Adore me. Be mine. Call me. Say yes. Out of context, these creepy requests might not seem familiar but you come across them every February 14th. Better said, you used to come across them. Last July, the New England Confectionary Company known as Necco abruptly announced they were selling the company. Necco is responsible for those chalky candy hearts that you used to give your crush on Valentine’s Day. The candy hearts were so popular that they became synonymous with the holiday in general.
Later that month, the factory that created the candy hearts shut down and the workers were told not to come in the following day. Even if you didn’t enjoy SweethHearts (that was the official name of the candy by the way) the shutdown is a huge blow to Valentine’s Day candy sales. In case you were wondering about specific numbers, here are some statistics. Necco produced about 100,000 pounds of SweetHearts every single day which ends up being about 8 billion candy hearts each year. Not only that, but the full supply is sold within a 6 week period, right before Valentine’s Day. Necco had to work for 11 months straight in order to produce the necessary amount of hearts!
Knowing that, it is likely that production of the candy by its new owner Round Hill investments started too late to fulfill the amount of hearts requested for Valentine’s Day. Fret not, as SweetHearts are likely to be reintroduced into the market next year. “We are looking forward to announcing the relaunch of SweetHearts for the 2020 Valentine’s Day Season,” according to CEO Kirk Vashaw in a press release.
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