Styling and Photography By Jason Coronel

It’s a LONG journey to get a Nassau Candy-created chocolate, gummy, or personalized item from concept to your business. At every step along the way, there’s many talented women helping to make it happen.

In honor of National Women’s History Month, we’re taking a behind the scenes look at the operations side of Nassau Candy and its promotional arm, NC Custom, and some of the extraordinary women who help to keep it running.

Bari Perlmutter

Though she’s worked in many departments, Bari Perlmutter currently calls the Product Development Team her home, creating new wholesale confectionery products for Nassau Candy, as well as wholesale food, apparel, and hard goods for Nassau Candy’s promotional division, NC Custom and AmuseMints. 

This means on any given day Bari’s pricing what it would cost to make peg bags of the latest gummies, a box of custom chocolates with a company logo, or a souvenir sweatshirt for a beloved tourist destination. 

You might not think majoring in Criminology would be helpful working day to day with candy, but Bari’s job is a balance of creative and playing detective.

“When a new request comes in, we dissect the ask and figure out how to create what the business OR customer wants, as closely as possible,” Bari explains.  “This requires finding and sourcing components from different vendors, costing out the item, and working with internal operations to make sure what we are creating is executable from a production standpoint.”

With teamwork at the heart of Bari’s position, collaborating with different internal teams and outside vendors, it’s not surprising that Bari’s theme song would be “Eye to Eye,” from the Goofy Movie, a song about how we all think we’re different but if ‘we listen to each other’s heart…we’ll find we’re never too far apart.’

Bari accredits a lot of her success in her current role to her first product development manager.

“My first Product Development Manager taught me so much,” Bari continues. “She taught me not just business skills such as excelling in Excel, but she also taught me life skills that allow me to be a stronger woman today than I was when I first started in the industry.”

Devon Tsinzo

Once Bari has found the right hard good and apparel product, it’s Devon’s job as the Design Director of AmuseMints, the personalized souvenir products division of Nassau Candy, to make it ‘look good.’

In the role of Design Director, AmuseMints, Devon leads Amusemints’ design team, assigning as well as working on the art requests for location-specific, apparel, hard goods, and packaged confections. Here she’s checking every file to make sure it looks amazing and fits the customers’ needs. Devon regularly interacts with sales reps to make sure projects are done right and completed on time.

This her first role in the confectionery industry but she says she’s hooked!

“I love being able to be creative when it comes to packaging and apparel design,” Devon says. “Here we create everything from a more formal location design to the more fun and playful which really keeps things interesting.”

With souvenirs for travel being a bit part of Devon’s design activities, we can see why her theme song would be “Dirty Water” by The Standells, a playful song mocking the Charles River in Boston.

A major influence in her career has been her female professors at Johnson & Wales University in Providence, RI where she studied graphic design.

“All my female professors in college were very inspiring and motivational,” she says. “They really taught me to stay positive and focused which I tell anyone getting into our industry is an important element to success.”

Mery Blanco

When it comes to items coming in and out of Nassau Candy’s Hicksville Warehouse, chances are Warehouse Lead Mery Blanco is involved.

On any given day you can find her helping out all over the warehouse. Mery’s main responsibility is processing returns, but she’s always ready to lend a hand where it’s needed.

Mery often supports the pickers, running all over the warehouse track down the different products for customer orders. She also works with receiving, helping to collect lumber fees as new deliveries come in. 

When needed, she will help Human Resources Business Partner Lary Baez translate any directives to Spanish for those employees where English might not be their first language. 

This might be her first time working in the candy industry, but Mery is very familiar with the workings of a warehouse. She spent many years working as a supervisor in the warehouse for an eyewear company. While she loved that position she thinks of Nassau Candy as home.

“I love the culture and family and values here at Nassau Candy,” Mery says.  “We all come together to help each other every day, making sure items make it to their destination and returns are processed, while taking time to celebrate the fun times.”

Along the way Mery says there are two women who stand out as mentors in her career.

“Lary (Baez) is one of the women who has mentored me here at Nassau Candy, helping me to grow in my career,” Mery continues. “Long before Lary, my mother was inspiring me. She and my father had the courage to emigrate here (to the US) and I try to apply that same courage to any challenge I face in life.”

Just like her theme song, “Vivir Mi Vida” by Marc Anthony, Mery is living her life to the fullest and inspiring her daughter to do the same.   

“I always tell my daughter to work hard and keep learning,” she says. “By working hard in whatever field you choose, you will find success.”

Laurie Serwetz

A big part of any successful business is sales. Laurie Serwetz in NC Custom’s billing department makes sure we see the fruits of these successful sales. On any given day you can find her working on service resolution along with handling accounting functions such as rebates and annual agreements.

Like her theme song, “People,” Laurie is a people person, happy to interact with NC Custom’s customer service team, production teams, management, and customers to understand billing needs and resolve issues. 

Laurie fell into the financial part of the business, after working part time at Chocolate Inn (Now NC Custom) during their busy season. Originally studying social work, Laurie has a foundation in problem solving that she draws on in her day-to-day work in NC Custom Billing.

“I studied sociology in college with the original intent to be a social worker,” she explains. “It turns out this background was key for solving problems, looking at all angles of an issue, and being able to juggle a lot of balls in the air at one time.”

She says her female mentors were invaluable to shaping both her personal and professional life.

“My prior career was in the garment center / fashion industry, and the majority of my supervisors were females,” Laurie explains. “They showed me how to manage a career and home, and family, as well as giving me the tools to resolve any problem that comes up in a fast paced and time sensitive environment.”

Gisselle Roman

Another major element to Nassau Candy’s success is making sure we’re getting compensated for the delightful chocolate and gummy creations’ everyone loves. That’s Gisselle Roman’s role for the promotional products arm of the business, NC Custom.

As Accounts Receivable Manager, for NC Custom Giselle oversees the accounts receivable for select NC Custom brands including Lanco, Chocolate Inn, Amusemints, SPD, and now Fresh Beginnings. She also works for Nassau Candy as well, handling Accounts Receivable for several of the Nassau Candy’s larger accounts.

This is Gisselle’s first job in the confectionery industry, coming to NC Custom/Nassau Candy from stints with shoe manufacturer Steve Madden, and electronics company LG Electronics. She says what drew her to the business is the family feel.

“NC Custom and Nassau Candy are family-owned businesses and the owners are hands-on which really creates a team environment,” Gisselle explains. “The office always smells delicious and you if you are in lucky, you get to taste test!”

While Criminal justice might be what Gisselle was interested in studying in school, it seems she was drawn to the family business – Finance.

“Finance runs in our veins and it came naturally,” she explains.  “Only when I started to work in the field I noticed how many of my family members were in it. My dad, uncle, and cousin are all in finance.”

While her dad might have indirectly inspired her move into Finance, it’s her grandmother that was Giselle’s female inspiration, and has like her theme song “It’s My Life,” by Bon Jovi spurred her to be independent while supporting other women in business.

“My grandmother who is 103 years old inspired me and my siblings to always give our best,” she says. “She worked hard and always had a smile for everyone. I try to bring that positive spirit to the women I interact with day-to-day, giving them space to grow and give their best.”

Randi Matsil

Helping to make those sales Giselle and Laurie are tallying, is NC Custom Customer Service Manager Randi Matsil. As Customer Service Manager at NC Custom, Randi leads the customer service team in helping NC Custom’s customers, in addition to offering sales support to David Miller (president of NC Custom), and the rest of the sales team. She’s also account manager for many of NC Custom’s e-commerce-based customer accounts.

Randi lives up to her theme song “Unwritten,” by Natasha Bedingfield, going out there and proactively reaching out to her accounts, and the accounts she supports, making them aware of new items and promotions all to drive sales. This hard work has all lead to many sales opportunities.

“I strive to provide the highest level of service to my customers,” Randi explains. “I feel like an extension of their team, forming longtime working relationships and providing council on NC Custom items that would be a fit for their programs.”

Randi is not new to sales, having spent many years in retail, but when she made her move to NC Custom, she was looking for a more permanent home.

“Even when working in retail, being independent and successful were always top priority,” she explains. “When the opportunity to continue in sales (which I love) but work for a company that had good product, good values, and opportunity for growth came up, I knew it was the perfect fit.”

Randi attributes much of her work ethic and the successful women she is today to her mother.

“My mother has always been my greatest role model,” Randi continues.  “She taught me to be independent, have a good work ethic, and to give 110% to everything I do.”

Beth Shapiro

Working with Randi in NC Custom’s Customer Service is Beth Shapiro.  Beth might think her theme song is “Anti-Hero,” but Beth’s coworkers see her as a super-hero. On any given day you can find her guiding and inspiring her staff to work to their best abilities, coordinating with NC Custom’s production and shipping departments to make sure customer order ship dates are met, while also identifying customer opportunities and addressing their questions or concerns.

She might be new to confectionery, but Beth has been in the promotional products industry for more than 20 years. 

“Before coming to NC Custom/Nassau Candy, I was working in mostly hard goods promotional products,” Beth says.  “When the opportunity presented itself to work with the confectionery side of promotional products, I jumped at it. I loved the idea of learning about a new side of the business and how we can be creative with confections.”

While her business major might not always come in handy when helping customers, it does give Beth added insight into Profit Margin and P & L, and Costing which can be helpful to understand the overall scope of NC Custom’s operations.

Beth says that her grandmother was a major influence on the women in business she is today.

“My Grandmother is the one who taught me work ethic, loyalty as well as how to be firm but kind and fair,” she continues. “I feel I draw on all of these values every when supporting NC Custom’s customers and my team members.”

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