family candy business, split by bitter divorce, got back together with $35m sweets empire

More than 40 years ago Stan and Pam Strickland stumbled into the candy industry and they found out how to make pralines, a southern specialty, by applying pecans to butter, sugar and cream
Their Savannah.
, Shop, River Street candy, located in once-
Along the industrial zone of the city\'s waterfront, get below.
They added other sweets, from Fudge to God, nougat-
Like candy, they are also sold by mail order.
But in 1991, when 72-year-old Stan and 71-year-old Pam divorced, they split the business with their family: she got the original name and two stores;
He bought two stores in Savannah and opened a competitive store he called the Savannah Candy Kitchen.
For nearly two decades, Stan (
Who went to the name \"Candy Man)became his ex-
The wife\'s most intense competitors, their children, Jennifer, 51, and Tim, 49, joined their mother\'s candy industry, and neither side of the family even spoke.
Eight years ago, Jennifer and Tim started talking to their dad again, and soon they started buying his log volume and sharing information from vendors.
Last year, they merged their rival family businesses into a company spanning 17 companies --
Store owned, thriving mail
Order and online business (
The price of a box of 10 pralines is $31. 95)
, And a new effort to franchise in the name of Union, River Street candy ~ Candy Kitchen in Savannah.
The combined entities owned by Stan, Jennifer and Tim have sales of $35 million.
In an edit and condensed conversation, the three talked about how the family came back together and how they are now trying to expand the candy business.
Amy Feldman: How did you start a business?
Stan Strickland: My wife and I fell in love with Christmas decorations in Germany and thought we would start selling them this year --round.
Bad mistake.
We don\'t know what people want to buy.
She became a teacher and then a librarian and I started selling wine.
I wanted to take care of what was in the store, but no, so we kept it.
We pay $50 a month for the rent, but it is very troublesome to pay.
We bought some candy from Charleston, USA. C.
We noticed that some customers would buy it.
Shortly after that, on 1978, we went to Atlanta for a gift show and we took the children with us.
Tim found a fake machine.
At that time, he was 10 years old and he was all topped up.
We don\'t even know how to make candy.
This is our first device.
It\'s just a kettle to make fudge.
What did you do?
Stan Strickland: My wife and I, Pam, decided to try and find recipes for making pralines.
I want to go to the stove and cook in a small pan.
One night-as I remember yesterday-we made three pieces of candy and we put it on the waxed paper, boy, it was good.
We can only do three at a time, so we don\'t know what to do.
Then we found out that we could do pralines in the machine.
The manufacturer told me, \'Don\'t do it, you\'ll kill somebody, \'but after 30 years we still do it the same way.
I bought a piece of marble from the cemetery [
Put the heat on pralines].
It weighed 800 pounds and my wife almost killed me when I brought it into the store.
I started a batch of pralines, about 11 in the morning, with two or three women walking in and smelling candles.
After trial and error, we started making different candies.
We make fudge, crunchy sugar, caramel and we make it right in front of you.
Feldman: How did the split happen?
Stan Strickland: that\'s half a part.
My wife and I decided to do better separately.
We are divorced. That was 1991.
She got the original store, which is River Street Sweets, which is still running today and one in Charleston.
I received one in Atlanta and one in Orlando.
She has two, and I have two. we parted ways.
Then I opened a family in Savannah, and we developed our business for nearly 20 years.
Both companies did a good job.
We expanded the store.
We are in Atlanta, Nashville, Charleston, Myrtle Beach.
Because of the need for mail, it\'s natural for us to get together-order business.
Feldman: when was that?
About four years ago.
We are going to go to a bigger candy factory by the river and dad already has a bigger factory.
Dad kept saying, \"I hope we can run these machines more.
We joked, \'Why don\'t we live with you? \'
Then we looked at each other and said, this is not a bad idea.
Stan Strickland: It happened about 90 days later.
Feldman: How big is the business now?
Tim Strickland: We have 17 stores with $35 million in revenue.
No one in this country sells more than we do.
Praline on marble slabs is something you have to go through.
Did you make money?
Jennifer Strickland: Yes, otherwise we wouldn\'t have done that all the time.
We are not like Amazon.
Feldman: How does your mom react to regrouping the business?
Jennifer Strickland: mom, from being nervous to really happy that we all work and get along with each other.
I think she\'s calm.
Tim Strickland: Now that mom and dad are talking, they are separated from us.
Stan Strickland: Yes.
The result is really good.
Jennifer Strickland: It\'s a mixed family.
Dad has been married for a long time. we have a 21-year-old brother, Red, who grew up in this industry.
We are ultimately the makers and showers of frankness.
Dad is a real performer, always.
Is your mother still doing business?
Jennifer Strickland: Mom retired.
We are also transitioning to where we are going to buy dad away.
Do you still have two different brands?
Stan Strickland: they are two different brands, but we have joined our franchise company.
Jennifer Strickland: We can\'t get rid of that name.
This is part of who we are and what we do.
Stan Strickland: I tell you that both orders are picked up by the same operator.
So when you call, you get the same candy no matter what you order?
Stan Strickland: We all have the same recipe.
There are still a lot of things in the store that are done separately, but you have to do it together when you enter the mail order department.
Feldman: How did the franchise come about?
Tim Strickland: Jennifer and I are talking about franchise, and a group in Atlanta who wants to franchise contacted dad.
We interviewed dad\'s team and passed.
Jennifer found it [
Franchise consultant
A franchise in Chicago.
They put companies like us, from operations to law to marketing, to make them franchisees.
Our goal for the next seven or eight years is to build 50 to 100 specialty stores.
Stan Strickland: We are working with a real estate group to penetrate markets like Miami, San Francisco, Philadelphia, etc. C.
Those places in Boston.
Although we have candy from the south, we have provedwith the mail-order business]
We can sell in the north of the Mason. Dixon line.
Jennifer Strickland: we are looking at San Francisco.
Looks great.
I was surprised.
Feldman: where is the factory?
Stan Strickland: in Savannah.
We are 75,000 square feet.
Feldman: how much candy do you produce there a day?
Stan Strickland: this is a bunch, Lord.
Tim Strickland: We make £ 4,000 pounds a day.
We make a total of 5,000 to 7,000 pounds a day.
Are you the largest praline producer in the country?
This is how we are.
This is an important part of our business.
None of the stores sold less than £ 28% to £ 30%, and 58% of the sales in one store were pounds.
You definitely want to be in the range of 30% to 40%.
Feldman: how many people work in a candy factory?
Jennifer Strickland: it can go up 150 or 175 and then down to 75 off-siteseason.
Many people come back year after year.
Feldman: So from the moment you divorced, you didn\'t talk at all?
Stan Strickland: That\'s right.
We are not together at all.
We have no communication.
Tim Strickland: he seems to be our dad again in about a month.
Jennifer Strickland: it was just a very ugly divorce and dad ended up competing directly with us.
It was a very difficult time for everyone to deal with it by closing it.
Stan Strickland: now I\'m thinking, it\'s been a long time.
Remember, we\'re all struggling.
They are trying to maintain the supply of candy on River Street, and I am also trying.
We are working hard.
Things can happen faster if we are not so nervous.
It\'s really hard.
Feldman: So you didn\'t expect the store to succeed for a few years?
Stan Strickland: of course.
Jennifer Strickland: It\'s been ten years.
Feldman: What turned things around?
Jennifer Strickland: It\'s just perseverance.
We have been growing slowly and re-investing in our business.
This is probably the most critical part.
Feldman: What are some of the things you introduced that don\'t work?
Jennifer Strickland: Oh, my God, so much.
We made chocolate.
Bananas in the store.
They kept sliding down the stick, and it was hard to put them in a tempting way.
We sell baked goods by mail order, but we don\'t sell very well in the store.
In order to get the right mix, even the hard sugar is tried wrong.
Feldman: what does it feel like to have this family together?
Jennifer Strickland: we get together first as a family and then as a business.
We miss each other.
We talked a little on the phone and the first time we got together was on his [Stan’s]
Boat ride with my son
My eldest son was adopted from Guatemala and then he went home.
That\'s one of the main reasons I contacted my father, who said, \"it\'s crazy.
The desire to reconnect is there.
Stan Strickland: It seems hard that we have been competitors for so long.
In order to solve the family problem, we put the business aside.
Jennifer Strickland: it doesn\'t take a long time for us to start talking about candy once we start getting along.
One of us needs sugar, pecans or shrink wrap.
Next, we began to compare the pricing and shipping costs of our suppliers.
Then there are some products that River Street candy companies have to outsource.
We don\'t have room to make our own log rolls, the first product we bought from dad.
Then we bought God and then we bought baked goods.
Stan Strickland: When we got together, we decided that we wouldn\'t do it if one of us didn\'t want.
Either we all agree or we don\'t do it.
Feldman: It sounds like it can be maintained.
Jennifer Strickland: it does maintain peace.
Sometimes it\'s a good thing to close your mouth for 24 hours, which is hard for everyone in this group.