BONUS EPISODE: Brown & Haley Merger and Mountain Bar History

About this episode

Feliks Banel interviews Kathi Rennaker about the history of Brown & Haley and the Mountain Bar amidst their recent merger.

On this BONUS EPISODE of CASCADE OF HISTORY, Feliks Banel digs into the audio archives for his interview from October 28, 2020 with Kathi Rennaker, spokesperson for Tacoma-based Brown & Haley, longtime local makers of Almond Roca and Mountain Bars. On Tuesday, April 21, 2026, the Seattle Times reported that Brown and Haley has officially merged with its “longtime import and distribution partner in China,” an entity known as BHM Group LTD. The Times also reported, “That company’s leader, Sam Meng, has been named Brown & Haley’s new CEO.” In this interview from 2020, Ms. Rennaker, who, according to the Times’ story, has been named Chief Operating Officer of the merged companies, goes into detail about the origins and history of the Mountain Bar, which had a few different names early on, and which remains popular in an era when many regional candy bars have gone away. She also lets us in on the unique distribution method she was planning to use on Halloween of that pandemic year to get Mountain Bars into the hands of the trick-or-treaters she expected to visit her house. Seattle Times article on the Brown & Haley merger…

People in this episode

Host: Feliks Banel

Guest: Kathi Rennaker

Topics covered

• Brown & Haley
• Mountain Bar
• merger
• history
• candy

Keywords

• Almond Roca
• BHM Group LTD
• CEO
• Chief Operating Officer
• Halloween

Mentioned in this episode

Products: Mountain Bar, Almond Roca, Mountain Bars, the Mountain Bar

Books & works: CASCADE OF HISTORY

Places: Tacoma, China, Seattle, Lake Washington, the Old Oregon Country

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