The Leaf Candy Company was a major American producer of candy and trading cards based in Bannockburn, Illinois and later in Brooklyn, New York. ^* Its history includes a number of mergers, acquisitions, and divisions, as well as several name changes.

Company history

• 1940 Leaf Confectionary Company introduces Rainblo Bubble Gum. Rainblo gum balls were the first gumballs with a hollow center and the first that had coloring and flavoring throughout the gum, rather than just on the surface of the gumball. ^*
• 1947 Overland Candy Company merged with Chicago Biscuit Company, Leaf Gum and Leaf Machinery
• 1948 Leaf issues its first set of baseball cards, considered one the of the first sets of "modern" baseball cards.
• 1949 Leaf Brands reintroduced malted milk balls under the name of Whoppers Malted Milk Balls.
• 1960s The Whopppers Malted Milk Balls brand, along with other products manufactured by Leaf Brands, was purchased by W.R. Grace.
• 1976 Candy brands were repurchased by Leaf.
• 1983 Leaf acquires Jolly Rancher. ^*
• 1983 Leaf Candy Company in Illinois was purchased by Huhtamaki Oy of Helsinki, Finland, and merged it with Phoenix Candy (the maker of Now and Later) and another candy company it had acquired, all under the Leaf name 6. Huhtamaki Oy acquired the Donruss trading card division of General Mills at about the same time and merged it into Leaf. 8
• 1986 Leaf purchased Beatrice Foods the producer of Milk Duds.
• 1986 Leaf, Inc. sold Phoenix Candy to Kouri Capital, a Finnish investment firm and change that company's name to Phoenix Confections. ^*
• 1988 Hollywood Brands, the maker of Payday and Zero, was purchased from Sara Lee by Huhtamaki Oy and became part of Leaf, Inc. 8
• 1989 Heath bar was purchased by Leaf ^*.
• 1990's Leaf had become one of the world's top ten confectionery companies; it was especially strong in non-chocolate products such as pastiles and chewing gum. ^*
• 1993 Leaf is the forth largest candy producer in North America ^*.
• 1996 Hershey Foods Corporation acquired the Leaf North American confectionery operations from Huhtamaki Oy. Over the next few years Leaf manufacturing and sales became integrated into existing Hershey manufacturing and sales operations, effectively ending Leaf's existence as a separate operating unit in the US. ^*
• 1996 Pinnacle Brands acquired the rights to produce trading cards under the Leaf and Donruss imprints from Huhtamaki Oy ^*.
• 1998 Pinnacle/Donruss filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The Donruss company itself is shut down and only the name lives on. Playoff acquired the rights to produce trading cards under the Leaf and Donruss imprints from Pinnacle in a bankruptcy auction.
• 1999 Leaf's European and Asian business was sold to the Dutch company CSM. ^*
• 2003 The Rainblo brand is bought from Hershey's by Farley's and Sathers.

References

^* Hershey Foods Corporation Summary Annual Report 1998.

About Donruss. Donruss Company official site [http://www.donruss.com/aboutUs.cfm Accessed March 8, 2006.

Our Journey. Huhtamaki Oy corporate website. [http://www.huhtamaki.com/ Accessed March 8, 2006.

[http://www.hersheys.com/products/details/zero.asp Hershey's Official Zero webpage

[http://www.farleysandsathers.com/History_RainBlo.htm Farley and Sather's official site

Anonymous. "Pinnacle now biggest player in card game" USA Today Baseball Weekly, 6 June 1996 [http://www.usatoday.com/sports/baseball/sbbw0518.htm

^* Dyslin, John. LEAF branches out. Prepared Foods. May 1993.

Confectionery | US companies