ESTHER PRICE SEEKS TO BOOST PRODUCTION
Esther Price Candies wants to make more of what makes us happy.
The iconic Dayton candy shop, which has a retail store and its production facilities in the 1700 block of Wayne Avenue in Dayton, has applied for zoning permits that would allow it to build a 20,517-square-foot expansion onto its 53,000-square-food production facility, according to city of Dayton records.
The addition would allow Esther Price to boost production and would pave the way for an expansion of the candy company’s private-label business, in which the company produces candies sold by other brands, Peggy Weaver, accountant for the company, said.
For example, Esther Price already produces fudge for an online chocolate retailer that sells the candy under its name, Weaver said.
If company officials obtain the necessary approvals, the addition would be built over the next year or two, Weaver said.
The candy company’s applications for a conditional use and a variance for the facility at 1709 Wayne Ave. are on the Dayton Board of Zoning Appeals agenda for June 27.
The Dayton business was launched in 1926 by Esther Price, a downtown Dayton department store employee who, at the urging of her co-workers, started a chocolate-making business out of her home. Her home business continued until 1952, when she opened her first store on Wayne Avenue, which still serves as the company’s headquarters and production facility.
Price had started the company after her downtown Dayton department store co-workers, for whom she often made chocolates, encouraged her to branch out on her own.
Cincinnati businessman Jim Day and three colleagues purchased the company from its founder in 1976, and Day’s family has owned the candy maker since 2006. It now operates seven stores in the Dayton-Cincinnati area.