By Sophie Barth
The Kencraft Candy factory sits nestled in the heart of quiet downtown Alpine. Inside the red brick building, workers in hairnets and booties create, by hand, each panoramic egg, frosting cake topper and candy cane.
Kencraft is the last candy factory in the United States to handcraft their products. As the candy industry has become increasingly automated, rumors persist that Kencraft is closing. However, the factory continues to place as many orders as ever and is not slated for closure.
The factory''s storefront retailer, the Peppermint Place, is relocating.
'When the community heard we were closing the store , a lot of people were upset,' said Gil Bowles, Kencraft plant manager. 'We''ve been such a big part of this community since our beginning. We''re sure we''ll relocate, and it will be in the community.'
The Peppermint Place showcases many of Kencraft''s original products. Most look more like art than candy. Panoramic snow-capped landscapes are embedded in the clear purple lollipops. Each is labeled with a different town from Colorado, like Vail or Breckenridge. These Lollipals are on special order by Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory. Kencraft also fills many custom orders for weddings and births.
Kencraft has contracts with several large candy retailers including Williams-Sonoma, See''s Candies, and Disney, said Cindy Dumas, production manager of the plant, as she walked past many workers deftly and rapidly pouring the corn syrup concoction into heart-shaped molds.
'Our seasons are all messed up here,' Dumas said referring to the Valentine''s Day molds. 'When it''s Christmas for you, it Valentine''s and Easter for us. When it''s the fourth of July for you, we''re doing our Christmas candies.'
Throughout the course of Kencraft''s skewed year, the factory uses over 1 million pounds of sugar, Dumas said. They use this sugar in all of their products including the 1.3 million Lollipals they distribute.
Sweet sugary smells fill the rooms where the liquid for the hard candy is cooked. The factory uses an open-kettle method for cooking the Lollipals - it helps to maintain the clarity of the product. The candy cane concoction is heated in a huge brass boiler at over 200 degrees.
After it is heated, workers mix-in sugar and flavoring by hand. They then pull the candy as it cools to remove any air bubbles. Stripes are applied to the outside of the large taffy-looking cube, and then workers feed the mass into a cylindrical machine. The machine siphons the cube to into a long string of soft candy canes. Finally, workers crook the cane.
'We''re the only ones whose workers hand-crook the canes,' Dumas said. 'We call them hookers.'
Kencraft has an excellent employee retention rate. Bowles credits the flexibility of the work environment (many employees are single mothers) and the creativity of the work itself for the plant''s outstanding retention. Many of the employees have worked there for over 20 years.
Decorators submit designs to be produced and featured on the Kencraft line.
'Good designs are those that everyone can emulate,' said Sheri Robinson who oversees the decorating and designing. 'We have some master decorators that can do really intricate things, but we need a pattern that 100 different workers can make but will be pretty uniform.'
Nevertheless, the demands of creating even the simpler designs can be taxing on the workers. The factory requires the workers to take breaks and rotate jobs in an effort to protect their hands and the quality of the product, Dumas said.