Reno, NV — Kick Foods, LLC and its Good Day Chocolate brand have been acquired by And-Y-Not, LLC, a newly formed Kimmie Candy Co Inc. division. The acquiring company reports all operations are being relocated to Kimmie’s manufacturing facility in Reno, NV.
Good Day offers candy-coated chocolate with functional benefits, including energy, calcium, and sleep supplements for adults and multi-vitamins and probiotic-boosted calcium and sleep supplements for children. The company says the products are available in over 5,000 retailers nationwide.
Kimmie Candy CEO Joseph Dutra comments: “When I met the founders of Good Day Chocolate, I was impressed with their development and footprint in creating a functional chocolate business with pharmaceutical grade panned supplements available in leading retail accounts nationwide.”
Dutra and Michael Conti, Kimmie Candy’s COO, purchased the company and formed And-Y-Not. Good Day co-founder Simeon Margolis has been named COO, while Conti will act as president and CEO, and Dutra will serve as chairman and managing director.
Margolis says: “We’re so excited to be coming in under Kimmie Candy’s umbrella, where Good Day will benefit from the efficiencies of vertical integration; we’re looking forward to growing together and continuing to produce innovative products.”
About Joseph Dutra:
Joseph F. Dutra began his career as a farmer in Sacramento, California. In 1987, he transitioned into entrepreneurial ventures and launched Westec Incorporated, an agricultural consulting and seed business that aided South American farmers with raising and managing their crops. Today, Westec concentrates primarily on selling non-GMO and hybrid crop seeds to countries across the Middle East. Westec has grown to become the leading seller of non-GMO corn seed in Saudi Arabia, with approximately 60% of the market share!
In 2000, Joe started a new venture in a different direction – Kimmie Candy. Kimmie makes panned chocolate confections, including the nationally branded original Sunbursts® and ChocoRocks®. Initially, Joe manufactured all of his confections in Korea. However, in 2008, with expansion in mind and a desire to create U.S. jobs, he brought the entire operation onshore to Reno, Nevada, building a state-of-the-art candy production facility. By 2009, Joe’s Candy Company had a customer base stretching across the U.S. and over 6 international countries.
Most recently, in May 2016, Joe’s Candy Company received a rare Presidential E-Award for excellence in exporting. Kimmie Candy was presented the award by Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzer at the Commerce Department in Washington DC. Kimmie Candy is the first candy company to win the prize and only the ninth company from Nevada since 1962 ! In July 2017, Kimmie Candy represented Nevada at the first Made in America Expo at the White House in Washington, DC. Joe Dutra is proud to contribute wherever he can to the Northern Nevada community!
