Beyond the bean

Susannah Millen meets Herman G Rowland, chairman of the board for the Jelly Belly Candy Company and recipient of the first ISM Lifetime Achievement Award.

The Jelly Belly Candy Company is known for more than just jelly beans, producing over 70 types of confectionery, including gummies, chocolate-covered treats and seasonal lines, and exporting to more than 70 countries. But with its offering of more than 100 jelly bean flavours, I couldn’t resist asking Rowland to reveal his favourite flavours. “They would be peach and pear,” he replies. “But that’s today,” he adds with a smile.
Despite having been a little under the weather during this years’ ISM, Rowland certainly has a twinkle in his eye as we settle down for a chat about a lifetime spent in the confectionery industry, as does his daughter Lisa who joins us.

A family business
We relax around a table in the centre of which is a china dish filled with different flavour beans. Myself and a colleague are invited to sample various combinations and family favourites.
Founded in 1898, Jelly Belly is still family owned and operated by the fourth, fifth and sixth generations of its founding family. And Rowland and his family always make the final decision when it comes to new flavours. Even those flavours that are more than a little ‘off the wall’.
Jelly Belly is proud to have been asked to supply Bertie Bott’s Every Flavour Beans to the Harry Potter film sets. As a selection of the beans are presented to us, I am relieved that I am not attending this meeting alone! Thankfully I avoid being challenged to taste a brown bean that might be chocolate or could taste like dog food. My unfortunate colleague is not so lucky. I break open a bean to discover it smells authentically of vomit, but choose not to taste it. The tasting makes an entertaining interlude.

Lifetime achievement
Rowland was honoured to receive the first ISM Lifetime Achievement Award at this years’ show. Selected by an international jury of industry members, he was praised for the creativity, initiative and good humour that has distinguished him as a leader in the confectionery industry.
And he really has spent a lifetime involved in the business, working during the school holidays every summer with his father, helping to maintain machinery and sweeping floors, he tells us.
Having started out with handmade candy, the first production lines, which had been introduced in 1836 were developed and upgraded and eventually replaced in the mid 1970s. The first product produced by the company was Candy Corn, a line that has recently been reintroduced. “By the 1960s we were looking for a new product of the highest quality possible,” says Rowland.
Clearly, to build an empire the size of Jelly Belly, you need to have vision. “Our mission was to make candy buyers realise that they could sell for more money,” he explains. His aim was to make a premium product that was worthy of a premium price. “We don’t look at what it costs. We want to make the best product we can make,” he says. “This enables us to maintain a premium price point, but we are also selling at a fair price for the value of the product.”
“Our approach helped other candy brands realise that they too could sell for more money,” he adds, a belief that has arguably changed the face of the industry.

Rowland believes that the secret of the company’s success is its ‘start small’ approach, making sure that everything is right before expanding further into each new market. Every country requires a different approach.
He remembers introducing his jelly beans to some Japanese buyers who insisted the beans were too sweet to appeal the Japanese; that is until he pointed out that the dish of samples in front of them was empty!
“We try to make a product that we can sell around the world,” he says. “But 20 per cent of products have to be modified for export,” he adds.
The biggest markets for Jelly Belly outside the US are Canada, the UK and Germany, closely followed by Australia. And with an interesting insight into how the confectionery market has changed over recent years, Rowland explains how Harrods, which was the exclusive outlet for Jelly Belly in the UK for 10 years, was the brand’s ‘gateway to Europe.’

Favourite flavours
At this year’s show Jelly Belly introduced 50 new products, including a non-alcoholic beer flavoured bean, which took three years to develop.
Favourite flavours differ around the world – in the US it’s Blueberry, while in Europe the top three are Tutti Frutti, Very Cherry and Green Apple, and in the Middle East, the UK and Australia, Cotton Candy, Coconut and Bubblegum come out on top.
Ronald Reagan began enjoying his favourite liquorice flavour beans in 1966. “We still supply the Reagan ranch,” says Rowland.
In fact you’d find it hard to find anyone, anywhere, who hasn’t heard of Jelly Belly. And with the passion and commitment of the Rowland family behind it, it’s a brand that has world domination in its sights.