Abbott’s Candies targets growth while keeping Indiana roots
Subscriber Benefit
As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowIndiana’s oldest candy company has eyes on growing its footprint, but its chief operating officer says there are no plans to leave the Hoosier State.
Abbott’s Candies, located in Hagerstown, was founded in 1890 by W.C. Abbott and is now owned by the Noel family with its main operation in the Wayne County town and a retail location on the northeast side of Indianapolis.
“There was no reason to think about changing anything or anything like that,” said Jason Noel, who runs the company owned by his parents, Jay and Lynn. “We knew what we were most famous for, and we wanted to keep it that way.”
Noel talked about the history of the company and his goals for the future with Around INdiana Reporter Mary-Rachel Redman.
“W.C. Abbott actually didn’t start with caramels; he actually started making butterscotch. That’s what he got known for,” Noel said. “Then he switched to caramels, and then the caramels kind of just took off, and that’s what we’ve been known for ever since.”
The company continued to be operated by members of Abbott’s family all the way until 2012, when the company was sold to the Noels, who had made a licensing agreement with the family to open the store in Indianapolis in 1993.
Jason Noel told IIB there were no plans to change the operations.
“We still make our caramels, the same recipe since W.C. Abbott started it in 1890. That’s what we’re most known for,” he said. We also do our chocolates. We do a lot of 49 different varieties of chocolates here in house, all hand rolled; we still do everything by hand as much as we can. We still cook on copper kettles, and we still pretty much try to do everything original to W.C.”
Jason runs the company with his brother, who lives in Texas and handles the marketing side of the business. And the pair is looking for more, but there are no plans to move.
“That’s what we want to do is grow the business but stay where we’re centrally located,” he said. “Because people know where we are. People know who we are. Our roots are deep here in Hagerstown and in Indiana, so there’s no reason to even think about that.”
The Noel brothers are particularly looking to grow the company’s wholesale business, in addition to bringing more attention to their retail store fronts.
Noel said business continues to be good for the company, which produces about 16,000 pounds of caramel every year. And the demand is there from all over the world.
“Our caramels have been sent to aircraft carriers in the middle of the ocean. We have sent to Switzerland, Japan, Australia, Canada, all over the place,” he said. “We have a lot of companies that order our candies at Christmas, and they send out to all their clients. So we’re very well distributed through the whole United States and also through the world. So people know about us.”