Expansion means more room for Bruttles candies

Business keeps getting sweeter for one longtime Spokane Valley candy maker.

Confectioner Carol Measel recently expanded her candy-making operation known for its soft peanut butter brittle to a larger facility that will accommodate continued growth of her 6-year-old company called Bruttles Candies Factory and Shoppe.

“What precipitated the move was an order for 42,000 individual Bruttles from the local branch of Sterling Savings Bank for its sales promotion,” said Measel, who had already been planning for an eventual move. “It was the whole thing that helped us out.”

Bruttles is the name Measel coined her business after creating her signature candy of bite-sized soft peanut butter brittle, half-dipped in semisweet chocolate – made using a similar family recipe passed down from her late Aunt Sophia.

Sophia Gerkensmeyer was a candy maker and chocolate dipper in Spokane and developed her original recipe for the soft peanut butter brittle in 1951 after hearing a customer’s request for a softer version of the old-fashioned brittle so it would be easier on her teeth. Measel learned that recipe at age 10.

And the rest remains history as she shares the Soft Peanut Butter Brittle, first starting her business with turn-down treats when the Davenport Hotel reopened in 2002, along with a candy shop within the hotel. Since then, Bruttles has gained national media attention, sells wholesale to about 35 regional shops and has developed a growing Internet sales division.

The candy company moved to its new, more visible 3,700-square-foot facility just off Sprague Avenue on University Road last month. It had been located in a 1,200-square-foot brick house along Sprague Avenue where seven employees cooked and prepared candies in a basement kitchen and used a dumbwaiter to send items to the main floor for individual hand wrapping and packaging.

Now, the mixing, cooking, pulling, dipping, wrapping and packaging are carried out on one floor, and customers can watch much of the action from the entry to Bruttles expanded retail shop.

And for a candy company that makes 300 pounds of its Soft Peanut Butter Brittle per day in 6.5-pound batches by relying on old-fashioned hand pulling and wrapping, Measel says she’s very pleased with the efficiency of her new facility.

The expansion also includes the creation of Bruttles’ new line of fudge in 15 flavors. Measel also offers the soft brittle in bulk at the factory, which is a first for the confectioner.