[1] Fanny Farmer was started in Rochester, New York, by Canadian politician and businessman Frank O'Connor in 1919, and grew to over 400 stores before being bought and consolidated.
During World War II, he self-imposed rationing on company stores in the US, to ensure adequate supplies of candy for the armed forces overseas.
[6] In 1962, a proxy fight allowed a group of stock market investors from New York City & New England, without experience in the candy industry, to gain control of the Fanny Farmer company.
In 1992, the Archibald Candy Company acquired Fanny Farmer[3] and its 200 retail stores in the Northeastern United States as a sister brand to its own Fannie May candies sold primarily in the Midwest and mid-Atlantic United States.
[8] An errant path of merger and acquisitions, whereby Archibald became the largest chain of candy retailers in the country but without adequate financing and a viable corporate strategy, resulted in two bankruptcies, in 2002 and 2004.