This audio was auto-generated. Please let us know if you have any feedback.
When Elia Kassoff stopped by a California grocery store in 2009 to buy his favorite childhood candy, the initial excitement quickly faded. The tech headhunter discovered that Astro Pops, which he had been buying by the box every few months, were out of stock. A few months later, he went back and got some surprising news from the store manager: Astro Pops were discontinued.
“I couldn't believe it when I heard that,” Kassoff recalled.
So the next day, he called Spangler Candy, the Ohio company that previously made the cone-shaped cookies. The president at the time told him that Astro Pops had been discontinued because they were “no longer part of our marketing mix.”
“I said out of the blue, 'Will you sell the rights?' because I couldn't just let my favorite candy disappear. I wanted to see if I could save it,” Kasoff recalled. “And they said, 'Yeah, we'll sell it. We're not going to do anything with it.'”
And that's how Kassoff came to own his beloved Astro Pops. He now runs a candy company, but the 56-year-old executive has a history with sweets.
He and his family used to visit relatives when he was young. He came home from New York with a bag full of the latest confectionery. His uncle, Ed Leaf, worked for Leaf Brands, which his father and uncles founded in the 1920s and eventually grew into the fourth-largest confectionery company in North America, selling iconic staples like Jolly Ranchers and Milk Duds.
Tarts & Tines to be exhibited at the 2024 Confectionery & Snacks Fair.
Christopher Dohring/Food Dive
turn over a new leaf
In 1996, Hershey acquired Leaf, and the 70-year-old brand suffered the same fate as Astro Pops until Kassoff acquired the trademark.
Kassoff originally named his company Astro Pop in hopes of reviving the candy he loved as a child. He had no intention of giving up his career permanently.
But Kassoff’s stance soon began to change. More and more, he found himself “controlling the fate of his favorite candy,” and it became more and more fun. Kassoff began to wonder if he could acquire other brands that he enjoyed as a child, but which no longer existed. Soon, a permanent career change occurred.
It didn't take long for Kassoff to realize that Leaf still had a wide market presence despite having been sold to Hershey's 20 years ago.
Kassoff eventually renamed the company Leaf Brands and used it as a platform to build a snack empire. Leaf eventually acquired other candy products, including Bonkers, Wacky Wafers, and Tart n' Tinys, as well as the cookie brand Hydrox.
“Imagine if a Hershey executive were to go into a meeting and say, 'I have a great idea for a new product. It's called Farts.' They'd probably get fired. There's a huge lack of creativity and fun in our industry.”
Elia Kassoff
CEO, Leaf Brands
The company also has its own brand called Farts Candy, which is similar to chewy Nerd. The industry is currently largely controlled by the Big Four candy companies, and they are afraid to take risks because of their size, Kassoff said.
“Imagine if a Hershey executive were in a meeting and said, 'I have a great idea for a new product. It's called Farts.' They'd probably get fired. There's a huge lack of creativity and fun in our industry.”
Leaf has been very obsessed with working with brands that were previously on the market. Kassoff has heard critics say that brands he owns have disappeared for a reason. But he counters that it’s not because consumers have lost interest. The real reason, he says, is usually “corporate mismanagement,” such as a change in recipe, packaging or name.
“You can't blame the product. You can blame the brand manager for this,” he said. “My goal has always been to bring back the candy in a packaging that is almost identical to the original formula. That's what the consumer wants. That's what they remember.”
Sweet success turns sour
Started in 1908, Hydrox declined after owner Keebler changed its name to Droxies to get away from the chemical name of hydrogen and oxygen. It also made the cookies sweeter to compete with Oreo. Kellogg, which later acquired Keebler, pulled Droxies from the market in 2003.
Astro Pops, released in 1962, failed 40 years later, mainly because the stick holding the candy in place moved and became difficult to suck.
In the case of Wacky Wafers, the original silver dollar-sized candy was reduced in size, shape, and packaging at least three times. Kassoff speculates that owner Willy Wonka cut costs by switching to a smaller size and putting Wacky Wafers in the same packaging as other candies. The original flavors of banana, green apple, watermelon, orange, and strawberry were also scrapped in favor of new flavors.
For Tart n' Tinys, Wonka added a coating that consumers found to be too damaging. The candy also eliminated the cylindrical shape with flat tops and bottoms that children used to play with and stack. In their place were tiny BBs. The candy was discontinued in the early 2000s.
Leaf reversed all these unfortunate changes and made the candy successful again.
People often ask Kasoff what candy he would buy.
“That’s easy,” he says. “It’s the stuff I liked as a kid, and selfishly, it’s the stuff I’ve experienced firsthand.”
Kasoff runs a small business that has played a big role in Leaf's success. He has no debt, no outside funding, no investors. Kassoff works from his home in California and has two other employees. Candy production is outsourced, so Leaf doesn't have to worry about dealing with plants or workers.
He declined to delve deeply into Leaf's finances, but said the business was “very profitable” and he was “making a very comfortable living.”
Stay true to the brand
Kasoff points out that acquiring a trademark is the easy part. The hard part is making the product the same way people remember it. He says that too often, a product is reintroduced to the market, but the only similarity to the original is the name. The look and taste are often very different.
“People can see it and recognize it. They know something has changed,” he said.
A key part of Leaf’s ability to avoid that pitfall is connecting with former executives and others who were involved in the making of the product years ago. Recent improvements in flavor innovation have also made it easier to replicate the taste. Leaf also sends samples to its ardent fans to make sure they taste the same as they remember.
Kassoff regularly gets approached by customers begging him to bring back their favorite snacks that were discontinued in the 1960s. He quickly learned the art of saying “no.”
Kassoff said he came up with the phrase “Never sell to a dead person, and never bring a product that only a dead person would remember.”
When it comes to Hydrox, Wacky Wafers and Tart n' Tinys, there are still plenty of people who enjoy them and will buy them again, passing their love of the products on to their children and grandchildren.
Kassoff said despite recent success, there will always be “potential” for new brands to be acquired, including others who have tried to emulate him but ultimately failed to revive their brands.
Often, entrepreneurs are so focused on the product that they don't realize the distribution and investment it takes to get it to market, he added. The lack of interest from big candy companies in novelty or fun products also opens up a market for Leaf.
