Sweet news: Sarris production plant progressing
Sarris Candies is going through a phase. “We’re up and running in what we call phase one,” Bill Sarris said.
The firm’s president and CEO was referring to the production building the company has been constructing at 135 Meadow Lane in Canonsburg. It sits a mile from its iconic candy store/ice cream parlor in the borough.
“We’ve moved about 60 to 65 pieces of production equipment into the facility,” said Sarris, whose father, Frank, founded the business in 1960. “We’re in full production with everything we have in there.”
Sarris signage adorns the rooftop of this refurbished building, which – like the store – is visible from Interstate 79.
The production facility has not been completed, to be sure. Supply chain issues and other backups led to delays on the project, but work is progressing.
Company officials several years ago identified a need for expansion. The candy store, at 511 Adams Ave., was Sarris’ lone location in this region. And while drawing crowds of customers is a coveted corporate goal that Sarris Candies meets, overly crowded shelves and displays were becoming a deterrent. The company needed space.
So the company decided to move production and packaging from there to another location. For that purpose, in August 2021, Sarris purchased a 130,000-square-foot industrial building known locally as “the old Fort Pitt Bridge Works.”
Bill Sarris said at the time: “We need production space. This will give us a chance to be a lot more efficient and move product better. It’s more logistics than anything.”
Space in the production facility is still available. Bill Sarris said in an interview recently that the company’s game plan “is to move everything else in there after Easter 2025” – six or seven months from now.
While operations at the store and ice cream shop will remain the same, the company is striving to make an expansion within the expansion along Meadow Lane.
“We plan to put in a retail store there as well and, hopefully, put in a mezzanine so people can tour the facility,” Bill said. “We hope to be set up for visitors and tours by September 2025.”
Sarris, a private company, has a storied 64-year history that includes surviving and rebounding from a devastating fire in 2012. The firm has about 350 employees, a number of them at Gardners Candies in Tyrone (near State College), which Sarris acquired in 1997.
An estimated 50 employees, according to Bill Sarris, are working at the production plant.
“We’re getting into our busy season,” he said on a day when it hit the mid-70s. “I’d like the weather to be a little cooler. Candy melts. Weather is one of the pitfalls we have.”