Atlantic City

© Profile of Success, Catalog Success magazine, 2007 Catalog Success: When was the catalog established? Frank Glaser: James’ and Fralingers are two of the oldest candy companies in the United States. Both of them were started in the 1880s on the Atlantic City boardwalk. Both claim to be the originators of salt water taffy. But the only similar is me. We still market them differently. We keep the look of the two companies separate, and we still use different formulas for the candies. They are different products, we just put them together in our catalog. I own both companies. CS: When did

Background: The fourth generation in his family to run the business, Frank Glaser has led James’ Candy for more than 35 years. He grew up by the beach in Atlantic City, N.J., and gradually took over the business from his father and three uncles. In 1991, Glaser acquired Fralinger’s Salt Water Taffy, the James family’s longtime rival in the taffy business — both businesses were established along the boardwalk in the 1880s. Then in 1999, Glaser decided to cash in on traditional holiday season mail order sales by launching a full-fledged catalog. Biggest initial challenge: Initially convinced he could figure out everything