Solo Foods

Solo Foods, Inc. (official corporate name: Sokol and Company, Inc.) is a manufacturer of food ingredients, makers of Solo and Baker dessert fruit and nut fillings, marshmallow creme and toasted marshmallow creme, Simon Fischer nut butters, marzipan, almond paste and Chun’s Asian cooking sauces. Based in Countryside, Illinois, Sokol & Company which provides food manufacturing, packaging and processing to retail and industrial markets as well as anchovy products packaged under the Certified Savory brand.

Today the Solo line includes 13 varieties of ready-to-use cake, pastry and dessert toppings and fillings: almond, apple, apricot, blueberry, cherry, date, nut, pecan, pineapple, poppy, prune, raspberry and strawberry; almond paste and marzipan; Baker brand flavors (almond, apple, apricot, blueberry, cherry, date, nut, peach, pineapple, poppy, prune, raspberry and strawberry); Baker pie fillings (apple, cherry, blueberry, peach, mixed berry) Solo marshmallow creme and toasted marshmallow creme; and Chun’s brand sweet and sour, fish sauce, sesame garlic, cilantro teriyaki, chili vinegar, chili lemongrass and thai peanut marinades and dipping sauces.

In 2010, Solo introduced "Whoopie Do!" a whoopie pie mix available in both classic and s'mores and "Let's Wing It!" a line of chicken wing coating mixes under the Tasty Delite brand. Also in 2010, Solo acquired Borden's EggNog business from the J. M. Smucker Company.

The current president of Sokol & Company is the founder’s great grandson, John Sokol Novak, Jr., the current COO is Ralph Pirritano.

Solo Foods was founded by John A. Sokol, a Czechoslovakian immigrant who arrived in Chicago in 1889, entered the food business and by 1902, owned four grocery stores. In 1905, Sokol launched a wholesale coffee, tea and spice business and incorporated the name Sokol & Company in 1907.

After World War I, Sokol helped found the Czechoslovak-American Chamber of Commerce and also established European importing contacts to enable his Chicago-based company to purchase herbs and spices. This move helped create the Solo line of food products which was introduced in the 1920s. Canned cake and pastry fillings made from prunes and European-imported poppy seeds became a success. Later the company expanded into dehydrated foods, imported spices and other fruit-based Solo dessert fillings.

Solo produces a wide range of ingredient products for the food industry including fruit and nut fillings, icings, caramels, chocolates, fruit glazes, sauces, and frozen dessert bases and variegates.

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