Content area
Full text
Abdallah Candies Inc. has a record of surviving challenges for nearly a century - the Great Depression, and a freak accident in 1964 when a gasoline truck demolished its store - but perhaps the biggest challenge came on Sept. 11, 2001.
When the World Trade Center fell, the president of the Burnsville based family business, Steven Hegedus Jr., was at an East Coast candy show. He returned home to find that several of the deals he closed had fallen through. He wondered if it had something to do with his companys Arabic name.
A New Jersey client said, yes, he was canceling his order because he feared customers wouldnt want to buy candy with a name like "Abdallah."
Hegedus conferred with his board, mostly family members, about whether to change the name to save the business. They decided to stick with it. "We're...