Claeys Candy: the garage house of 1919

1919 — present · North Blaine Avenue to Nimtz Parkway

The founding: Claeys Candy is South Bend's oldest documented food manufacturer still making its product, and its founding document is a garage. Jerome C. Claeys founded the company in a South Bend garage in 1919 — on North Blaine Avenue, as the Indiana Senate's 2019 centennial resolution gives the address, the same resolution that records the company's Governor's Century Award and its third-generation ownership. The Indianapolis Business Journal's "Made in Indiana" account (March 8, 2024) tells the same founding: a garage, 1919, and a first product with a name — the Etabar, a caramel nut bar covered with icing, sold for five cents, in the candy-house history carried by CandyFavorites. One detail conflicts in print and is printed here as a conflict: the Post-Tribune's centennial coverage puts the start in two garages on North Blaine; the Senate resolution and the Business Journal say a garage. The street and the year agree everywhere; the garage count does not, and neither telling is averaged.

The course: The bars gave way to hard candy, which became the primary line — a dozen-plus flavors, with lemon, root beer, wild cherry, and cinnamon the top sellers in the Business Journal's account — and to Chocolate Charlie, the marshmallow, peanut, and milk chocolate piece made from Jerome Claeys's original recipe as a holiday production, as the company's retailers describe it. The Post-Tribune's centennial coverage, from the plant at 525 South Taylor Street, records the mid-century transition from hand labor to machine work in the 1970s and calls the house, in its phrase, "one of the leading candy suppliers in the nation" — printed here as the newspaper's characterization, not as a measured rank. Jerome's grandson Gregg Claeys has overseen the company since the 1970s. Five South Bend production facilities stand in the company's course; the latest, at 5229 Nimtz Parkway, opened in 2022. The firm as a company is Businesses'; the candy is here.

Sources:

1. Indiana Senate Resolution, 2019 (the Claeys centennial) — the North Blaine Avenue garage; the Governor's Century Award; third-generation ownership.
2. Indianapolis Business Journal, "Made in Indiana" (8 March 2024) — the 1919 garage founding; five South Bend facilities; 5229 Nimtz Parkway, opened 2022; Gregg Claeys since the 1970s; the flavor line and its top sellers.
3. CandyFavorites, Claeys house history — the Etabar, a caramel nut bar covered with icing, at five cents; Chocolate Charlie's composition and holiday production as the retailers carry it.
4. Post-Tribune, Claeys centennial coverage (2019) — the two-garages telling; the 525 South Taylor Street plant; hand labor to machine work in the 1970s; "one of the leading candy suppliers in the nation."