FIFE, Wash. — One of Fife’s tasty treats is under new ownership.
Last week, the Puyallup Tribe announced that it purchased Ames International, the company that makes Emily’s Chocolates.
Emily’s Chocolates has been coming out of the city of Fife for the past 35 years. It’s a family tradition that CEO Amy Paulose is proud to continue.
“Making chocolate is really an art form. There’s a lot of technicalities to it,” she said.
The purchase is the latest in a series of investments made by the Puyallup Tribe to diversify its income streams since 2020 when the Tribe opened its new $400 million Emerald Queen Casino in Tacoma.
The Puyallup Tribe’s Vice Chair Sylvia Miller says that kind of diversity is vital.
“With the growing of our membership, it’s very important to have our economic development grow,” she said.
Miller says the acquisition of the candy maker, renamed Ames: A Puyallup Tribal Enterprise, serves multiple functions. It helps secure employment opportunities for Tribe members as well as keeps the company in Fife. Paulose says maintaining that local connection was important in keeping a local economy stable.
“Keeping a balance to make sure we don’t have too many larger corporations that control or concentrate or can really drastically change the trajectory of the economy in the local market is important, and small businesses can help to balance that out,” Paulose said.
Now that her family’s company is staying in Fife, Paulose is looking forward to seeing how this partnership with the Puyallup Tribe moves Emily’s Chocolates into the future. She also says her company is now in growth mode and is looking forward to rapidly bringing in more staff and increasing distribution to get more products into the market.
“We want to be known as a Northwest company, that’s important. We also want to recognize the Tribe’s involvement in the success of the brand,” she said. “The Northwest is a great economic engine. There are a lot of great economic opportunities with Asia and Europe and all over, and being here in Washington state allows us to capture that entire global market.”