T-R PHOTO BY ROBERT MAHARRY Lillie Mae Chocolates owners Aimee Deimerly-Snyder and Tom Snyder celebrated the opening of their new location at 209 N. 13th St. with a ribbon cutting on Tuesday evening.

It’s been a whirlwind year for Aimee Deimerly-Snyder and her husband Tom Snyder, the owners of Lillie Mae Chocolates in Marshalltown, between opening a second location in Clear Lake, welcoming their first grandchild and most recently, completing the big move of their Marshalltown location to a much larger building next door to their former shop.

With a long history in Marshalltown dating back to 1939, Lillie Mae, now located at 209 N. 13th St., remains one of the community’s most beloved establishments, specializing in chocolates, caramel, fudge, ice cream and almost 30 different varieties of popcorn. On Tuesday evening, the Snyders celebrated their new space, which has more than triple the space of the old shop and a large basement for production, with a ribbon cutting led by the Chamber Ambassadors.

During the brief ceremony, Aimee explained that when the previous renter of the building gave the owners notice of their intent to leave, the owners quickly reached out to her and Tom.

“We absolutely wanted it. I had to say yes because if I passed this up, I would’ve probably perished. We needed it desperately because we’ve been growing so fast, and with the addition of our popcorn, we needed it very much,” she said.

Aimee credited the Marshalltown Area Chamber of Commerce team for their guidance throughout the process, the Lillie Mae staff for their hard work and, of course, her own family. Between the two current stores, she estimated that they employ approximately 30 people, and she added that there could still be more expansion to come in the future.

“This really is just a launching point for us to do more, and that’s the intention. We would love to do more in central Iowa and create kind of a loop with our store in Clear Lake and bring it around. But without this facility, we would never be able to do that,” she said. “This is just going to help us continue to grow over the next 10 years, and then Tom and I are out.”

“I’m out in five,” Tom joked.

After the ribbon cutting, Aimee and Tom told the T-R they hoped 2026 would be a bit calmer than the year they’ve had thus far, but they’re still set on opening two additional central Iowa stores at some point in the future. Tom thanked all of the local contractors who helped them to complete the move in a period of about two months.

According to Aimee, the new space allows for even more varieties of popcorn and expanded popcorn tasting — 24 flavors are now available for sampling with everything from traditional caramel and cheddar to more unique offerings like PB&J, dirt cake and cinnamon roll — as well as more ice cream, a limited selection of cold drinks and gourmet hot chocolate and an expanded line of barks still to come.

Looking forward, the couple hopes to either pass the business on to another generation of their own family in 10 years or new owners if they happen to be interested and a good fit for the task.

“Who knows? Maybe we’ll just keep running it into our old age. We love it,” Aimee said. “It’s a joyful business. It brings joy to us, and it brings joy to our customers. And we have, just, generations of people that have used us for their gifts, for their family celebrations, and we couldn’t be more thankful to all of our customers. They’re really what has helped make this happen, and the Marshalltown community has been amazing.”

And while they’ve appreciated the support in Clear Lake and Mason City and have hopes of expanding into other communities, Aimee and Tom, both Marshalltown natives and MHS graduates, will always keep their home base and manufacturing right here in their hometown.

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Contact Robert Maharry

at 641-753-6611 ext. 255 or

rmaharry@timesrepublican.com.