L.A. candy business wraps up

It's Ben Myerson Candy Co., which has been operating in L.A. in some form for 117 years. It's being sold to Jelly Belly Candy Co. up in Fairfield. Ben Myerson had revenues last year of $280 million, but only about $12 million of that came from candy; the company is the parent of the Commerce-based Wine Warehouse and that part of the business isn't going anywhere, according to the Business Journal (subscription required). Did you know that in 1946, L.A. was home to 25 family-run, commercial candy manufacturers? With Ben Myerson leaving, there will be one - Adams & Brooks Inc., which started in 1932. The story notes that Ben Myerson is being sold as a way of the Myerson damily lowering the inheritance tax.