GREENWOOD 鈥 Baker鈥檚 Candies 鈥 a chocolate company in Greenwood run by a family of engineers 鈥 has started work on a multimillion-dollar project that will double the size of the store and expand the parking lot.
The store will remain open throughout construction, which began in early June and is expected to finish in spring 2025.
Baker鈥檚 Candies has been growing since it opened 36 years ago, said CEO Tom Baker, comparing the original location to a phone booth.
The Baker family has been living in Cass County for five generations and chose Greenwood as their location to be between Lincoln and Omaha. They originally planned to sell candy from their factory to retail outlets, but customers showed an interest in coming straight to the source.
Much to the Baker family鈥檚 surprise, the first store outgrew the acreage and they had to buy another plot of land across town on the side of Interstate 80.
鈥淲e've been doing this over 35 years and every single year, we've added something new,鈥 Baker said.
The current building was constructed six years ago. At 5,000 square feet, it was the largest candy store in Nebraska, Baker said.
Baker said the pandemic hurt the business in the short-term, but it鈥檚 part of the reason it鈥檚 expanding this year. After restrictions were lifted, he said people had a hunger for experiences.
鈥淧eople were so deprived of having those kinds of family experiences that you get by taking a road trip or by getting out that when COVID subsided, there was almost just this euphoria about the opportunity to take your family and go and do something fun and to make memories,鈥 he said.
About 7,000 square feet will be added on to the store as part of the latest project, bringing the space to just shy of 14,000 square feet, Baker said.
The expansion will also add to the list of items sold in the store.
They currently have room for products from about 60 Nebraska retailers, and this project will aim to double that and allow for even better experiences for customers.
The outlet offers more than 800 different types of candy. They鈥檙e also proud to showcase products from Nebraska's history, including Kool-Aid, which was invented in Hastings. There are six flavors of Kool-Aid on tap at all times.聽
Rather than seeking out profits, Baker said they look to provide memorable experiences for families just like their own.
One way they accomplish that is by offering every generation candy from their childhoods. Baker said he sees grandparents and parents come in with their own children and show them what candies they had when they were kids.
Customers can pick up a bag of Zots from the 1970s and Charleston Chew or Abba-Zaba from the 1920s. Even Mary Jane candies, first sold for a penny each in 1914, can be picked up at the chocolate outlet.
鈥淲e scour the earth looking for those old candies that people remember from their childhood, no matter which generation they were born in, because sharing candy is akin to sharing life experiences,鈥 Baker said.
These candies are hard to find anywhere else, Baker said, so the store is able to take people back to their glory days and bring their kids along with them.
Baker鈥檚 Candies also carries popular name-brand favorites packaged in movie theater boxes, but the star of the show is the company's Nebraska-made meltaway, which was perfected thanks to the factory's unconventional beginning.
Even though it's one of the most difficult chocolates to produce, the Baker family found a way through their engineering background.
鈥淭here's not a businessman among us,鈥 Baker said. 鈥淲e always consider ourselves to be a bunch of engineers running a chocolate factory out here.鈥
Baker鈥檚 father, Kevin Baker, was the man who started it all. He originally mass-produced missiles for the U.S. Department of Defense before turning to the chocolate industry after the Cold War ended. But he wasn't like any other engineer. He was an inventor.
Kevin had noticed the chocolate industry was largely untouched by the industrial revolution and set out to revolutionize the way chocolate was produced in Nebraska. So he created machinery blueprints and eventually started his own chocolate company.
The business began with no recipes. Since the family had a custom, fully automated manufacturing process, they were able to shape the recipes around their machinery. Tom Baker said this led to the perfect meltaway.
鈥淲e were able to take something like gourmet chocolate and make it available to blue-collar people,鈥 he said.
Baker said his dad is still at the store every day, along with his mom. He and his brother, Paul Baker, now run the business and the third generation is already at work.
By having customers purchase straight from the candy outlet, Baker said they鈥檙e able to provide visitors with fresher, higher-quality candy. He said they expect to sell 50 million chocolates this year.
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Baker's Candies is undergoing an expansion project that is expected to be completed in the spring. The project will more than double the store's size and add more parking spaces.
Todd Baker explains the Baker's Candies manufacturing process in the hot room where cocoa butter, at left, is mixed with Peter's Chocolate chocolate liquor to make a finished chocolate.