>> announcer: building a better bay area for a safe and secure future, this is abc7 news. hi there, i'm kristen sze. welcome to our daily program called "getting answers." today, we have the man behind the contest reminiscent of charlie and the chocolate factory. it's our top clipped story of the day. the man who does himself the candy man is offering you a chance to win a golden ticket and a candy factory. there's a lot of excitement, but also, confusion. so joining me now is a man who created the jelly belly brand, david kline. thanks for joining us. >> my pleasure, thank you. >> all right, i'm just going to ask our director and crew to bring me a new battery pack here because i'm not able to hear you right now, and i suspect

probably because my battery is dead, but assuming that our viewers can hear you, david, where are you coming to us from? >> florida. we are in the sunshine state of florida. >> all right. well, that's great, so you're in florida. i want to ask you about this contest you've launched. you have a web site and a video. tell us about the idea behind this treasure hunt. >> here's how it got started. i was in philadelphia, pennsylvania, 1977. i was on the mike douglas show and that week, mike's co-host was anthony newly, the composer of the song candy man, and as i was running down the aisle, throwing jelly bellies to the audience and packages, the thought occurred to me right at that moment, some day, i want to have a contest where i give one

of my candy factories away to a perfect stranger, willy wonka style. >> i apologize if viewers heard your answer, but i'm still working on my battery pack and ear piece. i do want to ask you though, if you haven't yet, why did you decide to do this? >> why did i decide to do this? the world needs this right now. i wanted something that families could do together. a lot of people have been cooped up for months and months, because of the covid, i wanted something that people could do in the family where it would not be indoors, there would not be a lot of people around, and so this is a perfect thing because it's in a state and not too many people are going to be doing it at one time.

nobody's going to mingle. >> all right, so what exactly does $49.98 buy you? i know the golden ticket but what does that get you? >> that gives you an entry into what we are doing. that also gives you the opportunity and everybody that's going to, in every state, we do this statewide. every state, we have a golden ticket that the people can search for and the one that finds $5,000 one, they get $5,000 instantly. but also more importantly, they have the right to be in the other ultimate contest for our candy factory. one of our candy factories. >> so i want to ask you about this factory, this is not a jelly belly factory, correct?

>> no relationship with them at all, but more important than factory, they get the building. they also get a course at the university of wisconsin-madison. they've got the most comprehensive candy-making course i know of. we're going to pay that for the winter. we are also going to pay their expenses to go there. and also, this might even be the most important thing. they're going to get my time i'll be there to answer any questions, help them launch new products. help them name products. show them how to get the products off the ground, and i think -- >> so i want to ask you,

basically, you're selling a thousand of these opportunities in each state. so assuming you have 50 states, times a thousand, i mean, you are making a lot of money here, possibly millions. so i'm assuming that this key to this new factory that is still in development will cost you some money, right? can you talk about what that value is and how much you expect to make in the way of profit? >> we're not doing this for profit. we're doing this to atmosphere that this country sorely needs. profit has not even entered into our equation. >> got it. but do you expect there to be a profit? >> you know what? if we break even, i'll be very happy. the cost of running this are astronomical. >> assuming somebody, when they do win, right? they do get the building, the course. your expertise, in terms of marketing and all that.

is there a financial obligation they might have in the way of assets? a contest. >> i'm no tax expert. you'll have to talk to their accountant on that. all i'll tell you, there will probably have to be some tax paid on them. they'll have to hire their own employees but get a building free and clear. 4 467. >> clarify your relationship with jelly belly. >> you have the trademark of the name and zero affiliation.

and tie this contest to jelly belly in some way, either nothing to do whatsoever. >> i read you had a kick starter campaign. is that still up and running or coming up with new interesting flavors of the jellybean?

>> you have no idea how hard we tried. >> we've been in the jellybean f jellybean, 10 milligrams in each jellybean. we're selling those all over the world right now. >> with regard to the contest, i'm still looking at the web site. i know it's been crashing a little bit, some people are getting error messages. i assume that means a lot of people are visiting the site and buying, but $49.98. why did you set that specific price for the golden ticket with the rule that helps you get started with the treasure hunt? >> we just felt that it was a very fair price that we needed to cover the cost of going to 50

states and spending money and looking for locations. we don't just find the first location and hide it there. we spend days wondering where's the best place in that state to hide it. >> got it. so this, if you were to price it at, say, over 50, would that put the contest in a different category with different rules, legally speaking? >> not that i know of. all i know is that, the price seems to be so fair because we're having about 10 orders per minute. >> all right. david kline, i really appreciate that information. good talking to you. clearly, this is an interesting idea. can you give us a sense of how many people have purchased the ticket so far since you launched? >> unbelievable amount. we will announce it at the end. but we are only selling 1,000

tickets per state. florida has already sold out. >> just for our viewers in the bay area, you've checked with all the attorney general, all the key people that this is legal under california law? to run such a contest here? >> we sure have. >> all right. david kline, thank you so much for your time today. keep us posted. >> thank you very very much, it's been my pleasure. >> we'll take a short break on the air but our conversation continues on facebook live right now and when we return, we're going to take you to the jelly belly

before the break, you heard from the man who came up with the name jelly belly in 1976 but theealked s n the founder of t original company, nor is he related to the founder. but joining us now is the direct december s descendant, welcome from the jelly belly candy company. hi, lisa. >> hi, kristen. how are you? >> is it okay to call you the candy woman? >> that's fine. i am a candy woman. >> i setons -- >> only place i've ever worked in my life. >> all right. the family business. i see some of that beautiful fa candy behind you. >> i can't wait to take our viewers on this tour. i want to talk briefly about this contest. many of the stories i've seen

link this particular golden ticket contest, the social accounts and some used pictures and products and trucks. jelly belly has nothing to do with this contest, is that right? >> that is correct. jelly belly is not associated with dave kline at this time. he was the person who came to us in 1976 and said, hey, i hear you guys make the best beans around. i'd like you to make some beans for me. can you do that? we have been doing that ever since. however, we only work with dave kline from about 1976 until 1980 when we bought the trademark. >> got it. all right. so tell us about the history of the family business. i know it's had several names and locations over the past 130 years, not to mention a product line that's ever evolving. so take us to the beginning. give us a brief history. >> sure. so my great, great grandfather came to america from germany in

1869 and began a wholesale candy business at that time and making hard candy and at the turn of the century, his children joined the business and we began making what we call creams, better known to most folks as confectionary items like candy corn and we've been making candy corn the longest out of any company in the world. so in the 1960s, my father decided we needed to diversify our candy line and we began making jellybeans and all sorts of different chocolate items and in the '80s, we were the first company to actually make a gummy product in the united states. so we have a long candy making history that goes back to 1869 and we're very proud of that. >> got it. well, you know, ronald reag had a hand in popularizing the candy. you have a wall with ronald reagan, a jellybean mosaic of

him. what are some of his favorite flavors and where did he serve the jellybean product? >> a lot of people didn't know we began shipping products to ronald reagan even prior to him becoming governor of california in 1967. he ate our mini gourmet jellybeans at that time and his favorite flavors are licorice and when we came out with jelly belly in 1976, he began eating that candy and kept the secret for a long time, the president enjoyed our beans because that's not something that we wanted to, you know, benefit off of and publicize but eventually in 1980, a reporter photographed him with a jelly belly logo bag in his hand and the rest was history. >> got it. okay, i'm going to ask you more questions but something tricky, which is to move as you talk as we say in this business because i know that store has just products galore that would be really fun for people to be able

to see even though they can't come to the store personally right now. >> sure. >> jellies flying above, if you can see them. >> i see him. i see him. do you have a wall of some interesting new flavors and some of the most creative ones? i seem to remember when i visited, there were these harry potter ones with the booger flavor and that was very popular. >> right here, we have our latest creation, as you can see. our fiery five mix. can you see that on it? >> oh. >> and these are five different jelly belly flavors that are all made with different types of hot peppers, and from sriracha to si cayenne and then carolina reefer, so we have a lot of fun with those beans here and we're always coming out with something new for our wonderful jelly belly fans to enjoy. >> got it. do you still carry the harry ifou will?s and you do a lotf

>> yes. we still carry harry potter. we also make their chocolate frogs and chocolate wands and all sorts of fun things for harry potter, and we have sour jellybeans. we can make fruit snacks and pectin fruit snacks, all sorts of wonderful confectionary creations. >> oh. as you walk around and show us more features, i know you're not running this contest or affiliated in any way. nobody can win this factory through the contest but you are a huge part of this community in the bay area a lot of people have come for tours. how do you support the local community and non-profits and kids? >> we're fortunate to have a conference center, and we do host many different events from political events to community

events and candy palooza and all sort of wonderful different things that people can enjoy free, which is so nice this time, especially with covid and all of that. it's wonderful to have a place to go that people can enjoy. >> all right. well, lisa, you know what we're going to do is kick the enjoyment up one more notch. i wanted to take people to where the magic in the production line, actually make the jelly belly beans, we're going to let you get over there during the commercial

the president and ceo of the jelly belly candy company. lisa, i see you've suited up and yew chan you've changed locations because you're about to give us a tour of the production line where you make the jelly belly jellybeans, right? >> i am. just throwing this on now and i'm going to take you out to the

factory where we actually put the shell on the bean. >> fantastic. i just want to tell our viewers. hi there. >> our six generation. >> if our viewers have questions, can they send them on facebook live about the process of making those beans? >> to the factory through the pan room, after with the jellybean, we actually put a soft sugar shell on it as well. so i'm walking there now. you can see beside me, i'm in the packaging department. the package we use to make sure we have all of our jelly bellies

or jelly flops if you know about and love. >> wre almost there.? belly flops. jelly belly flops, sizes and shapes. >> ah. all right. >> we're almost there. coming up now. we're just about there now. >> can i ask you a question right now? it doesn't look like a whole lot of people there. in terms of keeping up with the covid rules to spread people apart and very few people in each shift? >> yeah, we do have three shifts in the factory and strict social

distancing of 6 feet, so we are very careful about that, but we do have the same amount of people working in our factory now. >> we've got about -- >> this is our fan room. fans running, you guys, and large metal. inside are the sensors of the jelly belly that you can see here. they can rotate and actually apply different layers of as we can. morris wants to know how many jelly bellies does it take to build a candy house? any idea?

>> a jelly belly, about 4 by 6 foot. 20,000 to 40,000 jellybeans on there. >> that's crazy. hey, alex has a question for you, has covid hurt sales or increased sales? that's an interesting one. sometimes people aim for comfort foods during these times. have they hurt sales or? >> most people don't have it on their shopping list to go out and purchase, buthell see it in theso fus, the sales of jell belly or if considered essential, not even open for

people to be able to buy jelly belly. so yes, that has affected sales unfortunately. >> lisa, we have 30 seconds left. if you could move on over to the next stage in the process. little quieter too. just because we couldn't hear you too well, although it's great. it's like being in the factory. all happening around you. it's part of the fun. >> we definitely are in the factory and you can see on the sign up here on the walls, 6 feet for safety. definitely we mind our foremind about that. but we have about a half a million people here. jelly belly, go to jellybelly.com to learn more >> you can go to jellybelly.com to lea m and they cannot take the tour right now

but when the pandemic is over, they'll be able to do that. we appreciate the tour. take care. >>

and we're back. thank you so much for joining us today on this interactive show, "getting answers." we talk with the man who created the name jelly belly, david kline, and then treasure hunt for golden ticket with the chance to win a candy kitchen. $50 to get a clue, find the golden necklace. happening across the country. one necklace wins you that candy faory. notai he assumes you'll have to pay iire employees. he would make $2.5 million in gross profits from the clues and

said most going into running the treasure hunt which is exp tonight, several developing stories as we come on the air. there is major news coming in right now involving the race for a vaccine. and the daring rescues under way at this hour. at least 25 major fires across california tonight. nine states with fires burning now. more than a dozen people still trapped. a wife waiting for her husband and boys to be rescued. national guard and navy pilots air rifting more than 160 people to safety. choppers tonight flying through blinding smoke and flames. families driving to escape. fire lines on both sides of the road. thousands of homes at risk as we go into the night. an entire town nearly burned to the ground. also tonight, that breaking news involving the race for a vaccine. one of the front-runners reportedly forced to put human trials on hold tonight.