Renovation

Typically, November and December allow us a time to review  the current year, and then turn our focus to internal strategy and plans for the upcoming year.  2007 was a little different because we basically decided to completely tear our building apart and renovate everyone’s working space and environment.

We are blessed to be in a very nice building that Ed Carson built in 2000 to house his expanding custom Hershey wrapper business.  From his start in his garage to a new 16,000 sq. ft. facility, the business had come a long way.

However, it was time to make some new improvements, enhance the environment and really reward our team members who work hard every day to make our customers happy.  My partner in work and life,  Sharon, has a bachelor degree from Miami University in Interior Design, and she is truly a master at seeing the potential in any space.  She began planning for the new environment in the Spring of 2007, working with an unbelievably talented group of designers at Enriching Spaces.  Together they came up with a space plan that focused on bringing our group closer together, promoting greater teamwork, efficiency and also fun.  We tore down walls, displaced everyone, ripped up carpet and made a real big mess in the process, which was really not much fun.

Nonetheless, even in the mess and chaos we continued to maintain focus on what was most important--our customers--and getting their Holiday Season orders out with our utmost care.  No one who ordered with us from November through January would have ever guessed we were working out of a total disaster of a building that we were also trying to put back together.
The final result is something that is amazing, and we are extremely proud of our new environment.

Our General Contractor and all around handy man is Tim Jaroscak, and this is one guy who can handle  just about any challenge you throw at him...and boy did we throw challenges his way.  Tear walls down, but keep it quiet so we can answer our customer’s phone calls…don’t create too much dust, because we have printing equipment that cannot get dirty...move this now, but we cannot move that until after we close for the day...that part of the job has to be done on the weekend when no one else is here...we just had a lot of obstacles, but Tim never flinched and helped us do anything needed.  Never once did he say, "that’s not my job."  He just got ‘er done!

When it all came down to the wire, we had carpet being ripped up, walls being painted, new carpet being laid and new furniture being put on it as soon as the glue was dry.  People were working right behind each other and as soon as the group ahead of them finished, they would do their part.

After about 2 months of having work crews everywhere every day, I think we were all ready for it to be over.  Sharon had also been introduced to Edward Casagrande, a truly talented artist who works mainly with metals and creates the most wonderful and unique sculptures.  Edward has done sculptures for many years, and his work is on display all over.  His art is whimsical, yet  has meaning as well as function.  He introduced elements of our business in his pieces.  In his own words, “Throughout the entire facility are candy colors and Hershey's memorabilia. It wasn't difficult discovering an inspiration.“

What we have now completed is a true showcase facility that is stylish yet practical.  Every piece put into place has a purpose and adds efficiency, while paying homage to our roots both as a company and our connection to Hershey’s chocolate.  Included in the renovation is our own, “Hershey Museum”, which displays our many Hershey artifacts for all of our visitors to see.  This is also where our newest purchase will soon be on display, the “Eye Candy” dresses created on the tv show, Project Runway.

I’ve always enjoyed coming to work, but now, it is even more sweet!

Food Gone Wild

Around here at CARSON wrappedhersheys.com  we try to celebrate some sort of event every month.  April was big this year.  From a Hot Dog Day to National Cheese Ball Day.  I believe I have now discovered what our team thrives on, any type of FOOD . 

Hot Dog Day, whoever thought there would be such a day.  Friday April 11 CARSON celebrated the day solely for
this fine meal. Bob the grilling master braved the rainy weather to grill 38 hot dogs for the CARSON team.  All day
long it was raining Dogs & Buns.  Definitely something I have not seen before.  It seems like everyone enjoyed
the freshly cooked dogs.

National Cheese Ball Day on Thursday April 17 was a huge success at CARSON.  The guidelines were to bring in a homemade cheese ball, then everyone would vote for the most delectable cheese ball.  We had a total of 10 cheese balls dispersed throughout the lunchroom.  That day the rest of the marketing team and I headed to Panera for lunch, but even though we were stuffed we had to give every cheese ball a try.  There was a wide range of cheese balls, from cream cheese and ranch mix to a dessert cheese ball (whoever thought of mixing cheese and dessert was brilliant).  After a close call, Joe was our Cheese Ball Winner.  His cheese ball was even decorated with  little “OLE” flags.  Congratulations Joe!

Cocoa Belle

Greetings Chocolateers,

I was the fortunate artist selected to assist in the celebration of the newly renovated playground that is CARSON wrappedhersheys.com.

You can't beat a commission that involves eating much chocolate, sketching and designing. Throughout the entire facility are candy colors and Hershey's memorabilia.  It wasn't difficult discovering an inspiration.

While beginning my research over a Hershey's candy bar (the pride of the Carson's operation) I unwrapped the bar and...voila!  I would create the wrapper part of the Carson's experience.  The candy was already represented throughout the space; it needed homage to the delivery system and luckily I work in "wrapper" stuff (aluminum, stainless, and steel).

From this point things evolved fairly rapidly. During many other chocolate breaks (of bars and kisses) much inspiration oozed forth. The kisses became iconic detailing and the "Hershey Bar Geometry" dictated much of the massing and language.

This main design theme can be seen in the set piece "Cocoa Belle": the order processing "Goddess", and other miscellaneous architectonic treatments.

Visit my web site www.earthorchestra.com to view other sculptural work and contact information.

Thank you so much.

Edward Casagrande / Earth Orchestra Inc.

As you review the images look for the kisses, blooms and geometry all lavished on the candy wrapper that is my work.

Sweet Fashions

A few weeks ago, “Project Runway” had auctions where people got to bid on dresses made by designers. On one of the shows, the final 10 designers made dresses from items they got at the Hershey Times Square store. When my dad found out that they were being auctioned, he had to get at least one. Instead, he got eight of them. And on the weekend of March 29th, my dad and I went to Hershey, Pennsylvania. While we were there, we went to an event called “Sweet Fashions by Hershey.” For part of the event, Dylan Lauren, owner and founder of Dylan’s Candy Bar, was there. The week before, I broke my wrist, and Dylan was nice enough to sign my cast for me. The dresses aren’t at CARSON yet, but they will be soon and I can’t wait!

Ceremonial Similitude

Rituals.  The word conjures shadowy images steeped in the obscure mystery of ages past. On a dark, moonless night, cloaked, hooded figures in solemn procession glide toward a high stone alter. Flickering torchlight illuminates the path flanked with onlookers swaying in droning chant.  Standing atop the dais, an imposing figure, his billowing robes grand and elaborate, outstretches his arms to the night, prepared to anoint the accomplished brethren.  Eerie, isn’t it?

The word ritual comes from the Latin ritualis “relating to rites,” from ritus “rite,” and has been in practice since the dawn of humanity.  Remarkably similar in characteristic across the broad expanse of history and cultures, rituals are societies’ ways to mediate significant transitions in people’s lives—transitions that could bring about changes in social standing, life situations and even life itself.  We call them ceremonies, but that’s simply another word for rituals. 

When you really think about, some of our modern ceremonies differ little from the scene described above.  Case in point: graduation.  A podium replaces the altar, electric lights replace torches, the cap replaces the hood, and “Pomp and Circumstance” replaces chanting.  But in the end what you have is a procession of cloaked figures filing forth one by one to a raised dais, whereupon another more prominent cloaked figure stands ready to bestow honors.  Aside from a few paltry details, not much has changed. 

But there is one thing that has changed over time.  There is a new item gaining favor among ritual goers, something unheard of in the days of our predecessors: custom wrapped Hershey’s bars as party favors.  Just like so many rituals throughout history have undoubtedly been followed by uproarious making of merry, today’s graduation parties can compare with the best.  At CARSON wrappedhersheys.com, we want to be a part of all modern rituals, and there’s no better way to get invited than to bring something unique—and chocolate—to the party! 

What's in a Name?

There are many names of many towns. Some towns are named after people. Some towns are named after saints. Some towns are named after other towns. Sometimes a name describes the landscape. For a town in Pennsylvania that we shipped to the name comes from a number. Eighty Four, Pennsylvania is a town of around 5000 people located approximately 25 miles from Pittsburgh. Why would a town name itself after a number? A number of theories exist. The most likely theory is that the name was given to commemorate the election of Grover Cleveland as President. Other theories exist such as the town being mail drop number 84 or being 80 degrees and 4 minutes west longitude. Another is 84 soldiers and a man named General David "Crazy Legs" Hamilton (I love the name by the way) held off an attack of outlaws at the location of the town. I personally think it is weird to name your town a number. Then I began to think of what I would name a city if I had the power. Would I pay homage to a family member? Would I name it after an early settler? Would I steal the name of another city? Would I describe the landscape? I would want it to be exciting, memorable, distinguished and fun. I think I would name it.......

Memories

Memories are important to us as human beings. They help us to know where we have been, what we have done, how we have grown and changed through the years. They help us to make meaning of our lives and our relationships. They help us to know what our deeply held values are. 

A quote from the popular television show The Wonder Years says, "Memories are a way of holding onto the things you love, the things you are, the things you never want to lose."

Memories are timeless, enjoyed and cherished by both young and old. Elias Lieberman eloquently states, “Memories are all that we really own.”  Knowing that memories are such a valuable and irreplaceable gift in life, it is an unexplainable feeling when customers share their memories, which our product has helped them to create.

     

CARSON Wrapped Hershey's Chocolates were a big hit at my parent's fiftieth wedding anniversary celebration in December. They were the perfect party favor for an occasion that was attended by people as young as 15 months and as mature as 84 years of age. My parents just loved the beautiful gold paper  and the tasteful graphic design of the wrappers. As I walked around the reception hall, I saw several guests at different tables holding the bars, obviously discussing them with approval with their table-mates.  I also overheard compliments about the bars. One cousin, not knowing that I was the one who chose the party favors, told me that the wrapped bars were a "great idea." All of the guests who were younger than 20 couldn't wait until after dinner to enjoy the chocolate bars. I saw many of the adults slipping the bars into their purses or jacket pockets. Even though we had empty places at a few tables, there were no spare chocolate bars at the end of the night! On a sadder note, Mom passed away less than a month after the celebration. I will always treasure the knowledge that with your product I was able to contribute to one of the happiest evenings of her life. -Claire B, Albuquerque, NM

Happy Birthday, Grandpa

We recently created a very interesting wrapper to celebrate the life of a man named Elmer Jensen.  The back message read:

"Elmer's kids remember a Hershey's bar could always be found in his desk drawer -- so here's one for his posterity to enjoy on his 100th birthday!  Happy 100th Birthday Elmer Sigvart Jensen 1908-1953!"

 

My husband's grandpa, Elmer Jensen, died in 1953 when he was only 45, leaving his five young children who were orphaned just a few years later when their mother died also.  As they have grown up and had children and grandchildren of their own, they have tried to acquaint their posterity with their ancestors.  My mother-in-law, as the youngest child who remembers her father the least (she was only seven years old when he died), has in particular interviewed her siblings and relatives to remember any small details about her dad. And one thing that has been consistent is that everyone remembers how he loved Hershey's chocolate bars, and always kept one handy in his right hand desk drawer.  I thought it would be a fun surprise to her and the other descendants of Elmer Jensen to know that story and eat a Hershey's bar on the one-hundredth anniversary of his birthday this May, so I ordered these personalized bars to send to all of his descendants." Thanks-- Anita

Win With Hershey’s

We have 10,000 more reasons to love chocolate! The Hershey Company is now pairing its popular chocolate brands with instant lottery tickets. Available in select states, lottery players can try their luck at scratch-off games such as “Kisses & Cash” and “Hugs & Kisses,” for a chance to win up to $10,000. New Mexico offers the scratch-off that looks good enough to eat, titled “$10,000 Hershey’s Milk Chocolate.” The game’s ticket is a replica of  Hershey’s well-recognized, chocolate-brown and silver-foil wrappers. Plans are underway to develop additional lottery games from among Hershey’s 21 candy brands. The designs of the new tickets will use vivid colors and recognizable imagery of the brand’s packaging. There are even rumors that future Hershey-themed tickets might have a scratch-n-sniff feature. This sounds like a winning idea to me!

April 2008

Look who's a perfect fit for our April birthdays!

 

April showers anniversary wishes on...

 

Necessity's Child

Five years ago, in early 2003,  Hershey changed the wrapper on the standard size 1.55 oz. chocolate bar from the long standing and well recognized paper and foil over chocolate, to what is known as a “fin-seal” or “flow” wrapper.  While the fin-seal certainly helped protect the chocolate, and also increase production capacity, the change did not initially sit well with many of Hershey’s loyal customers.  However, the positive aspects of the new wrapper, like keeping the chocolate air tight and fresh tasting, certainly outweigh the change in appearance.

Needless to say, this change in the Hershey’s standard chocolate bar wrapper presented a pretty serious challenge for our production of custom wrapped Hershey’s bars here at CARSON.  Although we have utilized actual Hershey’s wrapping machines for many years, until 2003 our wrapping machine simply put our custom paper wrapper over top of the Hershey paper wrapper/foil combo, and it made a perfect presentation for our customers.

Thankfully, CARSON also had the ability to put foil on the bars with our wrapping machine, and after much readjusting we were able to use our machine to put both foil and our custom wrapper over top of the new Hershey’s fin-seal bar and make it look perfect once again. 

There was a catch however.  The new fin-sealed Hershey’s bars had crimped tabs on each end which had to be folded and taped back in order to re-wrap the bar with our wrapping machine.  That may not sound like a large hurdle if you only wrap a couple hundred bars a day, but when you wrap several thousand bars a day like we do at CARSON, the chore became quite a cumbersome challenge.

Finally, it was decided that we needed to find a solution that would replace the manual taping back of the fin-sealed ends because we just could no longer keep up with demand.  So last October, I attended the Food Packaging and Machinery Expo in search of a solution where others have failed before.

I arrived at the expo and was utterly shocked by how large this convention and exposition was as I tried to figure out just where to start.  Now you have to remember, I do not have an engineering or machinery background in any way, so I started out with one big strike against me.

After walking the span of several football fields of machinery and packaging options for just about everything you could imagine, I started to narrow down my search to those who dealt with adhesive tapes and the machinery that applies such material.  I spent a lot of time talking with the group from Boshe who now owns the company that made our wrapping machines, Sigpack.  Boshe makes machinery for many types of industries worldwide, and Sigpack focuses on packaging solutions for many types of food and candy companies.  These people really know what they are doing and understood our situation very well.  It was after spending time with them mulling over our circumstances and need for a solution, I went in search of machinery that applied adhesive materials.

I found Nautilus Systems, and with my Hershey bar in hand explained my quest.  Steve Gunnerson and Eric Moore from Nautilus immediately felt as if they had a solution. Using existing technology they have had in place for many years, they could devise a machine that would apply adhesive tape squares to hold back the crimped ends of the bar.  To make a very long story from here very short, Nautilus did exactly what they proposed to do, and jumped all the hurdles to create a machine that will do in 10 minutes what would take us an hour to do by hand.

This new machine could not have come to us at a better time, and the first day it was installed and our team was trained to use it, we quickly put it into service because we had an order for 5000 bars and another for 3000 that had to ship out that day. 
Raleigh Sanderson, and engineer with Nautilus Systems, flew from Phoenix to train our team on how to use the machine.

In the CARSON facility right now, the new “Tape Machine” is the champ, the King, the bomb, the beast, whack, and any other superlative you can think of, all rolled up into one!

Joe Nuxhall Remembered

Monday, March 31, 2008 was Opening Day for the Cincinnati Reds and an appropriate time to remember beloved Reds broadcaster and former pitcher, Joe Nuxhall.

Joseph Henry Nuxhall (July 30, 1928 – November 15, 2007) was a left-handed pitcher born and raised in Hamilton, Ohio, who played most of his career for the Cincinnati Reds. He held the team's record for career games pitched (484) from 1965 to 1975, and is remembered for having been the youngest player ever to appear in a major league game in the modern era, pitching 2/3 of an inning for the Reds on June 10, 1944 at the age of 15 years.  Nuxhall retired from the Reds in April 1967 and immediately began his second career as a Reds broadcaster.  Nuxhall died in 2007 after a long bout with cancer.

In the days following Nuxhall's death, several radio stations in the Cincinnati area devoted shows to him, and fans left cards, flowers and banners at the statue of Nuxhall at Great American Ball Park. A public visitation ceremony was attended by thousands of fans and several local and national sports and broadcasting personalities.

In December, CARSON was honored to create personalized wrappers from the Nuxhall family to employees of the cities of Hamilton and Fairfield, and staff and students of Hamilton and Fairfield City Schools.

We received the following note from Kim Nuxhall, Joe’s son, in appreciation for
our contribution:

	"I took the bars to the Freshman school and my own school (Central Elementary) yesterday and both the principals were very touched and appreciative of the gesture.  Can't tell you how much the "people" have enjoyed receiving the candy bars.  Lots of comments and hugs as a result.  Well done and again......... can't thank you enough." -Take care, Kim

The Joe Nuxhall Character Education was established in 2003 to underwrite character development programs and projects for children.  Carson was pleased to create bars for an event sponsored by the Fairfield Chamber of Commerce in support of The Joe Nuxhall Hope Project and for the upcoming Hope Project Celebration,
Thursday, April 3, 2008.

	"Be a friend of as many people as you can.  If the person you’re dealing with doesn’t want that, go on down the road and make another friend." - Joe Nuxhall

The Evolutionary Wrapper

You know you’ve arrived when people start viewing your company history and products as “memorabilia.” You’ve seen it a hundred times. Somebody has a game room in their house full of vintage advertisements from companies like Coca Cola, Harley Davidson and Campbell’s Soup. Hershey’s ranks high on the collect-ability scale as well. In fact, The Hershey Company regularly releases collections of reproduction vintage advertisements for current promotions. People love nostalgia. We know, because we’ve got our own Hershey Museum in the works here at CARSON wrappedhersheys.com.

 

Take the Hershey’s bar wrapper. In the last 100 years, it has had 16 versions, and in studying them you see the history not only of the product, but of societal norms of advertising, and legal changes in food processing and packaging. (To view all 16 versions, visit the Hershey Community Archives.) On the back of the 1900-1902 version, it states, “…is especially recommended for Cyclists, Athletes, Ladies and Children. It is most sustaining, being amalgamated by special process with the finest Fresh Milk.” Face it; people just don’t talk like that anymore (much to this writer’s personal disgruntlement). Nor is candy any longer recommended, seemingly like a medication, to specific groups of people; however, we must commend Hershey’s early identification of a very clear and binding link between women and chocolate. The wrapper then goes into a brief discussion of how well Hershey cares for their cows. As incongruous as this mention seems to us today due to vast improvements in health laws, obviously this topic was of sufficient concern to the public in 1900 that Hershey’s felt the need to address it on the product wrappers.

The last year the Baby in the Cocoa Bean was seen on the front of the bars was 1911; thereafter it was relegated to an image on the back, replaced with the block letter HERSHEY’S still in use today. It is upon this universally recognized logo, created almost a century ago, that CARSON built its business with the infinitely popular HERESHEIS® wrapper design.

 

The next substantial Hershey’s wrapper revision took place in 1973, when new packaging laws required today’s familiar nutritional label on most packaging. The last major change took place in 2003, when Hershey moved away from the long-used foil and paper wrapper to the new crimped fin-seal style in use today.