“The advantages in Tatamagouche are quite numerous. Tatamagouche is growing by leaps and bounds. From what I understand, it’s growing by approximately 10% a year. It’s actually the only village – it’s still a village – in all of the Maritime Provinces that’s growing. We’ve been getting huge numbers of travellers and tourists from around the world, particularly from around North America. It’s become a real destination rather than a place people pass through. For us, the community is very family-oriented. Every family spread across this small community supports one another. We’re a young family that wants to plant our roots here, including our business, so we get a lot of support. With the way the village is growing, our business model fits perfectly with what’s happening here.” Tatamagouche agrees. Appleton Chocolates is a perfect fit. So is the Maple Ginger, their number one seller. “Ginger lovers go wild for these,” Heather said. “I prefer the Maple Creams – a maple fondant centre and then double-dipped.” Michael said his “favourite would have to be the maple blueberry truffles. They’re our signature product, it’s what people know us by and really they’re what helps us stand out among our competitors around the world. The Maple Wild Blueberry is a fantastic truffle, especially with the beautiful dark chocolate we use from France – it’s my favourite.” “We’re a young family that wants to plant our roots here, including our business, so we get a lot of support. With the way the village is growing, our business model fits perfectly with what’s happening here.” “Production is really our biggest challenge. Because it’s all handmade, it takes a long time to produce. Being a growing small company, we’re trying to do as much our- selves as possible so that we are sure what it is we can handle as a business. Being able to produce enough products for the demand is a tough job in itself, but we are willing to put in the time to maximize efficiency if it means keeping our product off automated production lines. Once we’re comfortable with our production needs in the new, bigger location we’re hoping to take our chocolate on the road to an in-province winery. A former owner of a winery is actually a local business mentor of mine and he and I have been discussing the possibilities of a pairing like this. A kind of ‘You promote ours, we’ll promote yours” is what Heather and I have in mind.” Appletonchocolate.ca is the midst of a tear-down and rebuild. The new design will make online shopping and estimations as smooth as their tempered chocolate.
Nova Scotia is; anything we can’t produce in Nova Scotia is sourced in the Maritimes. Even the rum we use in one of our truffles is from here.”
This collaboration of heart and mind has proved to be a winning combo for the Footes.
“We have a great rapport with our suppliers and distribu- tors. The gentlemen who delivers supplies from New Brunswick always stays to chat for a while when he makes a delivery,” Michael laughed. “Our cranberry supplier in Lunenburg knows us quite well. They know what we’re looking for and they set things aside for us,” Heather added. “Our maple syrup supplier, we actually pick up the product from their house, not their business location. They set it on the porch and we haul it away and, again, that’s the result of a long-time friendship Alan had with them,” Michael said. “As all of these businesses grow, so do we.” “We get even more hands-on with our distributors,” he went on. “Almost all of them are within driving distance and we’re able to make our deliveries directly to them. We know the owners and they know us. We invite them to our location so that they can see what we do, that way they have an idea of what goes into the product, what kind of effort. Sometimes people lose sight. When they see hundreds and hundreds of chocolates they assume it’s all coming from a giant factory when in reality it’s a two-person enter- prise in a small building. It puts us all on even ground.” “Plus, we don’t want to sell out of a Big box store. Right now, we mostly focus on high quality gift shops because our chocolates are high quality gifting items. Our chocolates are more often enjoyed by groups of people as opposed to a single person. People are more likely to buy it for gatherings or as gifts or to send away to what I like to call ‘Displaced Nova Scotians’ to give them a sense of home.”
The Footes’ sense of home is something to admire.
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OCTOBER 2016 • SPOTLIGHT ON BUSINESS
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