Chocolate firm tastes big expansion

Prominent Fort Myers-based gourmet chocolate maker Norman Love Confections is about to get some competition.

The opposition comes from Fannie May, a Canton, Ohio-based chocolate brand and chain of stores founded in Chicago in 1920. Global florist chain 1-800-Flowers.com bought Fannie May in 2006, after it struggled for a few years.

Executives have more recently targeted Florida. Indeed, the first Fannie May franchise store opened in Sarasota in November. The latest news is 1-800-Flowers.com signed an agreement with a franchise developer that intends to open 45 stores by 2014, with a chunk of those locations in Fort Myers and Naples. Other stores will be in Orlando and the Midwest.

“Florida is the place where we hear the most from people to please open a store,” says Dave Taiclet, president of 1-800-Flowers.com's gourmet and gift baskets division. Taiclet says the devotion stems from retirees and snowbirds who grew up with Fannie May.

The franchise developer that signed the 45-store deal is GB Chocolates, a partnership that includes Bridgeman Foods, which owns 150 quick service restaurants nationwide. The group, Taiclet tells Coffee talk, is what 1-800-Flowers.com considers “one of the premier franchisors in the U.S.”

Norman Love Confections, meanwhile, is one of the premier gourmet chocolate businesses in the Fort Myers-Naples area. Norman Love, who won the Retailer of the Year Award from the Florida Retail Federation last year, founded the firm in 2001. It has since grown to include a 6,000-square-foot manufacturing facility, two retail stores and an online presence. It has nearly 40 employees.

Fannie May once had 250 stores across the country, with at least 15 in the Sunshine State. That count dwindled in the last decade, but has since rebounded, to about 90 stores. A company spokesman says the chain hopes to add 150 stores from the Midwest through Florida in the next few years. Says Taiclet: “Fannie May is a great part of chocolate history in the United States.”