Left to right: Bryana Ganong, her father David and brother Nicholas are the fourth and fifth generations to run the family business, Canada’s oldest candymaker, based in St. Stephen, N.B.Supplied
The lunchtime whistle echoes across the Ganong Bros. candy factory in St. Stephen, N.B., every day at 12 p.m. sharp, just as it has for more than a century. The manufacturing facility is modern and automated, but the pipe that signals midday was moved from the original plant of Canada’s oldest confectioner – reflecting the balance of heritage and innovation the family business has struck for five generations.
“We’re caretakers,” president and CEO Bryana Ganong, 52, says. “Multiple generations of other people’s families are working in the business. We have to make sure that we’re leaving the company stronger than we found it, that we’re adapting and evolving.”
Ganong, which today employs around 350, has reinvented itself repeatedly over its 152-year history to weather a tough manufacturing landscape of market consolidation, labour shortages, and evolving consumer tastes – all while maintaining tradition. From its facility bordering Maine, 110 kilometres east of Saint John, the business makes products sold across Canada and the United States.
The company was founded by brothers James and Gilbert (G.W.) Ganong in 1873 and spent its first century pioneering Canadian confectionery. It introduced the country’s first lollipop, the Pal-o-Mine bar (North America’s oldest continuously produced candy bar), and the first heart-shaped chocolate box.
Alongside these successes, each generation has faced a unique set of challenges. When Bryana’s father, David, now 82, became president in 1977, “it was really a manufacturing product-driven business,” he says. “But things changed very quickly.”
Ganong had to pivot toward a marketing-driven strategy with the rise of multinationals, including Mars, Hershey and Cadbury and department stores such as Kmart and Woolco. “You couldn’t just be a regional business, you had to be a national business,” David says. He spent seven years in Toronto establishing a sales office to modernize customer relationships and distribution.
An existential moment came in 1990 when Ganong moved from its original brick factory to a modern facility equipped for advanced manufacturing, Bryana says. She joined Ganong in 1997 as a marketing assistant and took increasingly senior roles in research and development and contract manufacturing.
The original Ganong factory in downtown St. Stephen now houses a chocolate museum and the company’s retail store.Supplied
Even so, in 2008, “when it came time for me to call it quits,” David says, “we really didn’t have a family member ready yet” to shepherd the company through the challenging economic conditions of the time. It hired its first and only president and CEO from outside the family, Doug Ettinger.
Ganong had by then suffered two years of financial losses and watched competitors shut factories as the Canadian dollar rose alongside soaring commodity prices.
“We needed to make sure that indeed it wasn’t just promoting somebody from the family,” David says. “They had to have the experience to lead the company on a successful basis going forward.”
It’s common for multigenerational family firms such as Ganong to seek outside support, even if only temporarily, says Aileen Miziolek of The Family Business Consulting Group in Toronto. “They’ll hire an external CEO who then can come in and mentor.”
Mr. Ettinger brought experience from companies including Coca-Cola, Nestlé, Parmalat and Saputo. “He would’ve brought in some expertise [Ganong] hadn’t been exposed to,” Ms. Miziolek says.
Working with Mr. Ettinger and her father deepened Bryana’s business acumen enough for Ganong’s board of directors to appoint her to her current position in 2014. Her brother Nicholas, 45, followed a similar path of taking increasingly senior roles after first joining Ganong’s human resources department in 2003, eventually becoming chief operating officer in 2022.
That year the company also partnered with New Brunswick-based global seafood giant Cooke Inc. in the face of stiff global competition, changing consumer tastes, and a rapidly evolving workforce. Cooke’s ownership stake, the size of which is undisclosed, allowed the confectioner to modernize operations and purchase new equipment.
Such a step is important for Ganong to stake out its identity – especially considering Canada’s industry is dominated by major players, including Cadbury owner Mondelez International, that have huge sales forces and marketing budgets, says Mouna Gharsallah, founder of Toronto-based Canadian Chocobakery Consulting. In a competitive environment, the company must define its goals: “Do they want to grow, invest and buy equipment with high capacity to be a big consumer-packaged, good chocolate manufacturer?”
Ganong has introduced adaptations such as allergen-free operations and separate nut lines. It is also growing its branded portfolio, which includes products under the Ganong name as well as the licence to make nostalgic treats for other brands such as Sunkist and Sixlets and to sell them in Canada.
Currently, 75 per cent of Ganong’s production is co-manufacturing for other brands to sell (it keeps those contracts confidential), with the remainder being Ganong products and the licensed brands. A new packaging line that the company recently added secures a key contract and makes its branded production two-and-a-half times more efficient.
Ganong’s move in 1990 from its original brick factory to a modern facility equipped for advanced manufacturing was key to its survival, Bryana Ganong says.Supplied
Ganong is trying to boost capacity while grappling with the aging demographics of its employee base. St. Stephen’s population of about 4,500 is not big enough to meet Ganong’s hiring needs, so the company will have to innovate again. “We likely won’t be able to double the workforce in our small community,” Nicholas says. “So we have to find ways to automate, streamline our processes and then make sure that we can increase our capacity.”
Bryana says there’s always healthy debate within the family about the company’s direction, but they often work it out through dialogue. David recalls coming to terms with his children’s move in 2019 to drop the Double Thick Mint – a beloved product that Ganong had made for 130 years – as production costs rose. His kids have “made some choices I would never have made,” he says, but he recognizes that “the fresh thinking was necessary.”
Despite periodic differences of opinion, Bryana says strong governance and family values keep the company on track. Ganong has had a formal board since the early 20th century, with the CEO reporting directly to the board chair. Big strategic decisions flow through the board, whose composition the company declines to discuss. The executive team handles day-to-day operations and checks in quarterly with the board to keep performance, priorities, and long-term goals tightly aligned, while preserving the company’s heritage.
Rather than fear the challenges ahead, the Ganongs are embracing them. Though leadership succession ultimately rests with the board, Bryana is optimistic that the Ganong family legacy will continue. “We’re constantly talking about our next 150 years.”