Northwest Now | Brown & Haley | Season 15 | Episode 14

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Do you really know what the toe is for in your Christmas stocking?

Well, I'll tell you, it's for Almond Rocha, and it's the law.

And guess what?

Tacoma's own Brown and Haley Candy Company makes Almond Rocha and has been doing it now for 100 years.

That's the discussion next on Northwest now.

Listen, this isn't a show about pumping consumer products.

So if you're watching this program, getting ready to email is a press release.

Just stop yourself right now.

With that said, we're making an exception for this delicious, wonderful out of this world, Almond Rocha.

And anybody who thinks we'd compromise our journalistic integrity for a free can of this stuff is just plain wrong.

And besides, you can't prove anything.

But seriously, folks, 3 million pieces of rock got churned through to come was Brown and Haley Candy factory every day.

And with more than 200 jobs created and what has become a worldwide brand based right here in Grit City, it's worth talking about a little here going into the holidays.

For a little background now, let's take a look at a story done by our friends at Pierce County Television from back in 2014.

Now there's a new company CEO.

And these days, some of the numbers have changed a little.

But this tells the story of Almond Rocha.

like Nimble Metal Fingers.

These machines carefully and speedily wrap each piece of almond Roca into its now famous gold wrapper.

Two and a half million pieces per day.

But the roka is something very special, and it starts with the packaging, with the gold foil that every time you open one up, you get this wonderful, pleasing delight.

It all began back around 1900.

Harry Brown was an expert candy maker with a small confectionery tea shop.

J. Clifford Haley was a businessman working for the Shilling Spice Company under Tacoma Sun in 1908.

The two men met at church.

By 1912, a business partnership was rolling along and they were selling a full line of candy products.

By 1916, led by the popular Mount Tacoma Bar redubbed simply the Mountain Bar.

It continues on today in three popular flavors.

Brown and Haley's signature confection, Almond Roca, rolled off the line in 1923.

Typically, butter toffee was sold in a small slab, which was then broken by hand and eaten piece by piece.

Harry Brown said, Hey, what if we put it into smaller bite sized pieces?

And then if we cover it in chocolate and covered almonds, we lock in the toffee and it'll have a longer shelf life.

A Tacoma librarian said the candy looked like a little almond walk and so roka Spanish for rock.

And with an extended shelf life almond Roca became known as the candy that travels.

It was another Brown and Haley innovation that really put this candy on the road.

The distinctive and protective pink tin was introduced in 1927.

Canada and the Philippines were the first foreign customers.

But it was World War Two that really introduced Almond Roca.

We had contracts with the military to purchase Almond Roca during World War Two, where they purchased from us and use it as a bartering system for the soldiers to be able to get their perishable items overseas.

Packaging and transportation have changed and improved over the decades.

But the colors, pink and gold, those have endured.

You'll walk up to a consumer who has broken in their basket and you say, Why did you buy Roca today?

80% of the time they say, I saw the pink.

International sales now account for 50% of Brown and Hailey's business and the newest and biggest customer.

China loves that pink and gold.

Asians loving gold, loving red for good fortune.

Almond Roca translates into happy family.

The Asians know that almonds are healthy and is a gift of great respect.

So Chinese New Year, the greatest respect you can give to a family is to give them almond.

Roca Brown and Haley is a Tacoma institution.

They still occupy the same factory renovated seven times to accommodate special machines that are built and maintained by a machine shop on the lower level.

We have a loyal workforce.

We have people who have worked here for over 50 years and they know how to make candy.

The Rocha family of flavors has expanded over the years, including peppermint, for the holidays, but for many.

Almond Roca is an indelible part of their holiday celebration.

We get the story of I would buy this for my grandfather either or my grandfather would buy this for me for Christmas.

And it wasn't Christmas until we opened the can of Almond Roca.

And so it is a holiday tradition in itself.

Joining us now is Brandon Haley, director of marketing, Kathy Remicade.

Kathy, so great to have you here from Brown and Haley.

We don't do many feature stories and we've never done a product show.

But for Brown and Haley, we're making an exception A because we're all pretty much addicted to arm and rock.

A and B, you're such a big part of this community here in the South.

Sound Northwest now is on in the entirety of western Washington, but we're based in Tacoma, so we all have a sweet spot, pun intended, for all winter.

Okay.

First thing I wanted to ask you about, because this program runs going into Christmas.

How did all one Roku get so positioned?

Why is it so tied in my mind to Christmas?

It's good all year, but why?

How did the whole Christmas thing come about?

I think mainly because back in 1923, when Almond Rocha first launched, you couldn't transport chocolate very easily.

So most chocolate s were a cold weather product.

And so that started the process.

But then it was wrapped, it was already pre wrapped.

And most of the packaging that was done back in the early twenties and late twenties was very premium, very gift apple and so it just positioned itself well as a gift, cold time of the year gift.

It lend itself to Christmas very, very easily.

Now in your Santa candy workshop, you've got a couple of shifts working coming into Christmas, Right.

Talk a little bit about how how you ramp up for Christmas season.

Yeah, well, you know, there's an old tagline that says Brown and Hailey makes them daily, right?

And that's still true.

Today.

We have two shifts that run along shifts and we have three different production lines, one that specifically makes Rocha, and then we have two other chocolate lines that make other products like the Mountain Bar.

But ramping up for Christmas starts actually back in April.

So usually about April time we start planning and bringing in all the ingredients from all local California almonds, sugar from Idaho, and we bring that in and we start manufacture capturing Christmas candy in late spring or early summertime And one of the interesting things, too, is that Tacoma, how did we get so lucky to have this locally owned candy being made right here in Tacoma?

What's the historical context for kind of the towns that used to have chocolatiers and then the corporate influence?

Talk a little bit about that history.

Well, you know, a lot of people don't know Mars even started here in Tacoma, but Mars started here in Tacoma.

And of course, you have Johnson Candy that's out of Tacoma.

But Harry Brown was a chocolate manufacturer and and loved to make chocolate in his little chocolate shop that he had.

And Jack Haley was a spice salesman.

And they went to church together and they met at church.

And in 1912, they said, hey, I think that we could do something pretty amazing here in Tacoma if we if we join forces.

And so they did.

The success of Brown and Haley has really been because of their commitment to doing a quality product, first off, and doing the right thing for the community and then also the luck of location.

So we're right near the port and 40% of our business is export.

So we make approximately 3.3 million pieces of rock every day right here in Tacoma.

And every piece of rock sold in the world is right here in Tacoma.

I think that's, you know, something that's really powerful and really amazing that we can share a little bit of Tacoma with 65 different countries.

Yeah.

So, yeah, absolutely.

Talk a little bit about foreign markets.

Of course.

I say, of course, people may not know this.

You know, the ventures were big in Japan.

You're big in China.

Why and how did that start?

So that primarily started in World War Two.

So in World War two, when everybody else was on sugar and butter rations, we had a government contract.

You know, we're lucky enough to be situated in a location where we're kind of surrounded by military and that lent itself to this opportunity during World War Two, where we were asked to produce candy because we produced it in a tin, it could travel safely overseas, it wouldn't go bad.

And so we had massive contracts for our pink tin of almond Roca And that's a question I have it at that time.

Was the tin something you opened with?

Yes.

Or did you when did you come up with the pop off sealed the.

that was much later actually.

We had we had the key until even into the seventies.

Okay.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

But we started converting to some of those pop lids in in the seventies and eighties.

But the tin allowed the product, you know, to have a longer shelf life.

Then any other product that was available at the time.

And so it was a great innovation.

We happened to be positioned our factory right next to a canning facility and somebody said, I wonder what would happen if we put candy in a tin?

And so we were the first to do that, and the rest is history and the rest is history.

Has there ever been pressure from the big boys from Hershey or from some of the other big food conglomerate aggregators who basically build their company by taking a bunch of pieces?

Kraft Heinz, maybe, and becoming a food empire?

Has there ever been an attempt or has has there ever been interested in acquiring branded Hayley by another company?

sure.

That has happened over the years.

You know, it's it goes back even further than that because every area in the country used to have a confection house.

Yeah, because Candy couldn't travel, it would melt.

And so we used to do all kinds of candy.

We did candy canes and peppermint sticks and a whole lot of different candy bars.

And, you know, as the smaller companies were purchased by larger companies or brands from those companies were purchased.

And there has been some historical requests to purchase mountain bars or to purchase just almond Roca.

But if you purchase those brands, almond Roca would be and the the the people before us understood that well and they chose to hang on to the brand.

We're all very thankful for that.

Yeah it did become kind of a mass merchandise thing like it would have been, and the formula would have likely been changed just so that it could be mass produce.

I mean, we really we are stewards of this brand.

We don't mess with it because it's not broke.

So real butter, real sugar, you know, that's that's a good discussion to I wanted to have with you about change.

I considered this kind of whole idea about change to some degree.

There'll be a little bit of a new religion when it comes to just change for change sake.

If we're changing, it's got to be good, right?

I really disagree with that in a lot of different fronts.

And I would say I'm sure the public is with me when I say don't screw with America.

Rocha is we're with you to be with you, too, for sure.

There must have been some changes over time, though, just because you found a better process or, you know, it turns out that this hasn't been changed at all.

Or is it still the original recipe for an improvement, sir?

You know, it is the original recipe.

You know, there are definitely manufacturing differences, you know, and access to different commodities.

Right.

So the butter we get is local butter.

That's the way it's always been.

Almonds used to come from Spain.

Now they come from California.

And, you know, even, you know, the oils that we use to help release the product and things like that have changed over the years.

But the paramount thing is that the the recipe, the formula has stayed the same.

Cooking processes have changed over the years, you know, open flame cooking and then jacketed cooking and things like that.

And that's a big part of why we can produce 3.3 million pieces today.

So it's fair to say that these were more tweaks or process improvements as opposed to, hey, we've got to change.

Rocha because everybody's changing something, so let's change this.

Yeah, technology changes versus ingredient changes and we actually have to customize those technology changes so that they fit the product that we have, not the other way around, not adjust the product to fit the technology.

And I'm sure on the back end, you've had a lot of technical changes with personnel and labor and marketing and distribution that I'm sure is state of the art problem that that is.

I think that's a an issue that all manufacturers and all businesses for that matter, have is is trying to keep up with those kinds of change and any supply chain problems ever during COVID to cope it affect you all with employees.

You've got a lot of long time loyal employees.

But did that affect you?

Was it supply chain?

Was it distribution?

How did COVID hit?

You know, I think I think we were very, very fortunate because, you know, the main shutdowns that happened during COVID happened right after our our biggest season.

So we were able to continue to employ all of our production manufacturers.

We were a food facility, so we were allowed to stay open during that time.

And we produce a lot more than just Rocha.

There's a lot of ingredient and private label items that we produce for other entities.

So we were very fortunate.

We did put in place some very specific things to keep our people safe, spreading chefs out a little further and things like that, just to allow people to not get sick during that time.

But you were always able to get supplies.

We it was difficult and it was slower, so we had to plan further ahead.

And some of that was has turned into kind of a a good planning for us now multiple sources for right A can.

Right Exactly.

Or making sure that you plan enough ahead and always have a certain amount of inventory.

The fact that we've been in business for you know over 112 years now, we've been through a lot already.

We've been through a pandemic before this pandemic.

We've been through a couple of wars.

Yeah.

And, you know, we have people who have worked at the company for 30 and 40 years and, you know, have seen a thing or two, you know.

So they it's it's pretty amazing, though, how during that situation, we pulled together, talked a little to more questions about technology.

The first one here comes I will not ever have a role in something like candy making or your processes or might I still be on the back end?

How you market, how you collect inventory and kind of the back end processes.

It will have a role, I think.

I think I will have a role for a lot of folks.

You know, I mean, in some regards we've had a bit of AI all along.

I think it's just a bit stronger technology now.

You can go in and type a question and it'll write a paper for you, you know, but for us, I think the the biggest thing that that kind of data processing will do for us is that we can get information quicker so all of our equipment has the ability to say how well something's running at, what consistency, what with temperatures and quality checks, quality checks, yeah, we can actually get that information faster and be able to maybe deliver a higher quality product that doesn't mean that that will replace people.

It's still going to take a person to look at that and make those adjustments.

So you see employment still hanging around the 200 ish, but if not more eventually.

I mean, we could definitely, during our peak seasons have a need for more employees.

We always have a hiring now sign up.

Yeah.

Brandon Haley, keep me straight on two things.

One is your your store is in five.

The plant, per se, is right here in Tacoma still.

Yeah.

So you have those two locations.

Do you have a warehouse somewhere where you're keeping the supplies and the ingredients?

So Fife is the.

The warehouse?

It is, Yeah.

It's about 110,000 square feet.

The plant is about 80,000 square feet.

Both locations actually have a factory outlet and gift shop.

Okay.

Yeah.

So both so if the one in Tacoma has been around since the sixties and the one in Fife has been there for about ten, 12 years now, so you export out of five to that would make sense.

Yeah.

So the, the factory actually doesn't have any storage at it and it actually only has one shipping dock door.

So we pick everything up from there and bring it to Fife and that's where it goes out of us ships out of Fife.

You talked about our big technology.

We're not but but equipment and capital investment that you're making.

Briefly talk about what what that is, what it will include and how long it'll last.

So it's been a nine year project and we're on the final stage right now.

So we started at the packing end of our line and invested about eight or nine years ago in some additional packing equipment and then post that we did the wrapping machines in 2019, the actual forming line, the line that makes the little batons of candy and covers them in chocolate.

And then the almonds.

That was done in 2019.

And in January of this year, the final stage, which is what we refer to as the kitchen, it sounds very homey and it kind of is The final upgrade to that section will be done.

The equipment that we're replacing was installed in the eighties and there is equipment now that is just much more efficient from an energy standpoint, much more consistent from a peace standpoint, rather than having individual potential variation in batch to batch, we can keep at a consistent temperature the entire time and also reduce our use of water or and natural gas and electricity while doing.

We talked about change in my aversion to it, but it sounds like you've changed everything except the candy, which is which is a great thing.

You know, they used to make it by hand, right?

They used to make a kettle, pour it out on a table, and on a good day they might get 3000 pieces.

4000 pieces.

If we only could make three or 4000 pieces a day, some people would be really upset that they couldn't get their roka, you know, world wide there might crisis.

There might be a crisis.

Yeah, prices are going up.

Inflation is something that affects everybody by my estimation.

You had two choices.

One was probably to raise prices.

The other one is probably to do with a lot of manufacturers are doing, especially in the food space, which is shrinkflation.

Yeah, but less than the can.

How did you guys deal with inflation?

How are you dealing with it?

What's that meant to the consumer?

You know, we did have to do a price increase.

All everybody in the confection industry had to.

Sugar prices went up, chocolate prices went up.

Virtually every piece of commodity paper industry went up.

So we did have to do a price increase.

But we do these things as if we were a very small business compared to a very large business.

We sit down and we look at every single item that we produce.

I mean, I'm not I don't mean just Almond Rocha, I mean almond milk in a tin foil.

Almond rocket in a bag.

Yeah.

And we looked at our actual cost and we adjusted each individual item accordingly so that we weren't just taking a blanket across the board, across the board price increase because you certainly have pricing power.

I know if you love Almond Roca, you're going to find a way, you know that.

Yeah.

And you know, we we do.

It's an interesting thing.

The candy industry, unlike a lot of other ones, it's not a kind of a cutthroat industry.

We talk with folks at Hershey.

We we talk with folks at the plant and we go to conferences with them.

And so we kind of we commiserate together and we share our excitement together.

So we're not necessarily competing for shelf space.

But as Brown and Haley, you know, we we have chosen to stay the course with the the recipe that we have.

And therefore, you know, we are competing against these much larger companies with for us, a much smaller margin than they've run on.

And and we do that by making very smart strategic decisions.

You know, we take good care of our employees because the longer you have an employee, the more efficient you're going to be.

And that's cost effective as well.

Yeah.

What's what's next?

What's the next hundred years look like?

Family ownership continue processes, I guess, and continue to improve.

What does it look like?

So as far as ownership goes, yeah, there's there's no foreseeable change in the future on that.

And Haley, granddaughter of Jack Haley, is still the chairman of the board and there's no no foreseeable future of a change in that.

We've done huge improvements to the facility in Tacoma because we plan on staying there, you know, So that's all very stable for us as far as new products and what we hope to launch.

You know, I'm sharing something that's brand new with you.

We have it shared with us already.

So yeah.

So in January or February, we will start a soft launch of a new product.

It's a chocolate bar.

So, you know, a good ole Wonka bar as a lot of people like to call it, but a tablet bar that has toffee rocker toffee in it.

And it's our first item that we're going to be producing that doesn't have any nuts in it at all.

It has been a concern for the last 100 years.

Yeah, a lot of folks and it's become more and more of an issue that there are folks out there who, you know, have allergies or food sensitivity to nuts.

And so and water scarcity for growing almonds.

I mean that's not always guaranteed to they could be right right.

Yeah.

And so, you know it's it's a really amazing product.

I love to participate in when we do product development.

And, you know, I take one for the team and I sample all of it.

Yeah, it's it's, it's pretty rough.

Yeah.

But yeah, so that's, that's a new product that we have coming out, Looking forward to it and looking forward to eating it.

I wish for another hundred years, but I doubt, I doubt I'll make that, but great stuff.

Thanks so much for coming.

Thank you so much.

I care a little about the fact that public affairs shows like Northwest now don't have much to do with promoting products, nor should they.

But here's the bottom line Producing products is the key to any region's economy and any product that has hung in there for the course of 100 years to provide jobs, tax revenue and name recognition to Western Washington is a good thing.

After all, that is how America works.

I hope this program got you thinking and talking to watch this program again or to share it with others.

Northwest now can be found on the web at kbtc dot org and be sure to follow us on Facebook and Twitter at Northwest.

Now a Streamable podcast of this program is available under the Northwest now tab at KBTC dot org and on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

That's going to do it for this edition of Northwest now and until Next Time.

I'm Tom Layson, thanks for watching.

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