After a two-year hiatus, Necco Wafers should begin reappearing on the shelves of stores across the country as new owner Spangler Candy Co. makes good on a promise to bring back the 173-year-old treat.

New England Confectionery Co., which lent its acronym to the wafer, got into financial trouble in the spring of 2018 and eventually went bankrupt. Spangler appeared to win the whole company in a court auction, but tried to renegotiate its bid.

An investment firm backed by C. Dean Metropoulos was awarded the company for $17.3 million, and they turned around and sold the top brands, Necco and Sweethearts, to Spangler a short time later.

Spangler warned it would difficult and time-consuming to move the machinery that made the iconic candies from its Revere, Mass., home to Spangler’s Bryan, Ohio, factory. Sweethearts returned in very limited quantities this past Valentine’s Day, and now Necco wafers will have a staged rollout starting in June – “beginning with major drugstores and some grocery stores, and then into a larger segment of retailers across the country,” the company wrote.

“Due to its enduring popularity, the original recipe for the Necco Wafer has remained essentially unchanged over the years, and now is no exception,” Spangler continued. “Seven of the eight flavors (lemon, lime, orange, clove, cinnamon, wintergreen and licorice) were designed to identically match the originals. True Necco Wafers connoisseurs may detect a richer cocoa flavor in the chocolate wafers due to a minor improvement made in the cooking process.”