Incorporated: 1876
NAIC: 311340 Nonchocolate Confectionery Manufacturing
SIC: 2067 Chewing Gum
Chase General Corporation is a holding company for its wholly owned subsidiary, Dye Candy Company. Dye Candy makes and distributes candy and confections chiefly throughout the Midwest. Dye's Chase Candy division makes Cherry Mash brand candy bars, the company's best-selling product and the nation's best-selling cherry candy bar. Its Poe Candy division makes the Chase brand of coconut haystacks, fudge, jelly candies, peanut brittle, and peanut clusters. The two divisions share a common labor force and utilize the same equipment and raw materials in their production of year-round and seasonal candy products. They sell their candies through grocery stores, convenience stores, tobacco jobbing houses, mass merchandising outlets, repackers, and online. Major customers include Associated Wholesale Grocers and Wal-Mart.
1876-1943: Family-Run Company Prospers
In 1876, in the busy river town of St. Joseph, Missouri, Dr. George Washington Chase, an East Coast transplant, was struggling to raise his family on his salary as a medical doctor. His solution was to open a fruit and produce business. However, Chase's teenage son, Ernest, had a different idea and persuaded his father to begin their own candy company. Thus, on the second floor of the building that housed the fruit and produce store and with two hired expert candy makers, Chase set up his original candy factory.
The candy business proved more lucrative than the produce store or doctoring, and it was not long before the entire Chase family became involved in running the Chase confectionery business. Chase's candies consisted primarily of fine quality peanut candies and dipped chocolates, which the company was soon shipping throughout the Midwest. Then, in 1918, Chase introduced its Cherry Chase bar. This large candy bar was made of a quarter pound of chopped roasted peanuts blended with a chocolate coating over a smooth maraschino cherry fondant center. The Cherry Chase went through several name changes, becoming the Cherry Chaser and then, finally, the Cherry Mash bar.
Chase Candy Company grew, introducing its mascot, the cartoon Candy Cop figure, which appeared on the wrapper of most of its candy bars. The company manufactured at one time or another more than 500 different varieties of candies, including a large line of popular candy bars with names such as the Pierce Arrow, Tween Meals, Malted Milk, Mallo Milk, Double Brunch, Black Walnut, and the Chasenut in addition to its most successful bar, the Cherry Mash. George Washington Chase's children joined the prospering business around 1900, and in the 1920s, grandson Charles Chase did so as well. About this time, Chase Candy Company built a four-story, modern factory in downtown St. Joseph to accommodate its increased production needs.
1944-61: Period of Rapid Acquisitions, Then Return to Company Roots
However, during the Great Depression, Chase Candy Company was hard hit. Sales plummeted and so did profits. In response, the company cut back on or eliminated many of its products. Then, in the 1940s, business rebounded sufficiently for an investment firm from Chicago, F. S. Yantis and Company, Inc., to become interested in buying Chase Candy. After some negotiation, the candy company sold for $1 million in 1944, ending the Chase family's ownership of the business. F. S. Yantis retained the Chase Candy Company name, however; in 1945, shares in Chase Candy Company went on sale for the first time. Proceeds from this sale went to finance F. S. Yantis and Company's purchase of Chase Candy, and by 1951, F. S. Yantis owned 40 percent of Chase common stock.
William A. Yantis, director of F. S. Yantis and Company, had a long history in the world of business. In addition to his experience in investment, he had also been president and general manager of Pepsi-Cola Bottling Co. Under his direction, Chase Candy Company embarked on an acquisition spree within the domestic candy industry. In 1946, Chase Candy purchased National Candy Company, which produced 75 million pounds of candy annually in two plants in Chicago, Illinois, and one in St. Louis, Missouri, and by 1949, Chase Candy Company had become one of the largest candy manufacturers west of the Mississippi River. However, this did not prevent Chase Candy from cutting its prices by 6 to 10 percent in response to a decline in cocoa bean prices that year. In 1951, Chase Candy purchased Nutrine Candy Company, also of Chicago, and Neal V. Diller, president of Nutrine, became president of Chase. Also around this time, the company purchased O'Brien and Shotwell candy manufacturers and merged them into its business as well.
In 1954, in its largest acquisition to date, Chase Candy purchased Bunte Brothers Candy Company, which had revenues of about $20 million and had distinguished itself as a manufacturer of hard candies. Bunte Brothers was most well known for its fruit-filled hard candies, which it sold under the brand name of Diana Stuft Confections. With this latest acquisition, Chase Candy's revenues reached volumes of more than $14 million. The company changed its name to Bunte-Chase Candy Company and consolidated production of its various lines in one huge plant with headquarters in Chicago, Illinois.
The purchase of Bunte, unfortunately, stretched the company beyond its means. Bunte-Chase closed its Chicago plant in 1961 and moved its headquarters back to St. Joseph, Missouri. Shortly thereafter, Chase Candy purchased Poe Candy Company, a confectionery firm that produced coconut and peanut candies. Poe Candy Company had been started by a former Chase employee. The merger of Chase and Poe Candy led in 1962 to the formation of Chase General Holding Company, whose principal purpose was to sell and manufacture confectionery products within the midwestern region.
Keeping (Mostly) to Tradition
For the next decade, Chase General continued to do what it did best, manufacturing the products for which the Chase and Poe candy companies had become well-known on a relatively small scale. During the mid-1970s, the company introduced a new candy bar flavor, the Coconut Mash, but, according to Barry Yantis in a 2006 St. Joseph News-Press article, "It didn't sell very well." Consequently, the company once again focused exclusively on its Cherry Mash to the satisfaction of its longtime customers, among them one woman who had grown up savoring the treat, as she explained in a 2005 St. Louis-Dispatch article. "Cherry Mash has a special place for us because there is nothing else like that flavor. It's just intoxicating."
William A. Yantis remained at the head of Chase Candy until his death at the age of 77 in 1986. During that time, he struck a deal with Sam Walton, also of Missouri, to carry the Cherry Mash at many Wal-Mart stores. Upon Yantis's death, one of his three sons, Barry M. Yantis, became the chief executive of Chase General Corporation. With Barry Yantis at the helm, nothing much changed at Chase General, not even the vintage machinery, for the next 20 years. According to Yantis in a 2005 St. Louis-Dispatch article, "[T]hat's the beauty of the Cherry Mash. There is already romance in the candy without adding or changing a thing."
Then the year 2005 rolled around, a difficult one for the company as it, along with other candy manufacturers, suffered the fallout of Hurricane Katrina when sugar prices nearly doubled. Even so, the company managed a slight increase in revenues, from $2.2 million to $2.6 million. Also in 2005, Chase General moved into the new factory it had built in St. Joseph, Missouri, a 20,000-square-foot building that housed its corporate offices and production operations capable of wrapping 140 Cherry Mash bars per minute.
In 2006, the company once again decided to add new flavors to its "Mash" product line in response to repeated customer demand. After carefully testing the recipes, the Vanilla Mash made with real vanilla and the Chocolate Mash made with chocolate liqueur and cocoa came on board for that year's Christmas season. "It's pretty difficult to introduce a new candy bar. It's difficult to compete with Hershey and Nestlé and Mars," Yantis explained in a 2006 St. Joseph News-Press article. The new bars sold only in 12-ounce packages, with plans to make the bars available individually if they proved popular. The company also reintroduced a tin filled with a pound and a half of miniature Cherry Mash bars for the December holiday season, the company's busiest time of the year.
After experiencing a drop in revenues to $2.3 million in 2006 and a further drop during the first quarter of 2007, Chase General undertook efforts to increase sales to existing customers and to expand its marketing area. A step in this direction occurred in November 2006, when Pamida, a chain with locations in small and medium towns throughout the Midwest, began to carry Chase Candy. Still cautious about his company's future growth, Barry Yantis remarked in a 2006 AFX International Focus article that "[i]t is hard for a regional candy bar to expand itself." Still he was hopeful that it might prove easier to break out of the 15-state midwestern market with the addition of the Chocolate and Vanilla Mash.
Regardless, the Cherry Mash was and would remain an icon and a nostalgic favorite within the Midwest and would always have its faithful following. A significant portion of the company's sales occurred online to midwesterners who had left their home region and could no longer purchase the Cherry Mash locally. For these customers, the company's commitment to tradition was a comfort. As Yantis explained in a 2006 St. Joseph News-Press article: "We want to keep customers happy with fresh Cherry Mash made the same way it was 50 years ago,"
Principal Subsidiaries
Dye Candy Company.
Principal Divisions
Chase Candy; Poe Candy.
Principal Competitors
Crown Candy; Mars, Incorporated; Vermico Candy; Brach's; Ferrara Pan Candy Company; Russell Stover Candies Inc.
Further Reading
Charton, Scott, "Valentine's Day Treat with Longtime Missouri History Remains the Nation's Best-Selling Cherry Candy Bar," St. Louis Post Dispatch, February 6, 2005.
"Cherry Mash Candy Bar to Get New Flavors," AFX International Focus, November 29, 2006.
Mires, Susan, "Chasing a Mini Mouthful: Candy Icon Adds New Flavors," St. Joseph News-Press, November 29, 2006.
— Carrie Rothburd
