Vincent Gruppuso, the pudding cup king of Long Island, passed away recently, leaving his multimillion dollar Kozy Shack Enterprises behind. The 67 year old dessert tycoon had spent his life turning his tiny, one-man operation into a multinational operation employing 400 employees at three plants in Hicksville, California and Ireland. Last year the company sold over 115 million cups of pudding and pastries. Cause of death? Diabetes.
The Brooklyn-born Grupposo started out in the ‘60s as a bread delivery man with a side business delivering creamy rice pudding from a Cozy Shack delicatessen on Seneca Avenue. When demand for the pudding outstripped the bread, he bought the recipe, put the K in Kozy, and went into business for himself as a manufacturer. By the end of his life, his company was netting $140 million a year; not to shabby for the son of a construction worker.
Are you a Kozy Shack Konnoisseur? And what's the verdict on their flan?
