we know it takes three licks to get to the center of a tootsie pop but how many phone calls does it take to reach their maker tootsie roll industries  considerably more it would seem tootsie roll ticker tr is one of the nation’s largest candy makers and a household name but surprisingly little is known about its operations plenty of publicly traded companies keep a similarly low profile and certainly ones much bigger than tootsie roll itself nonetheless it’s rare for a firm with such a well known brand—along with its titular chocolates tootsie roll makes a suite of treats from junior mints to charms blow pops and dubble bubble—to fly so far under the radar it’s hard not to draw parallels to the fictional willy wonka given the company’s secrecy and products though scoring an interview with its management team is even more difficult than securing a golden ticket tootsie roll is a historically quiet confectionary company with a nonagenarian ceo ellen gordon she took the reins from her late husband—formerly one of the oldest ceos of an sp 500 company—although it’s her family that has held longtime control gordon only the second woman to be elected president of a new york stock exchange company in 1978 along with her family owns a majority of tootsie roll a higher percentage than any other sp 500 ceo the company doesn’t have any analyst coverage or host investor calls and while it’s attracted attention from short sellers over the years it’s remained tightlipped including during its recent ride as a meme stock gordon gives very occasional interviews and speeches but those haven’t typically been to financial publications or centered on the continuing operations at tootsie roll the company didn’t return barron’s request for comment when we called headquarters an employee said gordon herself would be the one to handle media relations and inquiries we also reached out to a number of shareholders among a relatively small number actively increasing or decreasing their positions in the stock in recent months but none had comment investors often own the stock on hopes it’s a takeover target but that hasn’t played out yet and over the past five years it only gained 14 compared with 60 for the sp 500 a 1 yield doesn’t pay you much to wait even if the company also pays a 3 stock dividend a fairly unusual arrangement that gives shareholders more shares over time that said the shares are in the black this year when the broader market has suffered more to the point gordon has repeatedly expressed her desire for tootsie roll to stay independent and family owned in the past the company previously said it has a succession plan in place without disclosing the details six years ago gordon noted that her four daughters remain involved in the business and her grandson had recently begun to work at tootsie roll he may find the company little changed since his grandmother took over tootsie rolls sales and earnings have remained relatively steady over time that said notching earnings of 39 cents a share and nearly 192 million in revenue as they did in their key halloween quarter in 2013 means less now than it would have then given inflation in the fourth quarter of 2021 earnings per share were 39 cents on revenue of 183 million hershey hsy earnings per share climbed from 372 in 2013 to 719 in 2021 a year when revenue approached 9 billion no wonder then that so many have bet on a takeover that has yet to materialize short sellers have pointed to concerns about valuation or a lack of expansion when they have targeted the company on occasion over the years so what other reason is there to own the shares if not for a payout or big payday “nostalgia” offers brian frank portfolio manager of the frank value fund which doesn’t hold the stock “but everyone knows these brands put this in the hands of an aggressive or innovative entrepreneur and i’m sure they could do something with it they could monetize that nostalgia” that said he admits that he hasn’t passed on his affinity for tootsie roll to his own children a pattern many other parents are taking these days candy may be a relatively recession resistant business but consumer brands have long had a nervous eye on the continuing aversion to sugar many shoppers have—or at least say they do of course the idea that everything has to be relentlessly optimized is a very modern phenomenon one that’s evolved in an era of increasingly ruthless efficiency one conclusion to draw from tootsie roll’s steady business and low profile is that it’s an underutilized asset not keeping up others may wonder if something more nefarious is afoot yet perhaps a more benign explanation is the most obvious—that it’s a holdover of a previous era of gentler more equitable capitalism when there was less emphasis of relentless growth at any cost tootsie roll has long prided itself on providing products that offer a refuge from life’s problems a callback to the simplicity and safety of childhood that ethos could extend to its business model where holding steady isn’t stigmatized when i previously wrote about tootsie roll’s brief meme stint a couple of people wrote in to tell me about meeting gordon in years past highlighting her generosity and kindness with a net worth well over 1 billion the gordon and her family can certainly afford to run tootsie roll any way they like and their strategy has paid off for them personally that may be worth the cost to them given that gordon has spoken about her family’s legacy over five generations of leadership for the gordons pride of ownership and profit may go hand in hand and be of equal importance “you could launch rockets into space or buy a giant yacht…there worse things to do” as a billionaire notes frank in the end tootsie roll is likely to remain a mystery bound in a familiar wrapper