Wonka Family & Factory History

Once every 7 years the Wonka chocolate factory opens its factory doors to a chosen few. These "deliciously" chosen few get a once in a life time grand tour of the magic unfolding behind the factory walls of Wonka's chocolate factory.  

FACTORY HISTORY:

The Wonka family established the town of Greece in western NY over 150 years ago and in that time have done much good for the residents. Over the years the Wonka family have invested millions of dollars building the town's infrastructure bringing industry and thousands of jobs to the town. Philanthropy has always been first on the list of good deeds by the Wonka family.  

In fact, without the Wonka family there would be no town so it's easy to understand why the townspeople hold the Wonka family in such high regard and the current Wonka heir, Mr. Willy Wonka, as royalty. It seems the Wonka's can do no wrong in the eyes of the townspeople and most would die before betraying the confectionary giant. 

But not all is what it seems...    

Since Willy Wonka took control of the famous chocolate factory from his dad, many residents in the small town of Greece, New York, where the factory resides, have vanished without a trace. No one it seems that enters the factory ever leaves and, in fact, other than the few invited guests, no one has ever been seen entering the factory.  

Strange to say the least... 

MUMS THE WORD:

Oh yes, people have spoken softly to each other about the disappearances here and there but no one ever speaks openly about the missing people including local law enforcement that turns away if and when the subject comes up. For the townspeople, the great Willy Wonka can do no wrong !!! 

Since the time Willy Wonka became sole heir to the Wonka estate, townspeople have ignored these disappearances fearing questioning Wonka in anyway may provoke him to move from the town and by doing so drying up what seems like an endless stream of good deeds, jobs, and money that Mr. Wonka continually pumps out as easily as he produces his sweet confections. Just the thought of Wonka leaving the town or cutting off his endless supply of cash and dare I say, chocolate, is enough to excuse the missing townspeople in the minds of the residents.  

In the beginning, when Willy Wonka took control of the factory from his father, Chester Wonka, there were some inquiries made as to what happened to the people that vanished. But, ever since Willy Wonka introduced his latest confection, the "Ever Lasting Gobstopper," it's almost as if all of the residents have become some sort of brainwashed zombies that live only to consume their next Gobstopper or Wonka bar. 

QUESTION:

What could these sweet treats be made of that could hypnotize the masses into submission after just one bite? 

ANSWER:

THE SECRET INGREDIENTS !!!

THE STORY CONTINUES BELOW:

The Competition:

In 1952, an entrepreneur named Hector Xavier Mantel (Pictured) started a small chocolate factory in his home town of Chiapas, Mexico. Mr. Mantel's factory grew to become the second largest chocolate factory in the world, second only to the Wonka's. 

In the mid 1960's Mr. Mantel moved his chocolate empire to the US and settled in Rochester, New York. Despite all of Mr. Mantel's success throughout the world selling his confections, his tasty treats never could match the popularity of Mr. Wonka's deliciously sweet delights.  

This infuriated Mantel to no end. He thought, "What does Wonka put in his candy that makes it soooo irresistible?" Wanting to grow his chocolate empire and eliminate Wonka's grip on the US candy market, Mantel bought up several hundred acres of land surrounding Wonka's factory in Greece, NY. Mantel's sole purpose was the opening of 60 new retail shops to push his candy to the masses. But, try as he might, he couldn't break the loyalty that the townspeople had for Wonka and his chocolate. 

Conceding that he could never win the candy battle against the beloved Willy Wonka, Mantel went on the attack a different way. Mantel began doing everything he could to besmirch Wonka's good name and his confections in the hope of breaking Wonka's trust hold on the public. Thus, Mantel started to investigate the Wonka factory to dig up anything he could find that would make Willy Wonka look bad or untrustworthy in anyway. His first step was to find and pay off disgruntled long-time ex-Wonka employees that were fired by Wonka's henchman, Arthur Slugworth, in favor of Wonka's discovery and soon to become loyal followers, The Oompa Loompas.

The Oompa Loompas:

In the mid 1970's Wonka and Slugworth took a business trip to South America to purchase sugar for candy production. While there, Slugworth discovered a tribe of nomads that called themselves Oompa Loompas. Slugworth immediately saw in these indigenous people an opportunity to take the Wonka candy-making empire to the next level. Slugworth convinced Wonka to get the Oompa Loompas to leave their native land and work for Wonka. He accomplished this by convincing the Oompa Loompas that their life in the jungles of South America could not last for long because of industry taking hold in their homeland. Slugworth further scared the Oompa Loompas into submission telling them "Your race of people will surely die out if you don't take Wonka up on his proposal." Overcome with the fear of losing everything including their very existence, the Oompa Loompas agreed to Wonka's arrangement to provide housing, food, clothing, and anything that their little hearts' desired and, of course, all the chocolate they could eat. In return, the Oompa Loompas agreed to take over all work activity in the factory and to have complete loyalty to Wonka.

Moving Forward:

Upon return from South America, Wonka retooled his factory to enable the Oompa Loompas to run the day-to-day candy production line, and once that was complete, Slugworth talked Wonka into firing all of his long time trusted employees that had been by his side for many years. Wonka agreed to fire everyone and replace them with Oompa Loompas, and after, Willy Wonka began to feel isolated, paranoid, and alone. Because of these feelings, he started to believe that the only person in the world he could trust was Slugworth and from that point on, Slugworth never left Wonka's side. 

Looking back on it now, it is believed that it was Slugworth that turned Willy Wonka into the crazed paranoid loner psychopath he eventually became. It was Slugworth who convinced Wonka to fire all his long-time trusted employees and replace them with the Oompa Loompas. It was Slugworth that convinced Wonka that he couldn't trust anyone. It was Slugworth that repeatedly told Wonka "You'll lose it all if you don't listen to me." And, in fact, it was Slugworth who came up with Wonka's "SECRET INGREDIENT" 

HECTOR MANTEL (The Competition) ON THE ATTACK:

As part of Mantel's continued efforts to besmirch Wonka in anyway possible, Mantel was able to find and pay off several of Wonka's disgruntled ex-employees that were fired by Wonka. These ex-Wonka employees told Mantel horrifying stories of abuse at the hands of Wonka's trusted sidekick, Slugworth. They went on to tell Mantel how Sulgworth made Wonka open the doors to the factory every 7 years to lure what Slugworth called "INGREDIENTS" into the factory by holding contests to find a "Golden Ticket" hidden within a Wonka Bar. These "Golden Ticket" winners were told they would be awarded with a lifetime supply of Wonka chocolate and a private tour of the inner workings of the Wonka factory. 

ZOMBIES & SECRET INGREDIENTS:

Two ex-employees of the Wonka factory, named Stella White and Gypsy Black, that Mantel interviewed told Mantel that the "Golden Ticket" winners were also the same people that vanished without a trace. The two ex-employees went on to tell Mantel that they knew Slugworth and Wonka's darkest secret of all. Stella White and Gypsy Black told Mantel that Slugworth was working on experiments to turn these "Golden Ticket Winners" into ZOMBIE-like creatures that could be controlled by Slugworth to do his bidding. The ex-employees stated to Mantel that employees would talk to each other and share stories of seeing people shuffling through the factory late at night as if they were in some sort of trance.  

Stella White told Mantel during an interview that she believed Slugworth's experiments to turn people into mindless ZOMBIES was in full swing by the time Wonka fired all his longtime employees. Ms. White also stated to Mantel that she believed that Slugworth was having a much harder time with his evil plan than he expected. She stated one time she saw Slugworth walking one of these ZOMBIE-like creatures into a secret unmarked room and it looked to her as if Slugworth was trying to kill it by stabbing it in the eye with what appeared to be a large hypodermic needle. 

The two ex-employees told Mantel that on another night while they were walking the factory floor they saw Slugworth struggling with someone who looked to be "in a ZOMBIE like state" in the candy pan room. The two went on to tell Mantel that it was very odd to see Slugworth in that room as no one was allowed to enter that room except Wonka's team of trusted "Candy Glazers" whose job it was to glaze the candy with Wonka's secret recipe of spices. The Candy Pan room is a secure clean room where the candy is coated with sugar in large rotating bins and Slugworth should not have been in there. 

The ex-employees went on to tell Mantel that they saw Slugworth dumping something into the candy pans that they believed wasn't supposed to go into the pans. They said to Mantel that when Slugworth left the candy panning room, they snuck into the room and peeked into the candy pans and saw what they believed to be severed human feet along with other human remains. Seeing this, Stella White and Gypsy Black told Mantel that they began to secretly follow Slugworth around at night to see what else they could discover. 

Gypsy Black told Mantel one night she followed Slugworth into the basement of the factory and saw Slugworth entering into a secure room that Ms. Black described as "some sort of lab-type room." Ms. Black stated that later that night she snuck back into that room and discovered cells with ZOMBIE-like creatures locked away in them. She also mentioned to Mantel there were ZOMBIES strapped down to tables and it appeared as if these ZOMBIES were being operated or experimented on.  The next night Ms. Black returned to the lab with a camera and took as many pictures as she could of the nightmarish lab to document the horror.

The two ex-employees told Mantel, that being horrified at what they discovered, they immediately went to Wonka with what they saw but it fell on deaf ears. Even after Gypsy Black showed the photos she took of the ZOMBIES in the lab to Wonka he still refused to believe their stories about Slugworth. Because of this, the two ex-employees started to believe that Wonka himself may have fell victim to Slugworth's mind altering experiments in some way as it seemed Wonka himself was now always "trance-like" himself. 

WONKA'S OUTRAGE:

Even after all of this, Wonka refused to believe what the two employees told him and furthermore Wonka accused the two employees of fabricating the story to get revenge against Slugworth because they believed he was abusing them and the other employees. Wonka told the two that if they told anyone else about what they claimed they saw, he would fire them on the spot and their families would not receive any more aid from Wonka. With that, Wonka swiped the lab photos from Ms. Black's hands and locked them in his office safe and told the two, "Get back to work and keep your mouths shut or else." The two ex-employees told Mantel the fear of losing their jobs and the repercussions that would have on their families made them agree to never mention the story to anyone.   

Needless to say, when Mantel heard this story of ZOMBIES and secret ingredients it was unbelievable. Thinking that anyone could go to the lengths of kidnapping, experimenting on, and murdering people to use their flesh for making chocolate just could not be true. Unfortunately, the twisted and horrific stories of ZOMBIES and secret ingredients that were told to Mantel turned out to be true. Wonka did, in fact, use HUMAN FLESH as his confections' secret ingredient and Slugworth did, in fact, experiment on "Golden Ticket" winners to turn them into ZOMBIES! 

THE SECRET GETS OUT: 

Once Mantel could prove that these stories were more than just speculation, he broke the story to the public. Upon hearing these horrific tales, the townspeople and the local authorities could no longer turn a blind eye to the goings on at the Wonka factory. In a rage, the Wonka factory was overtaken by the townspeople and what they found inside can only be described as a HELL ON EARTH!  

Hundreds of human body parts stocked in large freezers waiting to be blended into candy. Gallons of blood stored away till the time it was used to mix into Wonka's chocolate recipe. Secret labs with ZOMBIE-like people locked away in them. An entire warehouse of human innards being processed by an army of Oompa Loompas into all sorts of confectionary treats that Wonka peddled to the public. It was truly a MAD HOUSE OF CANDY HORRORS!!  

In anger, the towns people searched for Wonka and Slugworth within the factory but Slugworth could not be found anywhere. They did find Wonka locked away in his office and when they got their hands on Wonka, they were overcome with rage and began to tear the skin from Wonka's body piece by piece. After, they chopped Wonka up into bite-size pieces to be forced fed to his loyal Oompa Loompas who by this time were all locked up in the factory cellar by the townspeople. When the townspeople finished their frenzy of torture on Wonka, they torched the factory, burning it almost completely to the ground.   

THE AFTERMATH: 

After the fire, it was believed that all remaining Oompa Loompas, Slugworth, and the created ZOMBIE-like creatures were burned alive in the factory fire. However, being as they never found Slugworth's and many of the Oompa Loompa's bodies, some say they escaped the blaze. It is also believed that Slugworth and the remaining Oompa Loompas swore revenge for what the townspeople did to Wonka, the Oompa Loompas, and the factory. Unfortunately, no one truly knows what happened to Slugworth and the Oompa Loompas that made it out of the factory but, as time passed, many townspeople fear their return...

Although it could never be explained away or excused, given what we now know about Arthur Slugworth's history and his involvement and control of Willy Wonka, it's a bit easier to understand how the beloved Willy Wonka's life took such a horrific turn. Of course, knowing the past doesn't excuse the horrors that no one could have ever imagined. And to this day, just thinking that our beloved Willy Wonka would turn out to be such a monster who lived a life filled with kidnapping, murder, ZOMBIES, and cannibalism is harder to swallow than a flesh-infused rotten piece of chocolate. 

But as they say, the truth hurts...

In the years that followed and after the siege and fire at the factory by the hands of the townspeople, the Wonka factory was no more and the world would never again taste the sweet Wonka confections we all grew up on. For this reason, Hector Mantel finally got what he was trying to achieve for years, to become the number one candy manufacturer in the world. But, even this was not enough for Mantel. 

As good as Mantel's confections were, he was consistently aggravated by hearing people say things as "Sure Mantel's chocolates are good, but they don't compare to Wonka's." You can imagine how this made Mantel feel but as it turns out, Mantel. in fact. did have the last laugh.

After years of hearing people comparing his chocolate to Wonka's he took steps to end that once and for all or at least, have it be used to his advantage. 

In 2010 Hector Mantel purchased the old burnt out Wonka chocolate factory along with the rights to the Wonka name. He rebuilt the factory and started to produce Wonka bars and other Wonka created confections using Wonka's own recipes minus Wonka's secrete ingredient. of course. The investment paid off and soon the public couldn't get enough of Mantel's Wonka chocolate treats. Mantel became so successful with this new Wonka-inspired venture that he decided to reinstitute the practice of the old Wonka "Golden Ticket" contest.

In 2015 Hector Mantel retired and passed the chocolate making business to his only child, his daughter Selena, who now handles the day-to-day operations of the Wonka factory.    

As it stands today, the Wonka Chocolate Factory is open and running full speed ahead. Its true that no one knows who is running the factory and handles the day-to-day operations but that hasn't stopped peoples' lust of anything Wonka. Once again it seems as if the townspeople have become a herd of mindless ZOMBIE-like confection munchers whose sole purpose in life is to eat their next Wonka Bar.  

A NEW DAY, A NEW WARNING:

As it has been said, "Those who forget the past are condemned to repeat it.”

WONKA FACTORY TOURS:

Starting this October 2022 the Wonka Factory will be open for tours to all, golden ticket or not. 

But heed our warnings - Not all is at it seems at this chocolate factory, and if you decide to visit remember this, You ARE what you eat. 

DO YOU HAVE THE COURAGE TO VISIT THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY?

AS A YOUNG INSANE SLUGWORTH WAS HEARD MUMBLING DURING HIS TRIAL,

"IT'S AS GOOD AS CANDY." 

We can't wait to eat, I mean see, you all soon...