by Ann Gilbert

Tucked in the baskets of most South Louisiana children on Easter morning will be two chocolate delights—Gold Brick and Heavenly Hash eggs. We thrive on traditions, especially in the wake of recent events, and Elmer Candy is one of those traditions. Gold Brick and Heavenly Hash eggs remain an essential part of the Easter holiday.

Many of us who have long treasured Elmer’s chocolates as a special Louisiana treat may be surprised to learn that the company has a national reputation. With 70 percent of the small-heart-box chocolate business in the country, it is second to Russell Stover in overall Valentine candy production.

Good management decisions have kept Elmer Candy on the front pages of business publications. About 1980, management decided they couldn’t be all things to all people. They chose to focus on seasonal candies during Christmas, Valentine and Easter, reducing the assortment of candies in those boxes to five. Research showed that creamy caramel, raspberry truffle, chocolate fudge, orange and strawberry crèmes are by far the most popular choices.

Selling candy to major grocery and drug chains and mass retail stores across the country and in French Canada involves a lot more than asking, “Do you want to buy this?” Elmer’s offers programs to candy buyers and managers on how to make sound decisions with regard to assortment, pricing, promotion, placement and supply. Seasonal candy can represent up to 45 percent of total candy sales, so guiding clients in maximizing profits and increasing market share is crucial.

A 150-year history

Since 1970, Elmer Candy has called Ponchatoula home, but the manufacturer has a history going back to 1855. It is the oldest family-owned candy company in the country. The original plant was on Jackson Avenue at the corner of Levee Street in New Orleans. When German immigrant Christopher Henry Miller landed in the Crescent City at the tender age of 16, he took a job as a baker’s assistant. At the age of 24, he opened Miller’s Candy. With 12 children, he could have rightly assumed the business would stay in the family. It did. One of the Miller daughters married an Elmer, and their five sons carried on the tradition.

In the ’20s, Elmer introduced the Heavenly Hash egg, using a recipe bought from a department store. In 1936, it really pushed the envelope, introducing a tiny bar of decadent chocolate and pecan which it tagged the Gold Brick. It was expensive for folks just coming out of the depression: It cost a nickel but weighed only an ounce, while other candy bars were three or four ounces. Elmer even wrapped the new candy in foil reminiscent of the gold bricks sitting in the vaults of the U.S. Mint. The Gold Brick was an astounding success, despite criticism that it would never sell. The extravagant little nugget with the million-dollar taste is still popular.

In 1963, a new family began stirring the fudge. Ron Nelson, from Chicago by way of California, bought Elmer Candy, but kept the 100-year-old name. He convinced his son Allan, who was a physicist, to help manage the company. Now a third generation of Nelsons, Allan’s son Rob, works as president and chief operating officer.

“When I was old enough to walk I was helping to move boxes,” Rob jokes. When he was old enough to get his commercial license, he was driving the delivery trucks. “The only job I never did was punch nuts,” he says, referring to pushing the toasted almonds onto Heavenly Hash Eggs on the assembly line.

It appeared that Rob might turn his back on the family business, as he entered LSU Law School after graduating from St. Paul High School and earning a business degree from Tulane University. But with law degree in hand, he responded affirmatively to Dad’s call to join him at the plant in the production of the Deep South’s most famous candy.

Rob has been essentially running the company since his early 30s. Dad is chairman of the board and CEO. Gambit Magazine tapped Rob as one of top 40 executives under 40 “working to make the community a better place to live.”

Growing up in this business, Rob has a keen sense of what makes a clean, sanitary food preparation environment. He jokingly says it is difficult to eat out because of his high standards. “I have found myself asking servers to redo something like an ice cream cone.” A Food and Drug Administration inspector told him Elmer Candy was “one of the cleanest plants he had ever been in.”

Elmer does not make its own chocolate. “That would take another whole factory as large as this one,” Rob says, “dealing with the beans and all.” Three or four companies make their milk and dark chocolates and the Gold Brick chocolate. They are given Elmer’s recipes.

The operation in Ponchatoula expanded twice in the ’90s, bringing the total square footage to 300,000 and doubling the size of the original Ponchatoula plant. The plant employs about 300 people, who are mostly local. Many have been making candy at Elmer’s for more than 20 years. “Now we are getting ready to bring in new technologies that will help us achieve a greater production level in less time. We will also have a higher payroll,” says Rob.

As one of the largest employers in Tangipahoa Parish, Elmer Candy works at being a good corporate citizen. The company picked up half the tab for the $250,000 library expansion across the street from the plant. It was also one of the major sponsors for the Little League World Series held in Ponchatoula.

“When choosing what to support,” Rob says, “we put an emphasis on things that will benefit everyone, all ages. Everyone uses the library, if not reading, then on the Internet. The library also offers great summer programs. This is our community. We do what we can to make it better.” That includes using locally grown pecans and locally produced sugar.

Tuning in to the customers

Research and development is an increasingly larger part of management strategy and budget. Some research has changed company thinking, Rob says. “We’ve learned it’s not so that mostly, men buy candy for women. Research has shown women buy chocolates for their women friends, male friends, to bring to the office, and for other reasons. We have a heart (Valentine box of candy) for everyone, for all occasions. It’s like greeting cards. You have many choices.”

Staying attuned to consumer desires through focus groups and opinion polls, Elmer management did backtrack on two new ideas. Rob recalls, “We changed the wrapper on the Gold Brick and people couldn’t find it. We opted for plastic boxes, and we got complaints that the Easter Bunny found them too noisy in the middle of the night, so we went back to cardboard containers.”

Some decisions made by Elmer are still regretted by consumers. Remember Mint Bubblets—those melt-in-your mouth refreshing bits of sugar that came in vacuum tins? Elmer was the first to use those cans. Bubblets fell by the wayside when the company chose to focus on seasonal confections, as did Chee Weez, which had changed the way people snacked. Before that tidbit hit the market, salty snacks included only peanuts, pretzels and potato chips. (Chee Wees with an “s” is a different product not made by Elmer Candy.)

Elmer Candy is also trying to shed its image of producing only big boxes of chocolate for $9.95. The company developed a gourmet line just released at Christmas. It’s called “Guinevere Chocolatier,” and comes in designer boxes meant to be saved. “This is another brand and a different price tier,” Rob explains. “Even the boxes are special.”

In the Guinevere collections, Elmer added to four of the standard core pieces an almond nut fudge, pecan nut and signature melt-a-way. Each morsel carries a distinctive swirl, with the signature piece wearing a stylistic “G” for Guinevere. A small card is attached to each box with a ribbon and includes a description of flavors and a note from Rob and his brother Michael Nelson, who is the buyer for the company. From a company that celebrated 150 years in 2005, Guinevere is meant to impress, and it does.

Katrina

Another smart decision was Elmer’s bunker-style Ponchatoula plant, built to withstand hurricanes, even though contractors suggested the company was wasting money. It paid off. With $10 million in chocolate inventory as Katrina approached, company management felt confident as they bedded down in their offices. “It was the safest place,” Rob says with a smile.

The temperature dropped barely five degrees in two days without power. Generators and a supply of diesel fuel were ready to keep the candy cool in the warehouse. The plant is on the same grid as a nearby hospital—another smart decision—and was one of the first to be up and running when power was restored in three days.

Katrina also changed the company’s distribution plans, opening up new markets as Elmer made Valentine and Easter chocolates available to evacuees across the country.

Certainly, evacuee Easter baskets especially deserve their Gold Brick and Heavenly Hash eggs!