The next time you tear open a bag of Nerds Juicy Gummy Clusters, there’s a good chance the candy in your hand was made right in our backyard, at the Ferrara Candy Company factory in Forest Park.
Ferrara Candy Company has deep roots in the area. Founded in 1908, when Italian immigrant Salvatore Ferrara began selling candy-coated almonds out of a bakery in Chicago’s Little Italy, the company moved its manufacturing to Forest Park in 1959. The factory at 7301 W. Harrison St. has been a village fixture ever since, producing iconic brands like Lemonheads, Atomic Fireballs and Red Hots. Last September, it added a new hit to the lineup: Nerds Juicy Gummy Clusters.
The launch quickly became the brand’s biggest since the original Nerds Gummy Clusters launched in 2020. The new version is twice as large as the original and packed with a burst of juice in the middle. The first flavor out of the gate is Bold Strawberry Punch.
Getting there wasn’t simple. Fusing tiny Nerds shells onto a gummy base is trickier than producing a standard gummy, and adding a liquid center raised the difficulty even further. Ferrara’s technical teams worked closely with the Forest Park factory crew to make sure the juice enhanced the candy rather than overpowered it, as Nerds brand manager Michael Butler told the Forest Park Review (forestparkreview.com, Oct. 31, 2025).
The growth trajectory behind the launch tells a bigger story. Ferrara acquired the Nerds brand in 2018 when it was generating about $50 million in annual sales. By last year, Nerds did $850 million in sales, according to the Forest Park Review. In its most recent fiscal year, the Nerds brand grew by another 9%, according to Ferrara, and the company reported $2.2 billion in overall net sales (ferrara.com, March 3, 2026).
The momentum isn’t just domestic. Ferrara expanded Nerds Gummy Clusters into the United Kingdom, where it became the fastest-growing candy brand in the market, and in Canada, Gummy Clusters won Product of the Year for the second consecutive year. Closer to home, Ferrara recently purchased a manufacturing plant in neighboring Bellwood as part of more than $156 million in capital investments
Fans can also visit the Ferrara outlet store inside the factory, which sells freshly made Ferrara favorites. The shop is open 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday and 7:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Saturday. It is closed Sunday.
For a community that has long been home to Ferrara’s operations, the breakout success of Gummy Clusters is a point of local pride, and a reminder that one of the country’s fastest-growing confection brands is manufactured right in the neighborhood.