Loft, Inc. was the world's largest maker and seller of candy in the 1920s. It manufactured its own products and distributed them throughout greater New York City and Newark, New Jersey. Happiness Candy Stores, Inc., was controlled by Loft, Inc. Loft, Inc., merged with PepsiCo following an agreement of merger filed in Wilmington, Delaware in June 1941. Loft Candy Corporation was shortly spun off, acquired by Philadelphia retail magnate Albert M. Greenfield's City Stores Company chain. Rapid expansion followed, with Loft's 2,100 employees making 350 products that were distributed over fifteen states along the Eastern Seaboard and Midwest. A decade of multiple ownership and management changes led to the company declining, accelerated by an acquisition in 1971 by the Southland Corporation. An attempt to stem the issues with the acquisition of and merger with prominent Northeastern confectioner Barricini Candies, Inc., the following year failed, and mass store closures and layoffs began. A 1976 sell-off of the combined operation to Long Island City-based B.L. Candy Company proved disastrous. By 1985 only 40 stores remained in the New York area, with all company retail outlets closing in 1988, followed by cessation of production, and corporate dissolution in 1994. Business history In 1860, English immigrant William Loft opened a candy store in Lower Manhattan. Loft's two sons followed in his footsteps, with his eldest son George W. Loft taking charge of the company in the 1890s. George Loft soon opened two more stores, then added more in New York City as he moved production out of the family kitchen into a series of increasingly large factories, the latter of which culminated in a location in Long Island City. On March 31, 1921, Loft, Inc., declared its initial dividend of .25 per share. In 1934 and 1935, the company conducted an advertising and sales campaign against its competitors which was judged to be disparaging by the Federal Trade Commission. The regulatory agency ordered it to cease and desist from representing glucose used in candy, as being impure, harmful to the health, or unwholesome, or unsafe. In 1939, a notable case, Guth v. Loft Inc., was decided in favor of Loft and against Charles Guth, president and general manager. Loft, Inc., owned ten factory and office buildings at the northeast corner of Fortieth Avenue and Vernon Boulevard, extending to Ninth Street in Long Island City. They were sold to the Loft Realty Corporation in April