Andy’s Candies

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Andrew Sykut had always dreamed of owning a sweet shop.
In 1917, he began a small tobacco and candy store, selling cigarettes, cigars and homemade candy. After ten years, when he had gained enough financial stability through his day job with Xerox Corp., he remodeled the shop, moved it to its present Hudson Ave. location and stopped selling tobacco products.
Eighty-two years later, Andy’s Candies is still going strong.
Run today by Andrew Sykut’s grandson–also named Andrew–it now has two additional locations, in Stoneridge Plaza and Perinton Square Mall.
Sykut attributes a great deal of Andy’s Candies’ success to a strong local following. Many customers today, he says, are the children and grandchildren of customers, making the candies something of a family tradition.
The candy business is seasonal, Sykut explains, with Sept. through April being the busy time. During these months, Andy’s opens additional retail outlets in Henrietta, Penfield and Webster, and increases its number of employees from 4 to 24.
All of the candy is manufactured at the Hudson Ave. plant. From there it is shipped to the Stoneridge and Perinton stores–and all over the country by special order. Sykut explains he has many customers who tasted the candy while passing through town, or may have grown up in the area and since relocated.
Andy’s sponge candy, manufactured only from Sept. through March, is by far the top seller, says Sykut. He explains it can’t be made during warmer months because it melts too quickly.
Andy’s Candies has seen many changes since that first store in 1917. The sale of ice cream, which the first Andrew Sykut added to his sweets offerings, had been discontinued years ago. The company also had attempted a small restaurant business, attached to the retail stores, but Sykut says running that got to be too much.
Although other companies in the area make homemade candies, none has been around as long as Andy’s. Sykut believes one reason for its continued success is constant advertising. “It’s important to keep the name popular,” he says.
Future plans include keeping up with confectionery trends. Right now, chocolate moulds of electronic items, such as pagers and cell phones, are hot, says Sykut,
The proprietor of Andy’s Candies is definitely not one to sit behind a desk while his retail staff helps waits on people in the store.
“The only way you can get the pulse of what’s going on is to talk to the customers,” he says.
–Amanda Campagna

1/15/99