U.S. Can’t Get Enough Sugar for Dum Dums With Import Curb
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Spangler Candy Co. saw last month just how tight and costly U.S. sugar supplies are. For the first time in at least 38 years, the company couldn’t get the sweetener it needed to make Dum Dum Pops and candy canes.
When a power failure halted shipments from Spangler’s main supplier, Chief Executive Officer Kirk Vashaw scrambled to find alternatives. He came up 25 percent short, forcing a cut in candy output at the Bryan, Ohio-based company his family has run for four generations. Sugar is 70 percent of his ingredient costs. While the disruption lasted a day, Vashaw says inventory is getting tighter than when prices surged to a record in 2010.