The Just Born® History and Background.

The year 2003 represented two major milestones for Just Born®: the company celebrated its 80th anniversary and Marshmallow PEEPS® celebrated it's 50th.

The Just Born® candy tradition was conceived in 1910, when Sam Born immigrated to the United States from Russia. A candy maker by trade, Born was also ingenious in the use of technology. His more famous inventions include chocolate sprinkles, known as "jimmies", and the hard coating on ice cream bars. In 1916, Born won the "keys" to the city of San Francisco for inventing a machine that mechanically inserted sticks into lollipops. Before long, he opened several stores in New York, developing a reputation as a clever entrepreneur and marketer. Born displayed his sweet confections in his store windows and marketed them with a sign declaring them so fresh, it was as if they were "just born".

In 1923, Born started his own manufacturing company located at 8 East 12th Street in New York City. Irv Shaffer, Born's brother-in-law, joined the company to help market the confections, and Jack Shaffer, Born's other brother-in-law, came on board to work in sales. The company called Just Born®, made New York City its home until the height of the Depression. In 1932, the company moved its operations to an empty factory in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, where Just Born® soon became an important employment source for this well-known steel town.

Just Born® has grown significantly through the acquisition of other candy companies. The first important acquisition was the prestigious Maillard Corporation in 1953. Maillard was well known for its elegant, hand-decorated chocolates, crystallized fruits, Venetian mints, jellies and "the best bridge mix in the country."

Just Born® acquired the Rodda Candy Company of Lancaster, Pennsylvania in 1953. Although better known for its jelly bean technology, Rodda's small line of three-dimensional Marshmallow PEEPS® intrigued the Just Born® management. At that time, the marshmallow Easter chicks were made by hand. Sam Born's son, Bob, who had joined the company in 1946 and would later become president for over 30 years, was part of the two-man team that mechanized the marshmallow forming process, dramatically increasing the number of candy products made each year.

Also "born" during the 1940's, 1950's and 1960's at the Bethlehem, PA-based candy company were chewy candies in several sizes, shapes and dozens of flavors. Fruit-flavored Mike and Ike® candies and cinnamon-flavored Hot Tamales® were introduced to still pervasive national acclaim.

While Just Born®'s American consumer markets expand, the company has also introduced and experienced significant growth of its brands in over 29 countries. Some of these markets include Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, China, the Caribbean, Panama, Korea, Singapore, the Philippines, Costa Rica, Venezuela, India, Israel, South Africa, Germany and the Netherlands.

Brought up in the family's candy business and becoming co-Presidents in 1992, cousins Ross Born and David Shaffer assumed responsibility of the company in 1983 from their fathers, Bob Born and Jack Shaffer. Just as the company's leadership is family-oriented and multi-generational, so is Just Born®'s dedicated workforce. In fact, employment at Just Born is a tradition for many generations of local families. Currently numbering more then 470, Just Born® employees are mostly residents from the Lehigh Valley region of Pennsylvania.

Only the highest quality ingredients are used in their candy. The raw materials Just Born® receives are inspected in their lab to insure they meet their strict specifications. Among the many sanitation precautions they take, everyone entering their manufacturing facility must wear a hair net and clean white uniform or lab coat. Several screening mechanisms, sophisticated metal detectors that all sealed packages must pass through, as well as closely monitored Good Manufacturing Practices are just a few examples of the many steps we take to ensure their candy is of the highest quality.

· Marshmallow PEEPS® turned 50 years old in 2003.

· Due to demand, Just Born® now produces over 1 billion PEEPS a year for Easter, Halloween, Christmas and Valentine's Day.

· In 1953, it took 27 hours to create one Marshmallow PEEP. Today, it takes six minutes.

· During the early years, Marshmallow PEEPS® were squeezed one at a time out of a pastry tube and the eyes were painted on by hand. Now, technology can create 3,800 PEEPS' eyes per minute.

· As many as 4.2 million Marshmallow PEEPS® are made each day at Just Born®'s Bethlehem, Pennsylvania factory.

· This Easter, more than 700 million Marshmallow PEEPS® Chicks, Bunnnies and Eggs were consumed by men, women and children throughout the United States and abroad.

· Strange things people like to do with Marshmallow PEEPS®: eat them stale, microwave them, freeze then, roast them, and use them as pizza topping.

· PEEPS Chicks and PEEPS Bunnies come in 5 colors.

· Yellow PEEPS Chicks are the most popular, followed by pink, lavendar, blue and white.

· Each PEEP has 32 calories (160 calories per five-chick serving) and 0 fat grams.

· In a typical day, Just Born® makes over 26 tons of fluffy white marshmallow.

· Today, Just Born® is America's largest manufacturer of seasonal marshmallow confections, with Marshmallow PEEPS® hailing as the top selling non-chocolate Easter candy brand for the last decade. PEEPS even outsell jellybeans.

·Just Born® goes through more than 34 million pounds of sugar per year.

·Just Born® manufactures more than 200 thousand pounds of jelly beans a day.

· During the 1960's Just Born® halted its production of chocolate confectionary products to focus on non-chocolate candy favorites Marshmallow PEEPS®, Hot Tamales®, Mike and Ike®, Just Born® Jelly Beans and Teenee Beanee® Jelly Beans. Today, Hot Tamales® are America's number one cinnamon candy.

· Just Born® has the capacity to make over 45 million jelly bean "centers" every day.

· It takes three to four days to make a box of Hot Tamales® or Mike and Ike®.

· ZOURS™, Just Born®'s first entry into the sour candy market, were introduced in 1999.

· Hot Tamales®, Mike and Ike®, Zours™ are now the choice of NASCAR®.

Cooking and Depositing
Marshmallow consists primarily of sugar, corn syrup, water, gelatin and flavoring. The first three ingredients are cooked and then the last two ingredients are added. Next, a special ingredient - air - is added. This is what makes marshmallow so light and fluffy. The mixture is then machine-deposited onto a bed of colorful sugar.

Decorating
The marshmallow shapes travel down a conveyor belt where they get a shower - a sugar shower! Further down the belt, specially designed machines give them their decorations.

Packaging
Once decorated, the marshmallow clusters are placed in their packages and wrapped. They then go into a larger case and they are ready to be shipped to your favorite store.

Centers Cooking
A jelly bean (including Mike and Ike®, Hot Tamales® and Zours™) starts with it's "center". The center is formed by depositing the ingredients into an impression in corn starch. All Just Born jelly bean centers are created equal - none of them have any flavor or color. That gets added later.

Cooling
The chewy centers then travel to a cooling tunnel where they are cooled in a matter of minutes. Once cooled, they are weighed, stacked in trays and sent to the engrossing department.

Engrossing
Flavored syrup and granulated sugar are used to give their jelly beans their colorful coat and mouthwatering flavor. This is done in large pans that rotate like cement mixers - several hundred pounds at a time.

Polishing
The flavored centers are then placed in pans lined with special confectionary glaze. The pan is rotated and this tumbling is what makes the jelly beans shiny.

Packaging
Here, the candy is packaged into colorful boxes and bags. The appropriate flavor combinations are mixed together and then fed into a high-speed packaging machine. The packages are automatically formed, filled, sealed, weighed and coded.