Sweet talk

The new sales effort began in August, when American Greetings acquired Gorant. Previously, the Cleveland-based greeting card company had operated Gorant under a management agreement.
The new plan comes with a goal of increasing production at the Market Street production plant by 400,000 pounds. The 26-year-old plant now makes one million pounds of chocolate a year and has a capacity to double that amount.
Peluse said the sales program was approved after a surprisingly good test program earlier this year at nine Giant Eagle stores in the Mahoning Valley. Each store had a rack of bagged and boxed chocolates priced at under $5 each.
Surprising sales
Some of the racks needed restocking after one week, much faster than the one month that Gorant had hoped for, Peluse said.
Company officials are pitching the idea of expanding the racks to more stores and are talking to other retailers as well.
In previous years, company officials had resisted placing Gorant's candy in other retailer's stores because they were concerned that would hurt sales at Gorant's own stores. The current effort gets around that by offering selections that aren't found in the stores, Peluse said.
All of the candy is being made in Boardman using chocolate provided by Barry Callebaut, a Canadian chocolate company.
Peluse said company officials think Gorant will do well in stores outside this area because Gorant's name recognition extends beyond the Mahoning Valley.
Gorant operates 28 stores under the Gorant's and Yum Yum Tree names, including several in both western Pennsylvania and central Ohio. The biggest concentration of stores is in the Cleveland and Youngstown areas.
Four years ago, Gorant operated 63 stores. Peluse said the number of stores was reduced because 50 percent of the stores were doing 80 percent of total sales.
Less profitable stores have been closed as leases have expired. In most cases, closed stores have been in plazas that were failing or lost major tenants, he said.
No more store closings are planned, he said.
Steady employment
About 160 people work at the production plant, and Peluse said employment has held steady. If sales increase, the need for more workers will depend on the type of orders, he said.
The plant ships chocolate throughout the United States to mail-order customers and Carlton Cards stores that are operated by American Greetings. Gorant chocolate is found in about 90 percent of 400 Carlton stores in the United States.
American Greetings also has a dozen small specialty stores that sell only Gorant chocolate, with the first ones opening in the Denver area.
Peluse said the recent acquisition of the company by American Greetings hasn't affected plant operations because it had been managing the company before.
The company has changed hands repeatedly since Charles Gorant, one of the founders, sold it in 1986.
American Greetings bought Gorant from an outside investor who wasn't named after he acquired the company when Robert Portman died four years ago. Portman acquired Gorant in 1991 after working as a manager for a French company that had owned the company.
Portman, who became a vice president for the Carlton Cards division, brought in American Greetings after he took over Gorant.
shilling@vindy.com