Grand opening of Fannie May celebrated in DeKalb

DeKALB – Fannie May, the confections brand widely known for its chocolates, has found a home in DeKalb.

On Friday, Oct. 28, Fannie May store team members, brand leadership and DeKalb city officials held a grand opening to celebrate the new location, 2215 Sycamore Rd.

“It’s always exciting to have a grand opening of a Fannie May store,” said Richard Fossali, Fannie May Confections vice president and general manager. “This is our 51st store and obviously the newest. This is our second new store this year.”

Fossali said the new location in DeKalb makes sense on many levels for Fannie May.

“Having lived in the Geneva area for the last 16 years knowing how this area has grown up over here between DeKalb and Sycamore, I’ve always kept my eye on it and always wanted to watch for our opportunity to be here,” Fossali said. “Being here in the Brookview Center is an opportunity for us to grow our brand out here in DeKalb County. We’re really excited to be here.”

Fannie May also operates locations for the brand in Aurora, Batavia, Joliet, Plainfield and Naperville.

According to its website, Fannie May has been serving patrons with confectionery treats for more than 100 years.

Jennifer Peterson, Fannie May brand director, said it’s no wonder that the brand remains at the forefront of patrons’ minds when they think about chocolate.

“Our taste profile is very much on that American caramel and milk chocolate mint and chocolate, but we’re coming out with new innovations, like our s’mores stack mix, which is fantastic,” Peterson said. “We didn’t invent the s’more, but I think we perfected it. So, it’s that graham cracker and marshmallow covered in chocolate that’s really portable … So, I think by coming out with those new innovations, staying true to who we are but coming up with new recipes.”

Among the newest Fannie May confectionary products rolled out this year are Pumpkin Pie Spice Pixie and Rocky Road Chocolatier’s Mix.

Fossali said people commonly speak highly of Fannie May and its products.

“They love the quality. They love their favorites,” he said. “They love that they can come to the store and create their own one-pound or two-pound box. They can get what they want when they want it. It could be for somebody’s birthday, anniversary, special event. We’ve got obviously the holidays coming up. This is a really big time for us this time of year because this is when people remember the family part of Fannie May and taking it home and sharing it with their loved ones.”

Fossali said the key to the brand’s continued ability to standout from the competition is its commitment to providing quality products and personalized experiences. The company makes its confections from original recipes, he said.

“The confections that we make are many of them the original recipes still made from handcrafting in our plant,” he said. “The quality that we’ve got, the people that we have in our stores that create the type of experience for our customers that want to have an elevated gifting or personal experience with Fannie May confections, many of them – especially people that have grown in the Chicagoland area and northern Illinois – have known Fannie May since they were little kids.”