Sour news for chocolate workers at Christmas
Changing rules and products doomed World's Finest outlet, staff told
Staff at the World’s Finest Chocolate outlet store on Cockburn Street were told last week that the final sugar rush will go out the door on December 31.
Today, as word of the closing spread on Facebook and by text messages between friends, there were lots of shoppers loading up with bags, boxes, and cans of chocolate goodies. But then, you could see that most days.
“It’s a terrible time of year to get this news,” said one staffer who didn’t want to be named. “We were told that changes in food handing regulations and changes in what the company sells for fundraising products, meant we couldn’t continue.”
She pointed to the plastic-wrapped chunks of chocolate that she was putting into baskets on the shelves and said these were the sort of products that they could no longer package in the back room.
“Also, they are no longer selling mints and wrapped chocolates for fundraising, and that’s what we use to make up our baskets,” she added.
Our tourism promoters are going to have a quiet Christmas too as they contemplate how to attract the thousands who have always included the chocolate store on their list of must-dos in this region.
I left a voice message for Eddie Opler Jr., CEO of World’s Finest Chocolate, based in Chicago, who is the grandson of founder Eddie Opler. I haven’t heard back. Getting his number was a bit of a challenge since the privately owned company’s website only has contact information geared to schools, clubs, and other organizations looking to sell products to raise money.
Campbellford is the only outlet store in Canada. The products are manufactured in Sherbrooke, Quebec, where the company has an arrangement with Lamontagne Chocolate.
The company also has two outlet stores in the Chicago area. By far the bulk of its sales are direct to groups that in turn sell the products to friends and families and generate a profit for themselves and the company.
Opler Senior founded the company in 1939 as Cook Chocolate Company. He started the division that produced chocolate bars for fundraising in 1949 and called it World's Finest Chocolate, using cocoa from a farm in St. Lucia. The company says it is one of the few producers that owns and controls each step from farm to your hand.
World’s Finest boasts that groups have raised more than $4 billion throughout North America by selling its products.
It came to Canada in 1958 when it built the factory adjacent to the current store, which opened in 1999. World’s Finest operated the factory until 2006 when it was sold to Blommer, which specializes in supplying confectionery coatings for a variety of products. Blommer Chocolate was purchased by Fuji Oil Holdings in 2019 but continues to operate under the Blommer name.
In September, Blommer Chocolate announced an $80 million expansion of its Campbellford plant. That addition was driven by tariff changes in the processing of sugar beets that makes it cheaper for companies to process them outside the U.S. The same change has led Hersey Chocolate to repurchase a factory in Smiths Falls that it sold to a cannabis maker.
I had heard the rumour about the closing from a friend on Saturday, but wound up chasing the tax story first this morning. Then, looked at Facebook and realized the rumour was true. Trying to offer some facts in place of wrong assumptions on FB.
Just the outlet. They are two separate companies, basically in different businesses.