Spangler Candy Company and Bryan Municipal Utilities collaboration is good for the community and good for business

By Zachary Hoffman – Manager of Communications and Publications - 8/8/2025

Throughout 2025, AMP is featuring AMP Member utilities and the local businesses they serve in the Public Power is Good for Business multimedia campaign. The campaign features a series of videos with the goal of promoting the benefits of public power from the perspective of commercial and industrial customers, highlighting the reliability of public power, as well as the variety of businesses that operate in AMP’s Member communities. It also illustrates the reasons public power communities are an attractive option for businesses.

Founded in 1906, the Spangler Candy Company has grown famous for its production of numerous candy brands that are beloved by people the world over. The small but mighty confectionary company has grown into a titan of the candy world, all from its headquarters in the Ohio community of Bryan, which has a population of about 8,600.

“It (Spangler) started with a bankruptcy sale of a company from Defiance, Ohio, and Arthur Spangler, who is my great-great-uncle, moved the facility from Defiance to downtown Bryan,” said Kirk Vashaw, Spangler Candy Company Chairman and CEO. “That was in 1906, and we have been in Bryan ever since. They [the company] started out making baking powder, and within a couple years, they got into confections — chocolates were actually the first kind of candy that they made — and then it's just evolved. We’ve had lots of different product lines over the 119 years that we have been here in Bryan.”

While Spangler produces a number of recognizable candies, their most famous brand, Dum-Dums, has been produced in the City of Bryan since 1953. The company produces about 12 million Dum-Dums a day, which is how the city earned its nickname, the “Dum-Dums Capital of the World.”

“Spanger Candy Company is a very important part of the City of Bryan,” said Derek Schultz, Bryan Municipal Utilities (BMU) Director of Utilities and AMP Board of Trustees member. “The company is deeply rooted in the community. Not only has it grown to become one of the most recognizable institutions [in Bryan], but it has grown to become the largest employer as well.”

While Spangler has strong roots and is committed to the success of the City of Bryan, that commitment deepened in 2023 when Spangler opened a 20-acre production facility for its newly acquired brand, Bit-O-Honey. The decision to open this production facility in Bryan was in large part thanks to the great relationship between Spanger and BMU.

Spangler considers electric reliability to be one of the most important factors in its business. Even an electric disruption lasting mere seconds has the capability to halt the company’s production equipment. Fortunately, electric disruptions have been few and far between at the company’s Bryan-based facilities. The company credits this reliability to the maintenance work that BMU regularly undertakes, as well as the close relationships between Spangler and BMU staff.

“Derek and the team are great to work with,” said Bill Martin, Spangler Candy Company President. “They’re reasonable, they don’t want to impact our business, and they want to help us succeed, and I don’t think you get that from a really big utility. I think at a really big utility, you don’t even know who those people are. So it’s a great relationship we have, and it is an important relationship when you have a food factory because a lot of the things that aren’t seen — like air conditioning, water, power, those kind of things — have just as much impact on how you make candy as all the things that you can see.”

While Spangler Candy Company’s production numbers serve as proof of its close relationship with the City of Bryan, that bond can also be observed through Spangler’s corporate commitment to community service and through other collaborative efforts.

First, in 2022, the company and BMU came together on a project to paint a city water tower located on the Spangler business campus. The water tower was painted to resemble giant Dum-Dums and ultimately won a national award for water tower art. Then, in 2023, the company and utility worked together to open Spangler Candy World, an interactive museum and retail store in downtown Bryan.

Together, these two sites have drawn tens of thousands of tourists from every American state and more than 12 countries to the small Ohio community. Beyond that, the sites stand as testament to the special relationship between company and community, and as evidence that Public Power is Good for Business.

Watch the video about the relationship between the City of Bryan and Spangler Candy Company below.

Learn more about the Public Power is Good for Business campaign here: amppartners.org/news/category/multimedia-campaigns/2025-public-power-is-good-for-business/