ST. PAUL, MN — Pearson's Candy Company, maker of Nut Goodie and the Salted Nut Roll, will permanently close its plant at 2140 7th St. W in St. Paul and lay off about 80 employees effective Sept. 28, according to a state WARN notice filed with Minnesota officials.
The company, doing business as St. Paul Candy Company, cited a lack of financial sustainability for continued operation of the site.
Some of the affected workers are represented by the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union, Local 22, and there are no bumping rights associated with the layoffs, the notice states. Positions being eliminated include candy makers, machine operators, maintenance and HVAC technicians, boiler operators, shipping and receiving clerks, quality control technicians, sanitation staff and managers, among others.
Minnesota's State Rapid Response Team, led by Sr. Specialist John Mohs, is coordinating reemployment assistance for the affected workers.
The candy itself may outlive the plant.
Pearson's parent company, Promise Confections, told MPR News it is looking to move certain key Pearson's brands, including the Nut Goodie and Salted Nut Roll, to a strategic partner and will continue exploring options to keep making the legacy products, saying the decision reflects current business and economic conditions.
Former Pearson's staff told MPR that rising costs for ingredients like chocolate and a lack of reinvestment by past ownership contributed to the plant's struggles, with one former maintenance director saying the aging factory needed a turnaround that ownership wasn't willing to fund.
Pearson's traces back to 1909, when P. Edward Pearson and his brothers started a candy distribution business in Minneapolis.
The Nut Goodie debuted in 1912, and the company introduced the Salted Nut Roll in 1933, in the middle of the Great Depression.
Pearson's moved from Minneapolis to St. Paul in 1950 and into its West 7th Street plant in 1959, the site now set to close.
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