Sarah Takforyan launched La boîte à bonbons in 2016.SUPPLIED
In Montreal, there’s a stereotype about candy found in your typical convenience store. “They’re really hard because they’ve stayed on the shelves for so long,” says entrepreneur Sarah Takforyan. “So, the story of my company begins with me and my ex [business] partner. We were just candy fans, eating a lot of candies and never finding something that was good enough.”
They launched a company called La boîte à bonbons in 2016, which makes gummy candies. “Taste and texture were the main problem,” she says. “So, that’s where we focused.”
The subscription box that started it all
La boîte à bonbons started as a subscription service where customers could pay $25 and get a box full of high-quality, gluten-free candy – with shipping included. The company works with suppliers in Italy and Spain to develop gummy candies in a variety of shapes. (Think: bears, popsicles, flamingos, et cetera.)
Takforyan and her former partner invested about $1,000 each and a Facebook ad campaign helped them build a wait list of about 100 people pre-launch. From there, they were able to leverage influencers and word-of-mouth to grow; and eventually they added custom boxes and single bags to the mix in retail locations across Quebec and then throughout Canada and the U.S.
Takforyan's company started as a subscription service.SUPPLIED
“During COVID, we focused mostly online again,” Takforyan says. “Our business boomed – it provided us with a lot of visibility overnight.” In fact, in the first few years of business, the company had more than doubled its revenue every year. However, the proceeds for April 2020 alone were equivalent to the company’s entire revenue for 2019.
Since that monumental year, the team has grown to 10 people. And the candies are now in about 3,000 retail stores, like high-end grocers Pusateri’s and drugstore chain Pharmasave.
The focus of both in-store and online sales is a shorter supply chain to ensure the candies don’t turn hard. “We [make] fewer quantities,” Takforyan shares. “And we make sure those quantities get onto shelves quickly, so the cycle of the product is very short.”
Success and growth on your own terms
This growth during the pandemic isn’t surprising. According to QuickBooks’ 2022 New Generation of Entrepreneurship Report, 24 per cent of Canadian small business owners started their business during the pandemic.
All that growth does represent a challenge for Takforyan, though.
“Right now, my biggest problem is cashflow. Working with bigger customers, the terms of payments are insane. And that is if they respect the terms!” she says. “But QuickBooks [Payments] helps a lot because our smaller customers can choose to pay by credit card and we have the money the next day pretty much. That’s where it’s a great facilitator.”
The QuickBooks Online app helps Takforyan fine-tune her business strategy.SUPPLIED
The QuickBooks Online app also helps Takforyan fine-tune her business strategy, particularly how much she can spend on marketing. “I’ve noticed during this time of year, no matter how much I’m spending on Facebook ads, it’s not going to impact by bottom line. So now, I keep that spending low — but I learned obviously the hard, expensive way.”
And although Takforyan is already thinking about how she can expand into areas where they aren’t yet operating, when it comes to success, she’s not chasing a particular number.
“A lot of my fellow entrepreneur friends are like ‘Oh, I want to reach X amount of revenue.’ For me it’s more about the success and reach of the brand. I would like to be one of the leaders in the candy business in Canada and eventually in the US. I don’t have a number assigned to it at all. I just love seeing it in the hands of people – that’s what’s fun.”
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Advertising feature produced by Globe Content Studio with QuickBooks. The Globe’s editorial department was not involved.