28-03-2025
Commitment to candy, community: Bazooka keeps Ring Pop local
MOOSIC —The scent of fruity flavors filled the air as workers produced Ring Pops inside Bazooka's new plant on Birney Avenue Thursday morning.
After more than four decades in Scranton, Bazooka Candy Brands closed the Poplar Street location due to structural issues with the floors and began making the wearable candy in Moosic.
Tony Jacobs, CEO of Bazooka Candy Brands, stressed it took a team effort to make the transition so seamless.
'We unexpectedly shut down our facility in Scranton on Aug. 29,' he said. 'By late February, we were up and running in this factory. The town has been incredibly welcoming and tried to do everything to facilitate us getting up and running as quickly as possible. You want to be in a place where they want to support you.'
Jacobs noted the new, larger plant will allow employees to ramp up production — eventually producing up to 1.5 million Ring Pops each day. The new facility churns out 112 different flavors of sweet treats — a number that is continually growing, he said.
However, Jacobs sticks to the basics.
'I'm classic in my flavors, so I love the strawberry,' he said.
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Owner and CEO of Bazooka Candy Brands Tony Jacobs speaks during the event celebrating the opening of the Bazooka Ring Pop factory in Moosic Thursday, March 27, 2025. (SEAN MCKEAG / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
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People gather outside of the new Bazooka Ring Pop factory in Moosic Thursday, March 27, 2025. (SEAN MCKEAG / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
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State Sen. Marty Flynn sucks on a Ring Pop during the event celebrating the opening of the Bazooka Ring Pop factory in Moosic Thursday, March 27, 2025. (SEAN MCKEAG / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
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Long-time employee John Ellis recalls the first Ring Pop being produced outside of the new Bazooka Ring Pop factory in Moosic Thursday, March 27, 2025. (SEAN MCKEAG / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
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Ring Pops are packaged at the Bazooka Ring Pop factory in Moosic Thursday, March 27, 2025. (SEAN MCKEAG / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
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Components of the Ring Pop are run through. the machines at the Bazook Ring Pop factory in Moosic Thursday. (SEAN MCKEAG / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
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Employees work in the production area of the new Bazooka Ring Pop factory in Moosic Thursday, March 27, 2025. (SEAN MCKEAG / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
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Ring Pops are produced in the Ring Pop factory in Moosic Thursday, March 27, 2025. (SEAN MCKEAG / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
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Owner and CEO of Bazooka Candy Brands Tony Jacobs speaks during the event celebrating the opening of the Bazooka Ring Pop factory in Moosic Thursday, March 27, 2025. (SEAN MCKEAG / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
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To create the candy, crews heat a mixture of corn syrup and sugar up to 300 degrees and add flavors and colors to create hot, liquid candy, which is then injected into the mold of the candy ring before going into a cooling tunnel where it becomes hard.
The new 120,000-square-foot location — 90,000 square feet bigger than the Scranton plant — opens up more opportunities for the company, Jacobs said.
'Ring Pop is our most important product for Bazooka Brands,' he said. 'We've been growing significantly over the last 10 years and Ring Pop has been a key driver of it. The demand for it keeps on increasing. When we were at the Scranton facility, we were able to make about 280 million Ring Pops a year. With this facility, and our ability to expand, we will hopefully be able to get up to 400 million Ring Pops, when we're fully running.'
Jacobs said plans for the Scranton location remain in flux.
'We had the challenges with ground movement and it's still under assessment,' he said. 'We're looking at every option we can.'
The Moosic facility has 110 employees, including 98% of the workforce from the Scranton plant who continued with the company, Jacobs said.
Jacobs felt it was important to maintain operations within the Scranton area.
'For Ring Pop, it's been our home for 48 years, and even longer before that with the Topps Company even longer,' he said. 'We want to have production in the United States, and Pennsylvania is one of the capitals of the confectionery world. We have long-tenured employees, so it's critical for us to have a footprint here.'
The Topps Duryea plant, which produced baseball cards and bubblegum, closed in 1997.
Moosic Mayor Robert Bennie welcomed the addition of Bazooka to the borough and feels it adds to other ongoing developments in town.
'To have this building occupied by a world-class company like Bazooka is a dream come true for us,' he said. 'Moosic is thrilled to become the home of the Ring Pop. More and more businesses are starting to call Moosic home — both here along Birney Avenue and up on Montage Mountain.'
Jocelyn Stahl, chief of global operations for Bazooka, said about half the facility is currently operational, with work on the other areas slated to begin later this year.
A former taste tester and an employee with five decades of experience expressed satisfaction with the new facility.
Lucia Dudziec, 18, sampled Ring Pop flavors with the company about a decade ago.
'There were about 15 of us in a room and we probably tried eight different candies that weren't on the market yet,' she said. 'We all gave our thoughts — it was really cool.'
The Moosic resident still enjoys the treats to this day.
'I have a drawer full of them in my house,' she said.
Meanwhile, John Ellis — who began working for the company at 19 — played a big role in the production of the first Ring Pops, which were cherry, he said.
'We busted our butts trying to get it to work right and a couple years later we got it going,' Ellis said. 'We got the cooker running, produced the candy, and the rest is history.'
Ellis felt a sense of relief upon learning Bazooka would remain in the area following the closure of the Scranton plant.
'We were worried about them moving out of town, but they stuck around and that's why we stuck around,' he said. 'It belongs here, it doesn't belong anywhere else.'
