Tootsie Roll

Tootsie Roll is a chocolate flavored candy that has been manufactured in the United States since 1896. The candy has qualities similar to both caramels and taffy without being exactly either type, and does not melt while being transported during hot summer months.

The manufacturer, Tootsie Roll Industries, is based in Chicago, Illinois.

It was the first penny candy to be individually wrapped.

History

In 1896, its founder Leo Hirshfield, an Austrian immigrant to the United States of America, started his candy business in a small shop located in New York City.

In 1935, the company was in serious difficulty. Concerned about the possible loss of an important customer, Tootsie Roll's principal supplier of paper boxes, Joseph Rubin & Sons of Brooklyn, became interested in the possibility of acquiring control. The company was listed on the New York Stock Exchange, but Bernard D. Rubin acquired a list of shareholders and approached them in person in order to purchase their shares. The Rubin family eventually achieved control and agreed that Bernard would run the company as president. Bernard D. Rubin was able to steadily increase sales and restore profits, changing the formula of the Tootsie Roll and increasing its size, moving from Manhattan to a much larger plant in Hoboken, New Jersey, and guiding the company successfully through the difficult war years during which vital raw materials were in short supply. When he died in 1948, he had increased the sales volume twelvefold. After his death his brother William B. Rubin served as president until 1962. In 1962, William's daughter, Ellen Rubin Gordon, took control, and as of January 2015, is Chairman and CEO of the company. For many years prior to his death, her husband, Melvin Gordon, was Chairman and CEO.