Who Invented Jolly Rancher?

Jolly Rancher is a popular brand name or trademark of candies manufactured by Hershey’s Foods Corporation. The brand includes different types of candies like fruit chews, gummies, hard candy, sodas, lollipops as well as jellybeans. The history of the creation of the trademark is interesting and informative because it reflects different values and traits like hard work, family bonding and loyalty. In order to know more about the history of the product line, it is best to begin with identifying the people behind the creation of Jolly Rancher.


History of the Brand Name
Who invented Jolly Rancher? The trademark was invented by Bill Harmsen and Dorothy Harmsen in 1949 in Golden Colorado. The operation of the company started when the Harmsen family opened a dairy products store at the east side of Washington Avenue. The original products offered by the couple to consumers in Denver are soft ice creams as well as chocolates. To accommodate the increasing demands and number of customers of the company, the couple decided to transfer the business operation at the Wheat Ridge in 1951.

Due to the unstable performance of the company, the couple sold the firm to Beatrice Foods Co. in 1966. Bill Harmsen became the president of Jolly Rancher after the acquisition but he filed his retirement in 1977. After the retirement, his son Robert Harmsen was appointed as the general manager of the product line.

In 1983, Beatrice Foods Co. was acquired by Huhtamaki Oy. After the acquisition of the firm, Huhtamaki Oy established Leaf Inc. at Denver in Colorado. Leaf Inc. was acquired by Hershey Chocolate and Confectionery Corp. in 1997. The factory of the products is situated at Wheat Ridge until October 2002. Afterwards, all the machines used in the factory were auctioned. The place was demolished in 2005. Since 2005, all the products with the brand name were produced at the plants of Hershey in Smith Falls as well as Mississauga in Ontario, Canada. Some of the products presently offered by the company are the Ranch Pack, the Stix and the Junior Stix.

Additional Information and other Important Details
In order to know if the products have nutritional value, it is best to look for the nutrition information on the packaging of the items. Consumers can see the percentage of carbohydrate, dietary fiber, total cholesterol and fat in a single serving of the item. The original flavor has 7 grams of sugar but customers who want to lose weight can choose the sugar free assortment.