Bunte, Gustav A.

Gustav A. Bunte Soundex Code B530

Gustav A. Bunte Candy Manufacturers

In 1876, Ferdinand Bunte, Gustav A. Bunte, and Charles A. Spoehr started a candy factory on State Street in Chicago, 1876. Ferdinand established, with associates, the firm of Bunte Bros. & Spoehr; incorporated Sunday, March 1, 1903, as Bunte, Spoehr & Company; and in April, 1906, as Bunte Bros.,After a few years, Ferdinand's son Theodore W. Bunte took charge of the business. By the 1910s, when Bunte Bros. did annual sales of about $2.4 million, the company employed about 1,200 people. As late as the 1950s, it had over 1,000 workers in its Chicago plants. In 1954, Bunte Brothers Candy Co. was purchased by Chase Candy Co. of St. Joseph, Missouri, and a new firm, Bunte-Chase, was created. In 1961, the firm closed the Chicago plant, dropped the Bunte name, and returned to St. Joseph.