Frango

Frango mints are a brand of chocolate truffles first created for the Frederick & Nelson department stores. Traditionally flavored with mint and widely popularized by the Marshall Field and Company department store, they were later produced and distributed by Macy's department stores.[1] Frango is also the brand name of a line of various other related food products.

Historically associated with the Midwestern and Pacific Northwest regions of the United States, the candy is sold in various outlets throughout the country. Frangos were created by Seattle, Washington's Frederick & Nelson department store in 1918; the company and Frango trademarks were both acquired by Chicago's Marshall Field's department store, which introduced its recipe in 1929.[2] Frango mints were produced in large melting pots on the 13th floor of the flagship Marshall Field's store on State Street for 70 years.[3]

Seattle changes

Frederick & Nelson shuts down

During Marshall Field's many decades of stewardship over the Frederick & Nelson chain of stores, Field's preserved the Frederick & Nelson name and regional character. However, the 1982 purchase of Marshall Field's by BATUS Retail Group (a unit of BATUS Inc.) proved ill-fated for the Frederick & Nelson subsidiary. By 1986, an overstretched BATUS decided to dispose of Frederick & Nelson, selling it and Spokane, Washington-based retailer The Crescent to a Washington state-based investor group. Despite this ownership turmoil, Frederick's continued to distribute Frangos, albeit under license from Field's. In 1992, continued financial difficulties led to the final closure of all Frederick's locations. By that time, Field's itself had changed hands, becoming a unit of Minneapolis-based Dayton Hudson Corporation. Seattle civic leaders quickly engineered a deal under which Dayton Hudson agreed to let Seattle's remaining full-line department store, The Bon Marché, continue to sell Frangos in the northwest.

Seattle Gourmet Foods

This solution proved highly problematic. While Frederick & Nelson was still in business, the candies were made on the 10th floor of the chain's flagship Pine Street store. After Frederick & Nelson's demise, a former Frango candymaker founded Seattle Gourmet Foods, which won a production contract with The Bon and moved candymaking to a new site. Seattle Gourmet manufactured the meltaways using much of the same equipment Frederick & Nelson used to manufacture the mints.[9]

Bon Marché files suit

After ten years of using Seattle Gourmet Foods to manufacture the chocolates, The Bon Marché terminated the contract in early 2003. The candymaker retaliated by producing its own line of "Frederick & Nelson Fine Chocolates," using hexagonal packaging similar to that of the traditional Frangos box. The Bon Marché promptly sued, but Seattle Gourmet Foods countersued, claiming that the contract termination was unlawful. Late in 2004, the parties reached a settlement in which The Bon Marché made an undisclosed payment to Seattle Gourmet Foods, in exchange for exclusive rights to the recipe, the use of hexagonal boxes, and the Frederick & Nelson and F&N names.[10]

Bon Marché, Bon-Macy's, Macy's

Today the Pacific Northwest version of Frango Chocolates is sold at Macy's Northwest locations in Washington, Idaho, Montana and Oregon. This is as a result of Federated Department Stores unifying all its regional department stores under the single Macy's banner. Another local Seattle company, Seattle Chocolates, now makes the Frango chocolates for Macy's Northwest.[8]

From Marshall Field's to Macy's

In 2004, Marshall Field's and the Frango trademark were acquired by St. Louis-based May Department Store Company. Field's new owner, the May stores, refused to renew Macy's license to the Frango trademark. As a result, Macy's Northwest re-branded the Northwest version of Frango as "Frederick & Nelson, the Original" in February 2005.[8] On August 30, 2005, Macy's corporate owner, Federated Department Stores, completed its acquisition of the May Stores. As a result, a license was no longer needed for Macy's Northwest to use the Frango name. The acquisition reunited the two branches of the Frango family for the first time in two decades. Macy's Northwest promptly renamed the Northwest version of the mint meltaways as "Frango."

Return to Chicago?

Because of controversial and very public protests from former Marshall Field's customers and Chicago Mayor Daley, Federated chairman Terry J. Lundgren announced in September 2005 that Macy's would look into moving production back to Chicago.[3][12] In making the announcement, Lundgren noted that Macy's would look into "our contractual obligations" to determine if the chocolate production could be moved back to the Windy City; however, Lundgren stressed that he was not making any promises regarding moving all or part of the production back to Chicago.[13]

Unfortunately, the demand for Marshall Field's Frango mints was far greater than demand for Macy's Frangos. No longer a unique product of Chicago's famed Marshall Field's, the Macy's-branded Frangos are viewed as just another mint; at 75% off retail, sales of Frango mints under Macy's remain significantly below previous years' sales at Marshall Field's. However, this may also be due to Chicagoans' hostility to Federated, Macy's and Lundgren in particular over the demise of the Marshall Field's stores and the way the stores changed after their absorption into Macy's, becoming middle-tier retailers rather than the high-end competitor that the Marshall Field's stores had been during much of the 20th century. Macy's is considered to be a lower-tier retail chain than Federated's own top-tier retailer Bloomingdale's; the folding of the Field's stores into Macy's was seen by Chicagoans as both a demotion of a 150-year-old Chicago institution and an insult to the city itself, and critics urged a boycott of Macy's after the Macy's takeover.

In July 2009, Macy's announced that Chicago candymaker Cupid Candies would begin production of one-pound boxes of Frango mint chocolates. Cupid Candies is a 73-year-old Chicago candy maker located on the city's south side. Frango mints made by Cupid Candies will be shipped to Chicago-area Macy's stores. All other Frango candies, as well as Frango cookies, will continue to be made by Gertrude Hawk Chocolates, located in Pennsylvania. However, the contract with Cupid Candies, though cheered locally, may be a case of too little, too late for Federated as Macy's sales figures, including those for Frango mints, continued to stagnate or slump even before the Great Recession had begun.

State Street viewing kitchen reopening

Around the same time as the Cupid Candies deal, the Frango Viewing Kitchen on the seventh floor of Chicago's Macy's On State Street, which had closed in 1999 when Frango production was moved to Pennsylvania, was reopened. The kitchen allows store guests to see the enrobing process where Frango chocolate centers are covered in chocolate to create the outside layer. These enrobed chocolates are later used for sampling.[14]

producttype	Chocolate truffle
currentowner	Garrett Popcorn Shops
country	United States
introduced	1918
previousowners	Frederick & Nelson
website	Frango Chocolate on Garrett

Origins

Two forms

Packaging variations

Seattle changes

Frederick & Nelson shuts down

Seattle Gourmet Foods

Bon Marché files suit

Bon Marché, Bon-Macy's, Macy's

Chicago changes

Marshall Field's candy kitchen shuts down

Gertrude Hawk production process

From Marshall Field's to Macy's

Return to Chicago?

State Street viewing kitchen reopening

State Street viewing kitchen reopening

Only at Macy's

Garrett's Frango

Gallery

Marshall Field's packaging

Macy's packaging

See also

External links

References