to grow? > [@](#): > > Employee Kenny Lopes, a flavor technician in quality control, said the past few months of the nine years he’s worked for NECCO have been rough. > > “We were on an 18-month lease and said they were going to expand, but they lied to us,” Lopes said. ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2018, 12:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/necco-may-soon-shut-down/812431/22 "2018-04-16T12:46:26Z")
> [@blondebear](#): > > [Neko Case answers questions about Necco Wafers](https://youtu.be/Wu9FmHzDpOM?t=5m01s) That’s the first thing I thought of when I read the thread title. “Damn their Yankee candies.” 😃 ---
**Author:** ![boffking](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/858c86/32.png) [@boffking](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/boffking)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2018, 1:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/necco-may-soon-shut-down/812431/23 "2018-04-16T13:10:33Z")
> [@NDP](#): > > Aside from Necco Wafers, NECCO also makes Clark Bars and Haviland Thin Mints. I believe those are far better regarded than the divisive Necco Wafers but I could be wrong. What’s the consensus here about those two candies? Haviland Wintergreen Patties are wonderful. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2018, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/necco-may-soon-shut-down/812431/24 "2018-04-16T13:37:45Z")
Just to show that this has been long in the makling, have a look at this article from the Worcester Telegram from 2010: > **[Unsettled feelings follow Necco sale](https://www.telegram.com/story/business/2010/09/25/unsettled-feelings-follow-necco-sale/51460185007/)** > > Three years ago, on its 160th anniversary as a candy maker, New England Confectionery Co. got a new owner: a Maryland equity firm that had big plans for the manufacturer best known for the Necco wafe… > [@](#): > > Necco, which annually sold $100 million worth of sweets in the flush days of the mid-1990s, had moved from its longtime Cambridge plant to a new home in Revere in 2003. It was having trouble maintaining growth by 2007, even though it made some classic products, including the Clark Bar, Sky Bar, and Sweethearts Conversation Hearts, the little Valentine’s Day favorites. New owner American Capital Ltd., headquartered in Bethesda, Md., promised to grow the company by expanding its products. > > But the recession took a toll on American Capital. Heavily leveraged, the firm got in trouble with creditors and had to restructure its debt. Its stock fell from a high of $37.37 in February 2007 to 44 cents in March 2009. (The stock price has rebounded a bit, and closed yesterday at $5.92.) The firm shed some investments, and now Necco workers are saying they’re afraid it will do the same with the venerable Massachusetts candy company. > > The terms of American Capital’s purchase of Necco were not disclosed, but the new owner split the candy maker into two units: one that included operations, and one that included its real estate. Ray Scannell, director of research for the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers Union Local 348 — the union that represents about 400 Necco workers — said the split could make the company easier to break up, a prospect made more likely by American Capital’s financial troubles. > > “American Capital bought Necco for a song, put very little of their own money into it, and proceeded to split Necco so American Capital could maximize its potential returns,‘’ said Scannell. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2018, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/necco-may-soon-shut-down/812431/25 "2018-04-16T14:00:41Z")
Yet another example of how private equity firms ruin a working company. ---
**Author:** ![Lucas\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lucas_jackson/32/303_2.png) [@Lucas\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucas_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2018, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/necco-may-soon-shut-down/812431/26 "2018-04-16T14:25:48Z")
I’m going to miss that chocolate chalk! ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2018, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/necco-may-soon-shut-down/812431/27 "2018-04-16T14:47:39Z")
> [@Kamino\_Neko](#): > > Oh, good. Now I can come out with Neko Wafers and not risk being sued. I want to let Necco wafers die out. I then want to buy the rights and bring them back as Necro wafers. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2018, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/necco-may-soon-shut-down/812431/28 "2018-04-16T15:55:49Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > Yet another example of how private equity firms ruin a working company. Kinda souds that way. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Ruken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f475e1/32.png) [@Ruken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruken)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2018, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/necco-may-soon-shut-down/812431/29 "2018-04-16T18:01:38Z")
While not a big fan of flavored drywall, part of me wants them to continue existing. ---
**Author:** ![Grumbacher\_Red](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/85e7bf/32.png) [@Grumbacher\_Red](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grumbacher_Red)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2018, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/necco-may-soon-shut-down/812431/30 "2018-04-16T18:07:40Z")
> [@CairoCarol](#): > > Necco wafers, circus peanuts, and candy corn are the trifecta of confectionary horror. Even as a young child with an undiscriminating sweet tooth, I thought they were inedible. The only Necco wafers that didn’t taste like talc were the licorice ones, and they tasted like a homeopathic concoction of talc with 1 part anise per billion. > > . This is so true! I always felt really let down when these showed up in my Halloween plastic pumpkin. We would yell to other kids on the sidewalk, “don’t go to that house, they are handing out candy corn!” I also would have to add Twizzlers. Yuck! Tastes like plastic. Amazes me it is still popular enough to have a current ad campaign. And the licorice Neccos were the worst! Licorice of any kind (hence my disdain for Twizzlers) reminds me too much of that revolting black Creomulsion cough syrup my mother poured down my throat from the age of 3 until I was about 7 or 8 and could fight her off. ---
**Author:** ![WildBlueYonder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/ce7236/32.png) [@WildBlueYonder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WildBlueYonder)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2018, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/necco-may-soon-shut-down/812431/31 "2018-04-16T18:12:31Z")
> [@Snowboarder\_Bo](#): > > Hopefully the makers of circus peanuts will join them soon. and those damn peeps! ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2018, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/necco-may-soon-shut-down/812431/32 "2018-04-16T18:20:54Z")
> [@Ambivalid](#): > > When are Candy Corns going to go? Uggh, those are the nastiest of the nasty. When I was three Mom went to the hospital to have baby brother. Since Dad was on the road a lot, Mrs. White was hired to take care of me. I remember two things about Mrs White. One is she kept candy corn in her purse as a bribe, the other is a hand clutching a soapy wash cloth headed for my face.\* Seems the last thing Mom told her as she headed out the door was, “Make sure he keeps his face clean.” When she got back a week later my cheeks had been scrubbed raw. I do not like candy corn. \*The facehugger in _Alien_ bothered me. A lot. ---
**Author:** ![Grumbacher\_Red](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/85e7bf/32.png) [@Grumbacher\_Red](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grumbacher_Red)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2018, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/necco-may-soon-shut-down/812431/33 "2018-04-16T18:40:04Z")
> [@WildBlueYonder](#): > > and those damn peeps! Peeps are just the glammed up, sparkly cousins of circus peanuts. ---
**Author:** ![Two\_Many\_Cats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8dc957/32.png) [@Two\_Many\_Cats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Two_Many_Cats)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2018, 11:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/necco-may-soon-shut-down/812431/34 "2018-04-17T11:40:37Z")
> [@DesertDog](#): > > When I was three Mom went to the hospital to have baby brother. Since Dad was on the road a lot, Mrs. White was hired to take care of me. I remember two things about Mrs White. A third thing wouldn’t be that she looked like Joanne Woodward, would it? ---
**Author:** ![brachyrhynchos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/brachyrhynchos/32/376_2.png) [@brachyrhynchos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brachyrhynchos)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2018, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/necco-may-soon-shut-down/812431/35 "2018-04-18T01:04:01Z")
Nooooooooooooo! Now I’ll have to find alternate roof tops for my gingerbread houses. ---
**Author:** ![Cub\_Mistress](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ea666f/32.png) [@Cub\_Mistress](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cub_Mistress)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2018, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/necco-may-soon-shut-down/812431/36 "2018-04-18T03:29:34Z")
> [@brachyrhynchos](#): > > Nooooooooooooo! Now I’ll have to find alternate roof tops for my gingerbread houses. That’s what I came in here to say! Necco wafers aren’t for eating, silly Rabbit\*, Necco wafers are for roofing gingerbread houses. - apologies to Trix fans everywhere ---
**Author:** ![toast\_pakora](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3ec8ea/32.png) [@toast\_pakora](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/toast_pakora)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2018, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/necco-may-soon-shut-down/812431/37 "2018-04-18T04:01:07Z")
I love Necco wafers and I am going out tomorrow to buy a bunch. White/black/chocolate are my favorite. I also like Sky Bars, so retro, but I can’t remember the last time I bought one. **adds to list** ---
**Author:** ![Ambivalid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a5b964/32.png) [@Ambivalid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ambivalid)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2018, 4:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/necco-may-soon-shut-down/812431/38 "2018-04-18T04:09:51Z")
I think candy corn was secretly developed by a bitter, deviant, type-1 diabetic food scientist who worked for a candy company that had no idea what kind of sickness was fermenting deep in it’s bowels. Then one day the mad scientist unleashed his little waxy, hard, flavorless wad of a brainchild onto the world. People eat them because other people eat them, who see…you get the point. Don’t nobody like that shit!!! 😡 But people continue to subject themselves to the evil of the 'corns by eating em and suffering, all because that’s what they think the polite fucking thing to do is. ---
**Author:** ![4d3fect](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/4d3fect/32/9728_2.png) [@4d3fect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/4d3fect)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2018, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/necco-may-soon-shut-down/812431/39 "2018-04-18T04:12:25Z")
Good riddance to bad rubbish, I say. …how did they stay in business so long anyway? ---
**Author:** ![WolfpackJeep](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpackjeep/32/2921_2.png) [@WolfpackJeep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WolfpackJeep)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2018, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/necco-may-soon-shut-down/812431/40 "2018-04-18T14:00:51Z")
I finally caved and ordered some that appeared to be reasonably priced. ☹ I actually like eating the things, especially when they’re nice and crisp. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/necco-may-soon-shut-down/812431.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/necco-may-soon-shut-down/812431.md?page=3)