Courtesy / Chatham Candi Manor
Chatham Candi Manor in Massachusetts is expanding production to an industrial location in Portland. Here, co-owner Robbie Carroll mixes candy in a copper cauldron.
The 67-year-old confectionery company in Massachusetts has been booming since the new owners took power a few years ago. Now Chatham Candi Manor is expanding - and landing in Portland.
A team of women and husband Paige Piper and Robbie Carroll leased 5,000 square meters of industrial space at 651 Riverside Street to open a new production and distribution facility for handmade sweets.
The transaction was organized on behalf of the tenant by Sasa Bogdanovic and John Rico from Boulos Co., and on behalf of the landlord, 815 Forest Ave LLC, Vince Ciampi from Porto & Co.
“Business has grown by at least 30% to 40%,” Piper told Mainebiz. “So we really made the most of our space.”
With the increase in online orders, the business needed a new production and distribution facility.
Desoto caravan
Chatham Candi Manor was founded in 1955 by Naomi Louise Turner in Cape Cod Chatham, Mass.
Courtesy / Chatham Candi Manor
Internet orders have risen for small batches of hand-dipped chocolates.
“She was an entrepreneur, far ahead of her time, charming, independent, beautiful and completely eccentric,” says the company’s website.
Turner and her daughter, Naomi “Duchi” Turner, would arrive in Chatham around July 1 in their Desoto caravan with a yellow button filled to the brim with candy-making supplies, card tables, sheets and a couple of old battered suitcases.
“They would set up card tables, cover them with sheets, make a bunch of cakes, dip some chocolates and be open for work until July 4th!”
The mother and daughter slept in the back room of the store or in the back of the caravan, hoping to earn enough money by August to rent a house for a month. Naomi made candies according to old family recipes. After Labor Day, the couple would pack up and move on.
When the older Turner died, Chatham Candi Manor went to see Dutchie Turner and her husband David Weach. They turned a seasonal summer job into a year-round one.
“Naomi found herself dipping chocolate at any time of the night, while Dave had to pack them and ship them the next day,” the website says.
From finance to retail
Four years ago, Turner and Witch sold the business to Piper and Carol.
Carol was born and raised in Chatham and spent summers working at Candy Manor. His mother had worked there since before he was born. After graduating from Bentley University, Carol worked in banking and finance.
Piper was born a Miner. She grew up in Minot, in Androscoggin County. She also attended Bentley. During her stay there, she did internships at Unum, IDEKSKS and VEKS. After graduation, she worked in sales.
“We decided that we would like to try to do small business together and do something different,” Piper said. “This was the perfect opportunity.”
Candy Manor does a lot of business in stores, especially during the summer and holidays. The goal of the couple was to increase the mail order channel.
The pandemic has launched an existing online customer support website for online sales.
Although the business with the shop window remained quite similar to that before the pandemic, mail orders have more than doubled. It has become obvious that they will need more space for production and distribution.
In 2017, mail sales were $ 100,000 a year. By the end of 2021, they were $ 829,000.
“We needed a facility to accommodate and fulfill our postal orders,” Piper said. “We think Maine is the perfect place.”
Sea salt caramel
Production for the shop window will remain in Chat. Selling in stores is a big part of the business.
A popular item is sea salt caramel, which is made in small batches in a copper cauldron that can be seen through the shop window.
“When it cools down, we cut it by hand and dip it,” she said.
During the summer, they make huge amounts of food in the cauldron.
Mail retrieval was designed.
“When we first got there, we completely redesigned the website,” Piper said. “We wanted to do something that tells a story, and also something that is easy for users to use. When the pandemic hit, we started advertising, which we had never done before. Now we have new people ordering and customers who have been coming for a long time but didn’t know we were delivering. ”
Maine boomerang
The original plan was to expand to Cape Cod.
“But the real estate market here is incredibly difficult and I wasn’t sure we could secure a location here,” Piper said.
So, the idea was to create an independent object.
“We love Portland and I grew up in Maine,” she said. “The idea of going back and creating something in Maine means a lot to me.
Courtesy / Porta & Co.
The training will include the installation of a new chocolate and extruder tempering machine.
The company has about 50 employees - all year round, both seasonally and full-time and part-time. Several are planning to move to Portland on business.
“We will hire as the need grows,” Piper said. “We hope to have 20 employees before 2023.
The goal is to start working in Portland in August and have a full range of chocolates ready for this year’s holidays.
There is a lot of equipment in Portland.
“The space is great. “It’s very big and open,” Piper said. “But we have to make sure the food is safe. This includes rearranging the floors, relocating equipment, a little plumbing and installing generators, because sweets are susceptible to heat, so if the power goes out, we have to make sure our AC stays on. ”
Courtesy / Porta & Co.
The building in Portland had a space of good size for rent.
The purchase of equipment includes new machines for tempering chocolate for manual dipping. The company currently has this type of machine, but it dates back to the 1980s. Other installations include new refrigerators and freezers and an extruder, which helps the candies to be perfectly sized.
For now, it is unclear what the total investment in equipment will be, she said. Funding will come from cash flow.
“We planned and saved for this,” she said.
The couple moved to Maine and handed over operation management to Chatham to an employee who had been working on the story since his teenage years.
“He expressed interest in opening a business one day, so this will be a great opportunity for him,” Piper said.