Leaf Blog
We are pleased to announce that Hydrox is now officially vegan certified through the Vegan Awareness Foundation! After we acquired Hydrox in 2015, we rolled back the formula to get rid of the high fructose corn syrup, replacing it with REAL cane sugar. We also also eliminated all artificial flavors and GMOs in order to make Hydrox a “cleaner label”, non-GMO, and kosher. You can enjoy ‘America’s original sandwich cookie’, Hydrox, and know what’s in it. We’re kinda proud of that!
#madeintheusa #vegan #kosher #nongmo #theoriginalsandwichcookie
We know you’re frustrated that you can’t find Hydrox anywhere and here are the reasons why:
- Amazon sells out quickly and they now have a new policy restricting how much of our cookies we can send and store at their warehouse at a time, which is only about 12-14 pallets of Hydrox or roughly 3-4 days of supply. By the time the shipment gets to Amazon, it’s sold out. We have asked them a few times to waive the storage limitations but they have declined our requests. It then takes them over 2-3 weeks to pick up their next order since there is a shortage of truckers on the road.
- We are now getting hit with a lack of cocoa due to supply chain issues worldwide. We are trying to keep up with the demand for Hydrox and adapt to the cocoa shortage at the same time which makes it quite challenging.
- We can’t sell direct to consumers since the cost of shipping Hydrox to you would be roughly the same as the cookies themselves.
- Most major retailers charge “slotting fees” or space on a shelf which can be from $20k-100,000k for one position. Those large costs only allow the very large vendors who can afford the cost to participate. When the Oreo reps. started hiding our cookies off the retail shelves, it created a huge issue for us since we paid for the spot but many times the Oreo reps would take our space and replace them with their cookies. So even when we get into the stores, the Mondelez/Oreo reps. might continue to hide the cookies.
So, what are we doing to fix these issues?
- We are working with some retailers to find solutions to the nationwide “Hide the Hydrox” campaign that Mondelez/Oreo started five years ago. +Walmart is now setting us up on Walmart.com to start since they believe in our product and then we hope to be back in the stores nationwide after that.+ Walmart had major issues with the hiding of our cookies and they told us [they believe] they fixed the problem.
- We are looking for our own distribution solutions to get into more stores.
- We will continue to bug Amazon to waive our storage limitations so we can go back to shipping truckloads of Hydrox to their warehouses. If you are an Amazon customer, please voice your opinion to them and tell them they need to allow more Hydrox into their warehouse.
- We need your help to get into more stores nationwide. Please call your favorite grocer/retailer and ask them to bring Hydrox into their stores. It’s always best to call the corporate office and either request though their customer service line or ask to talk to the cookie buyer directly. They listen to their customers more than vendors. If they get enough requests, they will bring the cookies in. Many of the large retailers are focused on Oreo since they have roughly 40+ positions on the store shelf.
As a child, the only sandwich cookie in Ellia Kassoff’s home was Hydrox. Not Oreos. Hydrox.
Decades later, the entrepreneur is resurrecting the product he used to love.
After years of dormancy, Hydrox cream-filled chocolate sandwich cookies are coming back. The cookies, which predate Oreo, could challenge its former rival and are available only via pre-order on Amazon.com.
Hydrox is scheduled for release Sept. 25. When they’ll appear in grocery stores is an open question. Kassoff said major national grocery chains have expressed interest.
“Nostalgia is powerful,” said Kassoff, chief executive of Leaf Brands, a Newport Beach candy company that manufactures Hydrox at its factory in Vernon. “I want to capture that experience people had as a kid … the happier times that people remember.”
Paul Castrovinci, 60, said he has fond childhood memories of eating Hydrox with a glass of cold milk, and promptly ordered six packages the day it was listed on Amazon.
“It was always my special treat to have Hydrox cookies before bedtime,” said Castrovinci, a Nashville resident. “It’s one of those old things you had as a kid, and they go away, and you wish they never went away.”
Hydrox debuted in 1908, originally manufactured by Sunshine Biscuits. In 1996, the Keebler Co. bought Sunshine and in 1999 changed the recipe and renamed the cookie Droxies, Kassoff said.
“They really just played with the product so much that it alienated the customer base,” he said.
In 2001, Kellogg’s acquired Keebler and Droxies soon was dropped. Other than a brief reappearance in 2008 for the cookie’s 100th anniversary, Hydrox has been absent from shelves.
Under federal law, a brand goes back into the public domain if it is not used for three years. Interested buyers can pay $275 to the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office to apply for the trademark. Last year, Kassoff snapped up the Hydrox trademark.
Kassoff has revived other old brands like the cone-shaped candy Astro Pops and the pencil eraser-shaped Tart n’ Tinys.
He’s not alone — a number of entrepreneurs have looked to past brands such as Turkish Taffy or Clearly Canadian sparkling water as potential moneymakers. But resurrecting brands can be tricky.
Nostalgia is powerful. I want to capture that experience people had as a kid … the happier times that people remember. – Ellia Kassoff, chief executive of Leaf Brands
“If a brand dies, something led it to die,” said Derek Rucker, professor of marketing at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. “There were probably associations that you and I as consumers didn’t like about the brand.”
Kassoff said it was sales and marketing decisions, not the product, that led to Hydrox’s demise.
“The misconception about resurrecting brands is, ‘Oh, these brands must have died because nobody wanted them anymore,'” he said. “In most cases, that isn’t true.”
The biggest challenge was finding the original recipe, before it was reformulated. Kassoff is tight-lipped about how he accomplished that: There are enough people in the cookie industry that could serve as consultants, he said, and the original vendors for Hydrox ingredients helped rebuild the recipe.
Kassoff set up a Facebook page for Hydrox cookies, and fans quickly started posting memories. Some of these fans also became taste testers for initial cookie samples.
“You have to make sure you have fan buy-in with a lot of these products,” Kassoff said. “If it’s not exactly the way they remember it, you’ll get one sale.”
Wendy Davie-Longnight of Eugene, Ore., said her father still has packages of cookies saved from the last time Hydrox was sold in stores. During holidays, the family held blind taste tests to see who could tell the difference between Hydrox and Oreo. Most got it right and said Hydrox was better.
“I’m sure I will be doing the exact same thing,” said Davie-Longnight, 50. “I will get Oreos and I will get Hydrox and I will make my children do the taste test.”
To take on the “powerhouse” Oreo, manufactured by Mondelez International Inc. of Deerfield, Ill., Hydrox will have to have a meaningful point of difference, Rucker said.
“Oreo is definitely a more engaged brand with the public,” he said. “What the best brands do is they become part of our lives, not just a badge of quality.”
Kassoff said Hydrox cookies are crispier, made of darker chocolate and have a less sugary filling with no high fructose corn syrup. He has also touted the cookie’s distinction of being made in the U.S. In July, Mondelez said it would invest more than $130 million in its Salinas, Mexico., production plant, which would assume the Oreo production responsibilities from a Chicago facility.
Company spokeswoman Kimberly Fontes said the Chicago plant will still operate and that Oreos will continue to be produced in several U.S. plants, including in New Jersey, Oregon and Virginia.
Kassoff said a new competitor for the chocolate sandwich cookie will only be positive.
“Hydrox is the one product that will keep Oreo in line,” he said.
samantha.masunaga@latimes.com
View full article here: http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-hydrox-20150925-story.html
NEWPORT BEACH, CALIF. — Leaf Brands L.L.C. officially relaunched Hydrox cookies on Sept. 4 with the onset of production at the company’s facility in Vernon, Calif. Leaf acquired the trademark for Hydrox sandwich cookies, Tart n Tinys, Wacky Wafers and Quicksand Bubblegum in May 2014.
Hydrox cookies debuted in 1908 and were manufactured by Sunshine Biscuits. Keebler purchased Sunshine Biscuits in 1996, and in 1999, Keebler replaced Hydrox with a similar but reformulated product named Droxies. buy domain name Keebler later was acquired by the Kellogg Co. in 2001. Kellogg removed Droxies from the market in 2003 and then revived Hydrox in 2008 in celebration of the cookie’s 100th anniversary. Distributed under the Sunshine label, Hydrox cookies shipped in late August 2008 with a slightly different recipe from the original. Less than a year later the products again were off the market.
After acquiring Hydrox last year, Leaf Brands said it set out to rebuild the cookies in their original formula, using sugar and high-quality cocoa.
Ellia Kassoff, c.e.o. of Leaf Brands.
“You will notice the ‘Other Guys’ use high-fructose corn syrup and other low quality ingredients because they’re all about increasing margins, even if that means moving to Mexico,” said Ellia Kassoff, chief executive officer of Leaf Brands. “We think it’s more important to sell an American-made product that only uses the best ingredients. That’s why we rolled back the formula to a recipe that doesn’t include any hydrogenated oils or HFCS, which were added to the cookie when Kellogg’s and Keebler owned it. The project took a while, but after a year of product development, we are extremely excited to start production.”
Leaf Brands said it has partnered with Amazon for the initial roll-out of Hydrox.
“There are many consumers waiting for the cookies as soon as they come off the line, and what better company to fulfill the initial influx of orders than Amazon,” Mr. Kassoff said.
Many of the major national and local supermarket and chain stores also will offer the cookies.
“The hardest part of bringing back such a well-known brand is managing the initial run on product and keeping up with production,” said Cody Sheean, vice-president of marketing and international sales for Leaf Brands. “We call it, ‘The Twinkie Effect,’ relating to the huge rush of consumers buying Twinkies after they were brought back a few years ago.”
At the time of its acquisition of the Hydrox trademark last March Leaf said its strategy was to rebuild one of the largest candy and snack companies in the United States, through acquisition and development of new and fun products for people to enjoy.
www.leafbrands.com
(949) 424-1664
For Immediate Release
The Makers of Hydrox® Cookies Respond to Media Inquiries Relating to Oreo® Plant Closings
(Newport Beach, CA, December 5, 2016) –Ellia Kassoff, LEAF Brand’s CEO, has answered many media requests since Carrier Air Conditioner recently announced it will keep 1000 jobs in the US. As a focal point for discussion on the growing movement to relocate US jobs to other countries, Mr. Kassoff has repeatedly been asked, “Do you think Mondelez (the makers of Oreo®) will bring jobs back under the Trump administration?” Mr. Kassoff’s comments are as follows:
“For the last 100 years, Hydrox®, (The original sandwich cookie™) had always remained second to Oreo® but things are starting to change since Mondelez built the world’s largest cookie plant in Monterrey, Mexico and slowly started moving US production to that plant, laying-off thousands of US workers. We believe Mondelez will continue to move production to its Mexican plant due to its much lower production costs. In addition, with the added pressure to reduce expenses and increase profits by its major stockholder’s, Nelson Peltz and Bill Ackman, the company has taken major steps to increase margins and shareholder value worldwide by moving production to lower cost regions of the world. Everyone tends to forget that the number one goal of a public company is stockholder value and not product quality or saving jobs.”
Kassoff goes on to say, “While we hope President Trump is successful in his goal to retain US jobs, it’s hard for public corporations to overlook their focus on lowering costs and increasing profits/stockholder value. Leaf Brands has a much different goal as a privately held company; our impetus is on quality by making Hydrox® in the US with the best ingredients. For example, we use real cane sugar and have just moved to real vanilla flavor in Hydrox®. It increases costs, but we’re fixated on consumer value, not pinching pennies. If you look at Oreo’s® and other competitor’s ingredients in our space, you find high fructose corn syrup and artificial flavors. It is hard for me to imagine Oreo® moving to real sugar and no artificial ingredients which would increase costs and go against their corporate edict. We believe Mondelez will eventually move most of their production to Mexico; it’s only a matter of time. More and more Oreo® customers are switching to Hydrox® as they are looking to support American-Made products and naming Oreo’s move to Mexico as the major reason. That, along with the elimination of HFCS and artificial ingredients, makes Hydrox® the only national brand sandwich cookie using higher-quality ingredients and made in the US. We know competitors are scared of our success since we’ve logged multiple complaints (and pictures) of our cookies hidden at supermarkets throughout the US. The competition is getting fierce but ultimately consumers want more products made in the USA. We will never move our Hydrox® cookie plants outside the US and we’ve reached out to the Trump team requesting to become the Official cookie of the White House.”
About LEAF® Brands, LLC: The original LEAF® Brands were started in the 1920's. LEAF® Brands, once the fourth largest candy producer in North America, produced candy classics such as Whoppers®, Jolly Rancher® and Rain Blo® Bubblegum, which were later sold to Hershey® Chocolate & Confectionary Corporation in the late 1990's. LEAF® Brands LLC, is a privately-owned company which focuses on bringing back nostalgic brands to consumers. Along with Hydrox®, LEAF® Brands brought back other iconic marks like; Astro Pop® and tart n’ tinys®.