SellCandy Fundraising announced on April 10, 2026 the launch of Katydids Sleeves, a new packaging format for the classic Katydids chocolate confection. Each sleeve contains four Katydids chocolates, the familiar clusters of caramel and pecans coated in chocolate. The sleeves are available now through SellCandy and the company is actively expanding distribution to fundraising groups, retailers, and distributors nationwide. SellCandy is a New Jersey-based supplier headquartered in Totowa that has supplied Katydids to fundraising groups for more than 20 years.
What Katydids Are and Where They Came From
Katydids have one of the older origin stories in American confectionery. The candy traces back to 1854, when J.L. Green opened a candy and confectionery business in Bloomington, Illinois. The company was later acquired by Paul F. Beich, who established the Paul F. Beich Company in 1905. The Beich company produced several candies over the decades, including Laffy Taffy and Golden Clusters, before introducing Katydids.
The product’s connection to fundraising was shaped in the early 1950s by Kathryn Beich, who believed the company had a responsibility to support communities and help schools raise money. She helped develop a fundraising program built around Katydids, allowing schools and nonprofit organizations to sell the chocolate caramel clusters to fund their activities. Over time, Katydids became one of the earliest and most recognized fundraising candies in the United States, a category association the brand has held for generations.
The standard commercial format for Katydids has historically been an 8-ounce collectible tin, which fundraising organizations have used as their primary sell unit for decades. The new sleeve format does not replace the tin. It introduces a smaller, more flexible unit alongside it.
The New Format: What It Changes and Why It Matters
The sleeve is a packaging change, not a product change. The recipe is the same. What changes is the unit size and the commercial flexibility that comes with it.
An 8-ounce tin is a substantial purchase. It requires a consumer to commit to a larger quantity and a higher price point in a single transaction. For fundraising contexts where the sale is made door to door, at a school event, or through a sell sheet, the tin format works well when the buyer is already a Katydids customer or is making a considered gift-style purchase. But it creates friction in contexts where a lower-entry price point would produce more total transactions.
A four-piece sleeve is a different commercial object. It is priced lower, consumed in one or two sittings, and easier to hand over as a casual purchase at a table sale or bake sale environment. For fundraising organizations that want to run higher-volume, lower-value transactions rather than fewer high-value ones, the sleeve offers a better fit.
For SellCandy as a distributor, the sleeve also expands the retail and convenience channel opportunity. A collectible tin is a gift item. A four-piece sleeve can sit in a candy counter, a register lane, or a concession stand display. The retail positioning is fundamentally different from the tin.
Why It Matters for Confectionery Co-Manufacturers and Fundraising Candy Distributors
The fundraising candy channel is a structurally distinct confectionery distribution segment with its own sourcing and packaging requirements. Most commercial confectionery reaches consumers through mass grocery, convenience, or e-commerce. Fundraising candy moves through an entirely different pathway: schools, nonprofits, youth sports organizations, and community groups act as the retail layer, selling to their own networks. The products that succeed in this channel need to support that social selling context with appropriate price points, recognizable brands, and format flexibility. Katydids has occupied this channel for over 70 years. The sleeve format is an attempt to extend the brand’s reach within the channel rather than compete in standard retail.
Introducing a new packaging format for a heritage confectionery product requires co-manufacturing and packaging partner alignment without compromising the existing recipe. Katydids’ brand equity is its taste. The caramel, pecan, and chocolate cluster combination is familiar to multiple generations of buyers. Any packaging change that altered the recipe would undermine the product’s core appeal. The sleeve format success depends on maintaining the exact product integrity of the tin while presenting it in a new container. For confectionery co-manufacturers and chocolate cluster producers working with fundraising candy brands, this represents a packaging specification change that demands close coordination between the candy manufacturer, the packaging supplier, and the distributor to ensure the finished product in the sleeve matches what buyers already know from the tin.
The four-piece sleeve format opens Katydids to impulse-buy retail placements the tin cannot access. A collectible tin is not an impulse buy. It is a planned purchase with a meaningful price point. A four-piece chocolate sleeve priced for impulse retail can reach register lanes, concession stands, gift shops, and event table displays where the tin would be awkward. For SellCandy, expanding Katydids Sleeves into these placements alongside the fundraising channel means a single SKU can serve two distinct consumer occasions: the social fundraising sale and the casual impulse confectionery purchase.
The Beich family legacy and Katydids’ 170-year origin story are meaningful brand assets for the fundraising channel in 2026. In a market where confectionery brands compete heavily on novelty, social media relevance, and flavor innovation, a product with a documented origin story from 1854 and a fundraising heritage built by a named founder in the early 1950s occupies genuinely differentiated territory. For schools and nonprofits selecting which candy products to use in their fundraising campaigns, provenance and nostalgia are real purchasing considerations. A product that parents and grandparents recognize from their own childhood school fundraisers carries instant credibility that no newly launched candy SKU can replicate.
FAQs
What are Katydids Sleeves? A new packaging format for the classic Katydids chocolate confection, introduced by SellCandy Fundraising on April 10, 2026. Each sleeve contains four Katydids chocolates, the familiar caramel, pecan, and chocolate clusters associated with school and nonprofit fundraising.
How do Katydids Sleeves differ from the existing tin? Katydids have traditionally been sold in an 8-ounce collectible tin. The sleeve is a smaller, more flexible format intended to give fundraising groups, distributors, and retailers an additional unit option. The recipe is unchanged.
How long has SellCandy been distributing Katydids? SellCandy has supplied Katydids to fundraising groups for more than 20 years. The company is headquartered in Totowa, New Jersey.
How old is the Katydids brand? The candy traces its origin to 1854, when J.L. Green opened a confectionery business in Bloomington, Illinois. The Paul F. Beich Company was established in 1905, and Kathryn Beich developed the fundraising program around Katydids in the early 1950s.
Who can distribute Katydids Sleeves? Distributors can contact SellCandy directly at SellCandy.com or by reaching Anthony Lombardi at the Totowa, New Jersey office.
About Source86
Katydids Sleeves illustrate how confectionery brands with deep fundraising channel heritage can extend their market reach through format innovation, creating new sourcing requirements for chocolate compound coatings, caramel systems, whole pecan halves, and flexible barrier sleeve packaging materials compatible with chocolate confectionery shelf life specifications. At Source86, we connect confectionery manufacturers, chocolate cluster co-producers, and fundraising candy distributors with trusted bulk and wholesale suppliers of caramel ingredients, roasted nut inputs including pecans, compound chocolate coating systems, and flexible confectionery packaging solutions that support both traditional tin and sleeve formats across fundraising, convenience, and specialty retail channels.
Whether your production team sources bulk pecan halves and caramel inputs for a chocolate cluster confection, compound chocolate for a fundraising candy program, or flexible sleeve packaging for a heritage confectionery SKU, Source86 is your bridge to the right manufacturing and supply chain partners. Contact Source86 today to start your sourcing search.
