Edible Gift Vendor Profile AmuseMints Sweets & Snacks

Company President Todd Reisman Discusses Trends and Treats

Business is sweet indeed at Amusemints

Sweets & Snacks, a division of Nassau Candy. According to company president Todd Reisman, AmuseMints supplies candy and souvenir items to tourist attractions from FECs to national parks and waterparks nationwide.

“All of our candies and snacks are customized to the location. Our company is the biggest supplier of specialty confections in the U.S. and a huge distributor of national brands,” he explained.

The biggest trend for Reisman is currently “out of sight demands” for all the products his company offers. “I have never seen anything like it to be honest. It’s like the Roaring Twenties – business is going gang- busters.” There is one issue concerning that increased demand, however. “Due to interruptions in the supply chain and disruption with the ability to get certain products, customers have to be flexible.”

Reisman noted that there is a tilt toward healthier food options as well. “Every customer now adds a healthy choice. We have trail mixes with M & M’s and nuts and dried fruit, which are more for the parents than for kids for the most part. But my number one thing is still gummies of all kinds, gummy bears, gummy worms, you name it, the type depends on the attraction. Gummies are the strongest seller for kids.” And with gummies themselves, there are also requests for a healthier style of treat. “Many attractions, espe- cially zoos and aquariums, request that our gummies are palm-oil-free. They are very much concerned with that. It’s harder to find gummies made without it, and they are more expensive without palm oil, but we do it.”

Besides the bagged gummies, AmuseMints’ most popular candy are large-sized, custom chocolate bars. “Our sales this season have been absolutely out of sight. We will very likely have these reordered soon, and it’s just Memorial Day coming up. Every weekend has been blockbuster for us at all attractions.” Customized sugar-free peppermint mints are also popular.

Already reordered are souvenir items, a new area for the company. AmuseMints purchased Ace USA six months ago. That Seattle, Wash.-based company provides apparel and other hard goods for attractions. “I just spoke to Silverwood Amusement Park and they are already sold out of everything on the souvenir side. They buy a boatload of candy from us, as well.”

Reisman said that the tremendous sales the company is experiencing is due to “pent up demand. People want to go out, and their demand is also goosed by some government money. If you’re a family of four you may have received a substantial amount, and if you were couped up with your kids for a year, you’ll want to take them places and buy them things now.” He noted, “This is certainly like nothing I’ve ever seen, and I’ve been in the business for 25 years.”

AmuseMints is also finding that customers are interested in more environmentall-friendly packaging. “I see less use of plastic bottles and more stainlesssteel bottles; no aluminum bottles are requested because there is concern in regard to leaching of the aluminum material. We have customized stainless steel bottles for many locations and there is a lot of demand for it across the board.” The company is currently in a good position to fill these requests, Reisman said. “Fortunately we do have a good inventory for these items, because there have been distribution challenges, and they are popular. At many National Park locations now, that is the kind of bottle they have for consumers to purchase, rather than single-serve plastic bottles. They have water filling stations for the bottles.”

The only items in Reisman’s line that have fallen out of favor recently are candies containing palm oil, including gummies, at least in some of Reisman’s more environmentally-aware locations. He’s found items without palm oil to replace them.

Overall, regardless of the attraction, AmuseMints’ products are quite simply put, wildly popular. “We’re really fortunate in that we sell things people want.

Candy is desirable anywhere. In hotter climates, chocolate can become problematic, but it’s still selling well, they just have to be more cautious with it. Everything is in high demand right now. We just don’t have enough of it fast enough,” he laughed. “But we are keeping it going.”

As to packaging, customization is of course standard. “People are always looking for different vessels to put candy in since we are private packaging everything. We customize the labels in different shapes both shorter and larger, to make interesting store displays, so that kind of thing is going well.” There is a new look to some of their packaging, he explained. “Because of COVID-19, people are more concerned about germs and things like that. While we always have new vessels to place bulk candy in, people are looking for closed and resealable containers like acetate rectangles that you can put six to eight ounces of candy in. That’s much bigger for us that bulk packaging where consumers put the treats in a bag.” He described the enclosed containers as being “something a family of four could share. They may not take it home, but they will be able to share it and then reclose it again while they are away.”

Along with the recent purchase of Ace USA for souvenirs and apparel, AmuseMints has also just launched a new product that is selling “incredibly well,” he said. “We just launched our hot cocoa bombs. It’s a TikTok craze. They’re a hollowed-out chocolate circle or egg and you drop it in a mug, pour hot milk over it, and the cocoa comes out. It was a huge craze last fall online.” The bombs contain sprinkles and marshmallows.”

The company is also offering another new sweet treat: premium sea salt caramels. “We’ve just started selling them in both tall acetate containers or customized larger tins. We do a lot of those. They’re easy to pack if you are planning to take candy home as a present,” Reisman said.

All told it is a very sweet picture indeed for sales and new products at AmuseMints.

(For more information, call 302-292-6364, visit www.amusemints.com, or circle 05 on the reader service card.) ❖