The first day I went to Building 10 (that was the ChemE building at MIT), I rode my bike from what is now known as the Tang Residences [it was Westgate II when I was a grad student), my nose was overwhelmed. A sickly, sweet smell pervaded the air.

Because there was a factory (with its own power plant!) at 250 Mass Ave (about a block away from the main entrance to MIT at 77 Massachusetts Avenue) that was making tons of candy. What kind? NECCO wafers.

I remembered (vaguely) that these wrapped disks were sold at the candy stores I frequented growing up in Forest City. But, as far as I know, I never had one. (I did while at MIT. But, after putting the first pastel colored disk in my mouth- and spitting it out, I never partook again. Yes, I knew I only tried 1 of the 8 flavors- but I am not a fan of sickening sweet.)

That NECCO building was built in 1925 (NECCO simply abandoned Boston for this Cambridge facility). The building is listed on the National Historic Register- but the smokestack, decorated to look like a package of NECCO wafers, had to be removed because it was deemed unstable in 1996. So, NECCO painted its cooling tower in that fashion right after the smokestack was removed.

NECCO is the abbreviation for the firm’s true name- the New England Confectionery Candy Company. NECCO bought other firms  over the decades (Sweethearts, Clark Bars, Mary Janes, Mighty Malts) and continued to thrive even after the family sold the firm in 1963 to United Industrial Syndicate of New York.

I remember that the plant stopped smelling sometime during my tenure at grad school. The distinctive building remained the headquarters of the firm, even as it moved production to the defunct Lechmere’s (a discount chain where I shopped often before its demise), also in Cambridge.

In 2003, the firm abandoned Cambridge altogether to move to larger facilities in Revere (taking over an 830,000 square foot factory that had been long abandoned). This move was the same year NECCO was orphaned by UIS. Because UIS was purchased by Carlyle in a leveraged buyout deal.

Unfortunately, the facility was sold last year for $54 million, with a leaseback that terminates as of August 2018). So, on 6 March, NECCO announced it must find a buyer or it will terminate operations. And, fire 395 of its workers at the facility.

Of course, this has nothing to do with the fact that American Capital Strategies bought the firm in a LBO (leveraged buy out) deal from Carlyle, which valued that building at $ 15 million. Or, that it was years behind in providing financial data to the city of Revere, which financed the factory purchase for NECCO. Nor, did NECCO expand production as required by the terms of the deal.

No.  Of course, not.

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