Nassau Candy creates more than 50 jobs, opens third factory on Long Island

A Hicksville-based maker of chocolate-covered raisins and pretzels, English toffee, fudge, fruit slices and other treats has added more than 50 people to its workforce as part of the opening of its third factory on Long Island, officials said on Tuesday.

Nassau Candy renovated and equipped 36,000 square feet of space at 725 Summa Ave. in Westbury for the “repacking of various candies, mixes” and other products, said Garrett Stier, the company’s manufacturing director.

The $5.1 million project was necessary “in order to keep up with customer demand,” he told Newsday.

Nassau Candy, which is primarily a wholesale manufacturer, produces and supplies its own confections to national retail chains and independent stores. The family-owned business also supplies its customers with imported candy, soda, gourmet food, health and beauty products, air fresheners, candles and cleaning products.

Nassau Candy, with 1,000 employees at sites in Westbury, Hicksville and Ronkonkoma, is among Long Island’s largest manufacturers. That fact and the promise to create at least 50 jobs led New York State two years ago to agree to support the Westbury factory project.

On Tuesday, the board of directors of Empire State Development, the state’s primary business-aid agency, voted unanimously to pay $300,000 in grant funds to Nassau Candy now that the factory has been completed.

Earlier, ESD awarded $700,000 in state tax credits based on the company’s job creation.

“Nassau Candy has received prior assistance [from ESD] and has always met or exceeded their job goals,” said Barry Greenspan, economic-development program administrator in the agency’s Long Island office.

He told the ESD board that Nassau Candy has warehouses in California, Florida, Michigan and Texas. Long Island is “the most expensive place to operate, so New York State’s assistance was needed to make [Westbury] a viable location [in which] to expand,” he said.

The company has about 300 workers outside of New York State.

Greenspan said the Long Island Regional Economic Development Council, a panel of local business executives, union leaders, educators and nonprofit officials appointed by Gov. Kathy Hochul, recommended Nassau Candy’s factory project for state aid because “it aligns with our strategy to support food manufacturing” on the Island.

Responding to the grant approval, Stier, the company executive, said the state “assistance was key in helping us open/build out a facility to fit our needs.”

Nassau Candy was started in 1918 as a retail store on Front Street in Hempstead Village. In 1984, the candy and tobacco distributor was purchased by Les Stier and his brother-in-law Barry Rosenbaum.

The pair expanded manufacturing operations and stopped selling tobacco products. Their children also are active in the company’s operations.

In recent years, Nassau Candy has expanded its Hicksville operations multiple times with help from ESD, the state Power Authority and the Nassau County Industrial Development Agency. The company also has bought complementary businesses such as its 2017 purchase of Lanco Corp., a maker of chocolates, mints and promotional items in Ronkonkoma.

ESD chairman Kevin Law, a partner and executive vice president at the East Setauket-based developer Tritec Real Estate Co., lauded Nassau Candy’s success on Tuesday, saying, there’s “a lot of money in candy.”