About American Licorice Company

Company Profile 

One of the first licorice producers in the US candy industry, the American Licorice Company is a market leader in manufacturing and marketing confectionery products. The company has made customers happy since its founding in 1914 with its Red Vines®, Fruit Vines®, Sour Punch®, Punchies®, and Super Ropes® candies. The company's top products include Straws Candy Rainbow, Candy Bites Assorted, and Candy Strawberry Licorice. Through its manufacturing facilities, employees, and communities, American Licorice continuously aspires to be better tomorrow than today. The headquarters of the privately held company is in La Porte, Indiana.

How It All Began 

The American Licorice Company was founded by Martin Kretchmer, a man who began selling goods on Chicago streets out of a small cart, along with his son Frank Kretchmer and son-in-law Peter Shock, in a small, rented storefront on West Jackson Boulevard in Chicago in 1914. One hundred years later, the company is still proudly family-owned, with their great-grandchildren leading it and the fifth generation entering the workforce. 

Black Licorice Twists were the company's debut offering. The company manufactured Black licorice cigarettes and licorice cigars during the Great Depression. By 1920, it moved its operations to a building at 2321 N. Keystone, Chicago. 

Finding the California Sun 

In 1925, American Licorice Company bought the assets of Universal Licorice Co. and began operations with Clarence Kretchmer at the helm. Even though it was challenging to launch a new business, the company persisted and shipped almost all of the candy produced daily to customers. Charlie Chaplin requested that a licorice shoe be made that year to be used as a prop in his famous movie The Gold Rush, in which his character consumes shoe leather to stay alive. 

American Licorice Company produced only one product during World War II, the Lic-Ris-Ets. After the war, there was such a high demand for goods that the stock would run out three weeks after it left the factory. 

Red Vines Are Born 

In the 1950s, the American Licorice Company began producing Raspberry Vines. Later it was renamed Red Vines twists and received new packaging with the addition of a tray in 1958. In 1963, American Licorice introduced unwrapped Red Ropes and Licorice Ropes, one of the longest pieces of licorice to hit the market. Later that decade, the company started wrapping the ropes individually, leading to the creation of the 34inch long Super Ropes candy brand. 

The Union City Candy products began in the early 1970s. Four years later, the company's Chicago plant was relocated to a 40,000-square-foot space near Alsip, Illinois. Purple vines, green vines, and chocolate vines were created during this decade.  

In 1983, American Licorice Co. started selling Red Vines candies in knob-top jars, quickly becoming recognized as the brand's packaging design. American Licorice Co. started transitioning Alsip licorice production to a continuous cooking technique in the late 1980s. The production of Black licorice and Red Vines candy at the Union City plant continued to be done in batches. 

Sour Punch Makes Its Mark 

In 1990, American Licorice Co. moved into the sour candy market by introducing the Sour Punch® brand candies. Over the following ten years, numerous additional sour brands emerged, including Sour Punch Bites, Sour Punch Beanz, Sour Punch Ropes, and Sour Punch Twists.  

During the mid-1990s, American Licorice Co. produced a number of candies with organic ingredients and zero preservatives. In 1997, the company introduced Herbal Candy Chews and real fruit Twistetts. A natural licorice brand called Riza was introduced in 1999. 

The Candy Alliance 

The American Licorice Co. founded the Candy Alliance LLC in November 1999, along with other small, family-run confectioneries like Spangler and Goetze. The goal of the Candy Alliance was to "establish legal agreements to enhance competition in the candy industry, particularly with large candy manufacturers, by, among other ways, increasing placement and distribution of Members' products and lowering their costs, thereby enabling them to lower prices, increase output, and give consumers a wider choice." The members can "create a better firm" and compete in the competitive market for sweets and snacks since they are all roughly the same size, share similar objectives, and have discovered synergies. Each member acts separately from the others as a stand-alone entity. In 2000 the company opened its corporate headquarters in Bend, Oregon, which remained in place for approximately fourteen years. 

Moving To Indiana 

American Licorice Company shifted its operations to a larger facility in La Porte, Indiana, in 2005. Eventually, the company shifted all its corporate offices and Midwest operations to this location. Recent innovations include Twistettes and a renewed emphasis on making candies with fewer artificial ingredients.