The Sweet Life

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 04/01/2022 (988 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Driving through downtown Winnipeg, you can’t miss Can-D-Man, Nutty Club Foods’ iconic red-and-white peppermint stick mascot painted on the building at 149 Pioneer Ave. His friendly face is so familiar and so closely associated with the brand it’s easy to forget that Scott-Bathgate Ltd. is actually the name of the company.

Scott-Bathgate manufactures and distributes candy, nuts, popcorn, baking ingredients, seasonal treats and imported brands, including PEZ and Walkers’ Toffee. The company is based in Winnipeg and operates with the help of 65 employees and an additional four branches in Western Canada.

“We make our own popcorn, peanut butter, pancake syrup, mustard, ice-cream cones, batter mix for chicken or fish,” says Brendan Noone, sales manager.

“All of the nuts are roasted and packaged at our factory operations located at 130 Galt Ave., the old T. Eaton Company Warehouse. Candy is also packaged there.”

The company was founded in 1903 by businessmen A. E. Scott and J. L. Bathgate, at a time when the population of Western Canada was well under one million people. In the 1930s, the company began to expand and started packaging a retail line. These days, it manages and distributes retail and wholesale products from warehouse facilities in Winnipeg, Regina, Calgary, Edmonton and Delta, B.C.

Company president James Burt joined the business more than 60 years ago, in 1959, when he gave up a career flying planes for Trans-Canada Air Lines.

He didn’t work his way up the corporate ladder in the traditional way.

“I did it the easy way — I married the boss’s daughter!” he says, laughing.

“You need to stay relevant with good service and quality products.”
– 
Brendan Noone, sales manager, Scott-Bathgate Ltd.

Burt carries out all the duties one would expect of a senior executive, plus a few more.

“At times I do many other things, like turn out the lights when I leave,” he says. “I do love the business and I look forward to coming in every day.”

Like his career, the company itself has had extraordinary longevity, but Burt says there isn’t any single key to that achievement.

“We pride ourselves on service and we are always alert to new products and packaging,” he says. “You need to stay relevant with good service and quality products.”

There have been many changes in the business over the years, but the most significant occurred in the 1950s and ‘60s.

“Department stores had candy counters where the candy was weighed out, so you went in and got 10 cents worth of jellybeans or 15 cents worth of jujubes. In those days, a nickel could buy something,” he says.

“The big change that took place was packaged candy going into bags and onto store shelves rather than weighing it out. That was a big, big change and we went along with that.”

While manufacturing and packaging processes — and times — change, there has been one constant at Scott-Bathgate. People are still the most important company asset, and Burt has a deep appreciation for them.

He cites the COVID-19 pandemic as one of many challenges the company and its employees have faced, and he’s proud of the way they rose to the occasion.

“We were considered an essential industry so we stayed open, and I can say that we have not had one case of an employee who caught the virus,” he says.

The company took all the precautions necessary, although running a physically distanced production line was tricky.

“We had hand sanitizers, temperatures were taken twice a day, and we told every employee, ‘If you feel sick, stay home from work. You won’t lose a day’s pay — just look after yourself,’ ” Burt says.

“I said in my Christmas message last year that I really believed that every employee felt they had a sense of responsibility, not only to their fellow employees but to their families.”

It’s an attitude that speaks to the company culture. Loyal employees are a lot like the Can-D-Man — you can count on them to always be there.

“I think the employees here are fantastic, and I’ve said this on more than one occasion, ‘If you want to live a long life, work for Scott-Bathgate,’ ” Burt says. “People just stay and stay and stay.”