It turns out dentists aren’t so bad for the candy business, at least that’s the case with the budding industry in Hollister. It was a dentist, after all, who encouraged Brad van Dam in the mid-1990s to move the Marich Confectionery business from Watsonville to Hollister.
Editor’s note: This is part of the annual Pride section. This year’s theme is “Made in Hollister”. Below this story, find links to other content in this year’s special section.
It turns out dentists aren’t so bad for the candy business, at least that’s the case with the budding industry in Hollister. It was a dentist, after all, who encouraged Brad van Dam in the mid-1990s to move the Marich Confectionery business from Watsonville to Hollister.
The van Dam family in 1995 had been pursuing a new home for the candy-making factory. He said it was too expensive to expand in Watsonville – with pricey land costs and impact fees – and they had been looking at sites in Idaho, Oregon and other Western states. When he was introduced to the Hollister city manager at the time, he learned that a prospective property located here had all the necessary services available. So the company bought the land in 1995, broke ground two years later and opened in 1998.
Although van Dam stressed that Hollister officials have been welcoming through the years, his thoughts about the state as a whole – and its treatment of businesses – were much different.
“California is not an ideal place to do business,” said van Dam, the company CEO, in reflecting about his company’s evolution. “I don’t think there would be any business owner that would disagree.”
His decision to stay, though, has paid off. The confectionery has experienced continued growth through the years while producing a range of candy products under its own label and for other prominent labels, too. Marich products now include a variety of products categorized as chocolate fruits, chocolate nuts, caramels and toffee, jelly beans and sweets, and others.
Marich, at 2101 Bert Drive, is among a wide variety of food and beverage brands made in San Benito County. The long list starts with Marich and De Brito Chocolate Factory on the sweet side, but includes other semi-guilty pleasures such as a Hollister brewery, a sake factory and the county’s treasured wine trail. Then there are seasonings, olive oils, canned tomatoes, tortillas, dried fruits, a honey brand and many other delectable products made right here in San Benito County.
There’s even the “appleZee” nutritional supplement line – with similar preventative benefits as Airborne – made in Hollister and founded by local doctors, namely Kenneth Jiang, M.D.
Some local products, like appleZee, devise a name with no apparent association to the hometown. Some take the city or county’s name and others keep the brand in the family. But they’re all distinctly San Benito.
Part of the reason why van Dam chose Hollister was because he resided here himself since 1991, so proximity to home was an obvious bonus. He attributed the company’s moving decision to “soft reasons” more than “hard ones” – mentioning that the area is a nice place to raise a family and has “phenomenal weather.” As for the local government, van Dam recalled his initial interaction with staff officials.
They asked how they could help him, and his response was simple: Assist him in getting the permitting process finished so he could establish his business.
And one other request.
“Then leave me alone,” he told them, as he remembered. “We’re a solid company with great values. We’re growing. We provide quality jobs. We’re a clean industry. We’ll be here and contribute jobs.
“It’s been great. They have, by and large, let us be.”
He said such rare interaction has been a plus and that it says something about Marich.
“That’s a positive,” he said. “I don’t mean that as a negative. That means we’re doing our job and we’re being a responsible member of the community.”
The company’s success has resulted in that corresponding job growth once predicted by van Dam, even in recent years. While other local companies were struggling to stay afloat during the Great Recession, Marich was plugging along, partly due to America’s insatiable appetite for sweets. It turns out, as the owner surmised through his experiences, that the chocolate industry doesn’t do so bad during poor economic periods. Even if consumers cut it out at some point, it’s one of the first “luxuries” they welcome back into their lives once the dollars start flowing again.
He said that since 2010, the company’s permanent employment base has increased from 105 to 130 – while there are up to 100 seasonal employees working at any given time, with the holidays being the peak period of the year.
Van Dam said employees “genuinely enjoy working” at Marich, a second-generation family company founded in 1983 by his father, Marinus van Dam, who is credited with creating the Jelly Belly.
“I think that’s something that makes us unique for a lot of different reasons,” he said of the company history. “It’s more than just – we’re not a publicly traded company. It’s about building the company we always wanted to work for, making great products, something we can be proud of.”
They have done just that and developed a strong national reputation, with big-name partnerships, in doing so.
“Marich is really a big thing – a big, big thing,” said Debbie Taylor, president with the San Benito County Chamber of Commerce & Visitors Bureau.
Combined with the De Brito Chocolate Factory at 160 Briggs Road, the two businesses have given the county a reputation that would warrant a hometown Golden Ticket contest. They only begin the long list of appetizing products produced here, though.
Of course, with the nearly $300 million agriculture industry in the county, many brand names are ag-related such as B&R Farms and its array of products, dried apricots being a popular choice; Mansmith’s Gourmet seasonings, as well as the Mansmith’s catering service; San Benito Gold apiary’s honey; San Juan Bautista’s Earthbound Farm, Natural Selection Foods and Vertigo Coffee; Green Tripe dog food in Hollister; olive oils made by Oils of Paicines, Brigantino and Pietra Santa; many long-existing family farms and ranches; the variety of award-winning wineries and vineyards here such as Pietra Santa, Calera, De Rose, Leal and many others; Ozeki Sake; and the Hollister Hills Taproom & Brewery’s variety of beer recipes.
Hollister has hops:
A brewery revival for Hollister, following the closure of the San Andreas Brewing Company’s Earthquake Pub in late 2005, started a few years ago when two local couples sparked a mutual interest in home-brewing. Chuck and Joanne Frowein, owners of the Grillin’ and Chillin’ bar and restaurant couched between Hollister and San Juan Bautista, teamed with Sean and Fran Fitzharris to create the enterprise. Sharing a fervor for craft beer, they quickly built a friendship through their hobby, which became a business.
After spending a good two years traveling to small, craft breweries and checking out those other operations, the couples opened the 1,400-square-foot Hollister Hills Taproom & Brewery at 401 McCray St. – with the name linked to the state’s local recreational vehicle attraction – in September.
Chuck Frowein said with its half-barrel brewing system, the business produces about 15 gallons at a time, two times a day. Many bigger breweries use around a 30-barrel system, so Frowein noted that Hollister Hills is not even considered a micro-brewery. Rather, it is called a “nano-brewery.”
That “hand-crafted” approach, though, gives the brewers more flexibility, he said.
“I think it gives us more creativity, more control of the smaller batches,” the co-owner said.
So far, the nano-brewery has produced 10 varieties of beer for sale. That creativity he mentioned not only allows the brewers to have more “fun” with the ingredients, but they also have a good time with the names. The varieties include titles such as “Easy, Like Sunday Morning, Blonde Ale” and “Drunkn Punkn Imperial Ale”. He mentioned a “Chili Mano Pineapple Wheat” and said it has a “little bit of heat at the end.”
They even had some early success at beer festivals, Frowein said.
“We’ve got kind of a reputation for our ‘Foggy Twilight Imperial Porter’,” he said.
He said the community has been supportive of the new hangout and eatery, which offers such items as paninis, pizzas and burgers.
“They’ve been really supportive and everybody’s coming in saying, ‘We really appreciate having a local brewery again,” Frowein said. “San Andreas’ (owners) came in and had a pint with us.”
Eventually, the Hollister Hills brewery business would like to do what some of the other local producers do and distribute the products outside the area, though Frowein would prefer that the business stay on the “smaller side” when it goes that route. There have been a few local restaurants requesting the brewery to start distributing as well, he mentioned.
“So far, it’s exceeding our expectations,” he said, “and we’ve created another 10 jobs for people in town.”
If they want to see an example of long-lasting distribution success in a related industry, they don’t have to look too far geographically – with the Ozeki Sake producer located at 249 Hillcrest Road since 1979. Though Ozeki’s history in Japan dates back to the 18th century, its presence in Hollister marked the first time a Japanese sake plant brewed locally in the U.S. Some of the company’s more popular products include Ozeki Junmai, Dry, Junmai Ginjo, Junmai Daiginjo and Nigori, according to its website, ozekisake.com.
Ozeki Sake doesn’t exactly boast locally about its sustained success, though.
“Nobody knows there’s a sake factory here,” said Taylor from the chamber of commerce. “People look at you like, ‘Really?’”
As for food or beverage products made here, Taylor also pointed to Swank Farms and Casa de Fruta as two other reputable brands that are produced locally.
As for places where people can buy some of those local items, she pointed to Bears Hideaway in San Juan Bautista as a “pretty unique” place for wine tasting, while she called San Benito Bene in downtown Hollister “a hub” for locally made products.
Showcasing the county:
Kathina Szeto, owner of San Benito Bene, opened the shop at 615-B San Benito St. in the summer of 2011. She was motivated to start the business by Hollister Downtown Association efforts to promote increased foot traffic downtown, and wanted to provide a shop that promotes local resources and artisans, she said.
“We’re here to highlight what’s created here,” she said from the store.
Szeto, outwardly proud of her vast lineup of local goods, such as products like the Oil of Paicines, Brigantino olive oil, San Benito Gold, B&R, Marich and S.P.A. beauty brands, said local visitors are surprised all the time when they see the array of goods in the store that are made in San Benito County.
“I think people get excited when they come in and see the variety of the talent,” she said from the store, which was awarded as Retail Business of the Year in 2013 by the San Benito County Chamber of Commerce & Visitors Bureau.
One of those local businesses prominently highlighted at the San Benito Bene store is Mansmith’s Gourmet.
’Tis the Seasoning
Nothing tastes and smells of San Benito County quite like Mansmith’s Gourmet and its line of locally produced seasonings, spices and barbecue paste.
Jon and Juanita Mansmith started the enterprise about 25 years ago. He used to own a water testing lab in San Juan Bautista, but sold that business and “needed something else to do.”
“I had been barbecuing for 4-H, FFA, churches in the area and everything – and had some seasoning blends I had whipped up on my own and used for all those occasions,” he said.
He called the evolution “really slow” for the business at 490 Mission Vineyard Road.
“I went to some of the local mom and pop places,” he recalled, of the early years. “They’re easier to get into than the big-box places.
“Everybody got hooked on it,” he went on. “We started doing a few in-store demos and built our customer base. Then it kind of went from there. Now, it’s evolved more. It’s in a lot of the stores in a 50-mile radius and scattered across the country – a couple into Canada.”
They gained word-of-mouth promotion through visits to such events as food shows, festivals, company picnics and weddings. That is how the catering end of the business began, he said.
For nearly 20 years, the couple handled the catering as well. Their son Mike took over the catering about six years ago.
“We didn’t have time to really devote to the seasoning end of the business,” Jon Mansmith said. “We were always tied up on road with catering.”
With more time, and with a big boost in recent years from the Internet and mail-order sales, Mansmith’s is up to 12 dry seasonings and a barbecue paste.
“I’m pretty much happy with what we’ve got now,” he said, adding that the business has even produced products for larger private labels.
There have been limitations, being a smaller label. In recalling his experience with distributors and some chains, he called the process “legalized extortion.”
“They want to sell shelf space,” he said. “Distributors don’t do a good job for us. They want the product they’re selling by the truckload rather than by the few cases or pallets.”
He said distributors have not panned out.
“With the growth of the Internet, we do a lot of mail-order business.”
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