Mike Tierney was a teenager hanging at a campfire when someone handed him a s’more. As usual, the marshmallow was scorched and the chocolate cold and hard. It made him wonder why no one had ever made marshmallows with chocolate inside so it melts while the marshmallow toasts. Ever curious, Mike decided to find out why something so obvious didn’t exist.

Over six years and thousands of miles, he visited candy and equipment makers around the world and discovered that many before him – including most of the world’s leading candy companies – had tried and failed to put chocolate inside a marshmallow. But Mike is nothing if not determined, and he persisted until he cracked the code. Unfortunately, by that time the money he’d raised was gone, and because he was the only one who knew the secret, there was no factory to make the product he had named Stuffed Puffs^®️.

Mike took the idea for Stuffed Puffs^® to Factory’s partners, who were already working with him on his gluten-free business, Mikey’s^®️. Always up for a challenge, our managing partner, Rich Thompson, who has built a dozen factories, told Mike that if he could get a big enough purchase order, Factory would build him a marshmallow plant. Walmart loved the concept, placed an order, and nine months later Stuffed Puffs^® hit the market, just in time for Memorial Day 2019.

Demand was so great that before the summer was over, planning was underway for a second manufacturing facility, which was up and running non-stop in early 2021. Meanwhile, Mike kept pushing ahead with new innovations and fillings: cookies ‘n creme, peppermint bark, cocoa marshmallows filled with milk chocolate. The varieties are endless, as is the fun and enjoyment Stuffed Puffs^® provides to s’mores lovers of all ages. And s’mores are just the beginning for the most innovative confection to come along in a long, long time.