Tootsie Roll CEO Melvin Gordon Dies At 95

January 21, 2015
Chicago

(Adds researcher comment, details, updates shares)
By Sruthi Ramakrishnan and Nayan Das
Jan 21 (Reuters) – The arch executive of Tootsie Roll Industries Inc has died after some-more than half a century during a helm of a U.S. candy maker, sparking conjecture that a association could shortly be developed for acquisition.
Tootsie Roll’s shares rose as most as 8 percent to a 17-month high of $33.28 on Wednesday.
Melvin Gordon died, aged 95, after a brief illness, according to a matter from a association he had headed given 1962. His wife, Ellen Gordon, takes over as arch executive.
The Tootsie Roll is named after a daughter of an Austrian immigrant, Leo Hirshfield, who initial constructed a chewy chocolate candy in a tiny New York City store in 1896. Now formed in Chicago, a association has a marketplace capitalization of about $1.9 billion.
Ellen Gordon, who is in her 80s and was formerly arch handling officer, is a company’s largest shareholder, with a 26 percent interest as of Mar 14. Melvin Gordon had a 21.9 percent interest as of Dec. 12.
“There’s been conjecture for years that it’s going to be sold,” pronounced Timothy Chen, researcher during Rhone Trading Partners.
Growing by acquisitions, Tootsie Roll became a world’s largest builder of lollipops when it bought The Charms Co in 1988.
It after acquired Sugar Daddy and Junior Mints and, in 2004, Concord Confections, adding Dubble Bubble and Wack-o-Wax to a candies it produces.
After 4 true years of growth, though, Tootsie Roll reported income of $543.4 million for 2013, a 1.2 percent drop.
One of a oldest CEOs of a U.S. company, Gordon frequency gave interviews.
The association was well-known, however, for a commercials: it claims to have perceived some-more than 20,000 letters from children perplexing to answer a doubt acted by an owl in a 1970s commercial: how many licks does it take to strech a core of a Tootsie Pop?
Elliott Schlang, handling executive of a Great Lakes Review, pronounced a recognition of Tootsie Roll’s brands, as good as a genuine estate resources in Chicago and a fact that Gordon’s children are not directly concerned in a business, make a association an appealing target.
Schlang pronounced a association could be a aim for candy makers, including Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc by a See’s Candies division. Berkshire Hathaway did not immediately respond to a ask for comment.
Tootsie Roll’s shares sealed adult 7.1 percent during $32.99 on a New York Stock Exchange. (Additional stating by Siddharth Cavale; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty and Simon Jennings)