The Jelly Belly manufacturing plant in North Chicago has permanently closed as of Friday after over 110 years in operation, resulting in dozens of employee layoffs.
Ferrara, the company that owns Jelly Belly Candy Company, announced in July it had made the “difficult decision” to end manufacturing operations at its plant in North Chicago.
The company said they performed a careful review of the current volumes produced at the plant and decided to move manufacturing to another facility.
The final day of plant production was Friday. 66 employees who worked at the plant have been laid off from the plant.
Ferrara previously said they were focused on helping their North Chicago team members by offering them different roles in other manufacturing facilities.
Ferrara said they anticipate no impact on the Jelly Belly brand, the products or the service to their customers. “Jelly Belly remains a critical component of our growth trajectory.”
The North Chicago factory was over 110 years old. It opened in 1913 and was initially called Goelitz Confectionery Company.
According to the company, a handful of workers crafted, hand-poured and packaged fine-quality buttercream candies, including the highly successful Candy Corn.
The sons of Gustav Goelitz, a German immigrant who learned the art of candy making a generation before, purchased the land and built a factory for the family’s growing candy venture.
Within a few years of producing in North Chicago during World War I, the United States Navy was months away from implementing plans to use the factory for military production.
The effort was dropped when the war ended suddenly. The company has made candy in the same location ever since.
The company changed its name to Jelly Belly Candy Company in 2001.