ALBANY - Less than a week after securing new financing, Bobs Candies reopened its doors to ship existing candy cane orders and prepared to resume production. <br>
<br>
The Albany company, the world's largest candy cane manufacturer until it shut down earlier this month, opened its shipping and receiving departments yesterday and brought in a small number of shift and production managers to plan for a larger reopening. <br>
<br>
Company Vice President Julie Roth said, ``We met with a skeleton supervisory crew to begin working toward starting production on Monday.'' <br>
<br>
The company got a shot in the arm last week when Security Bank, through its parent company Synovus Financial, committed to refinance the $15.2 million debt the 83-year-old candy maker owes to Bank of America. <br>
<br>
Roth said negotiations between the two banks are continuing. <br>
<br>
She also said Bobs Candies President Greg McCormack planned to visit more customers today to update them on the company's efforts to reopen. She said McCormack would be joined by company salespeople and representatives from Synovus. <br>
<br>
Industry observers say Bobs Candies faces an uphill battle because other candy companies -- including Spangler Candy Company in Bryan, Ohio, and American Candy Company in Selma, Alabama -- have been trying to lure away its customers. <br>
<br>
About 350 workers in Albany and another 300 from the company's plant in Reynosa, Mexico, lost their jobs when Bobs closed May tenth. It was not immediately clear how many workers would be re-employed, but the company is not expected to recall all of the laid-off employees.
