One Chicagoland candy company is acquiring another. The Baldi Candy Co., which is doing business as Arway Confections, Inc. of Chicago, has reached an agreement to purchase Long Grove Confectionery Co.of Buffalo Grove, Ill., a Chicago suburb. 

Craig Leva, Arway’s president and owner who has been with the company since 1991, will continue as president of Arway following completion of the sale.

“We are very excited about this acquisition, the tremendous opportunities and the natural synergies there are by combining the operations of these two great storied Chicago-area companies,” says Leva.

Arway Confections, a 63-year-old, family- owned business located on Chicago’s north side, plans to retain the Long Grove Confectionery name and employees. That includes David Mangel, v.p. of LGC’s, who will play an active role in sales and product development, as well as Dwayne Hallan, director of operations.

“Arway will be hiring back most of Long Grove’s employees, and we will begin the transition process immediately,” Leva says. “We will be relying on all of the staff of Arway as well as Long Grove to make this transition as smooth as possible.”

LCG’s one retail store and one factory store will also remain open.

“Both the customer base and the product line is different from Arway, and I believe that the combination of Arway and Long Grove will offer some great synergies,” Leva says.

He’s especially excited about the acquisition of LGC’s manufacturing facility, an 85,000-sq.-ft. plant in Buffalo Grove, Ill..

“It is a remarkable plant and offers Arway a tremendous number of options,” he explains. “Some of the capacities include enrobing, panning, chocolate moulding, crèmes, barks, chocolate peanut butter cups, nonpareils, and more...  The plan is to run two plants and incorporate two sets of product lines.  The additional facility will obviously give Arway some much needed breathing room to operate.”

Arway Confections opened its doors in 1950 and is a supplier to hundreds of distributors, retailers, fund-raisers, baggers, catalogs, nut companies, and marketing companies nationwide with a wide array of bulk chocolates, confections, coated pretzels, roasted nuts, and trail mixes.

The company operates out of a 75,000 sq.-ft. facility with about 50 full-time employees plus a seasonal crew. Arway also manages a retail outlet and a direct-to-consumer business division called Chicago Candy & Nut.

Meanwhile, Long Grove Confectionery Co. was founded by John and Heidi Mangel in 1974, and manufactures a line of high quality, gourmet confections.

The company offers more than 300 choice products including their signature Myrtles, chocolate peanut butter cups, butter creams, caramels, meltaways and nonpareils.

Long Grove’s products can be found throughout the United States in department stores, gift shops, specialty stores, and mail-order catalogs. The company also operates a retail store in Long Grove and factory store in Buffalo Grove.