Local Candy Company Seeing Growth in Business

Northwoods Candy Company Started in 2012, Quickly Becoming a Sweet Destination

One local shop in Grand Rapids is making quite the impact on local sweet tooth lovers in the area. It all started up with those near and dear to Sandy Gauwitz.

“My mom and I used to make candy, and my sister and my niece would help out. I worked at the hospital in town for 32 years,” Saundy Gauwitz, Owner of Northwoods Candy Company said.

A new beginning in 2012; a walk through Candy Land.

“We started our candy in a small lone pine town hall, and then we moved into a store down the road,” Gauwitz said.

A move, paving a smooth, milky way for this local candy operation.

“We were just going to sell wholesale and then Bud Stone, the Chamber President, asked us if we would come and move to the Chamber in Grand Rapids.”

From there on, Sandy, her husband, and their fantastic crew have been creating a Chamber, full of chocolatey goodness.

“It was catching on, you know, something new in town. We make our own creams, candies, toffees and caramel,” Gauwitz said.

It’s a wide selection for sweet tooth lovers, all across the board.

With the creation of pecan turtles, and sea salt caramels, and much more, Sandy says the move to a larger location was a blessing for her and her husband, with a vision of creating jobs in their community.

“We have grown, we’ve been here in our new location now for a year and a half and we still have our factory down the road,” Gauwitz said.

A split operation, which will soon be home to a new chocolate enrober, making for a pretty sweet deal for the company’s chocolatiers.

“However, we still hand dip, and still will make all of our candy, but it’ll just give us a little edge for our chocolatiers,” Gauwitz said.

Gauwitz says they make one piece of candy at a time. Piece by piece, Northwoods Candy Company has continued to grow.

“The miners in northeast Minnesota and Hibbing, they were the first ones to taste our candy, and they kept ordering and ordering.”