CORNWALL, Ontario – Local Cornwall bakery business Fairy Sweet has been selected as the first winner of the “Win this Space” contest, organized by Heart of the City and the Downtown Business Improvement Area (DBIA).
The DBIA announced the project last Spring and received dozens of submissions. Ultimately, they whittled their options down to five finalists, and Fairy Sweet came out on top.
Fairy Sweet is a from scratch bakery that specializes in sweets. Started by Sue Martin and her daughter Sue-Anne Heitmann in their kitchen, and then their basement, both are very grateful for this opportunity and already have visions for the space.
Located in the heart of Cornwall’s downtown, right next to Gordon’s Jewellers, they see themselves setting up an up-scale, New York chic bakery. They say their signature piece will be a pink velvet antique couch.
The DBIA will be providing Fairy Sweet with $1,000 a month for a year to help with the cost of the lease. In return for this support they have to be setup and open by the end of January.
“We’ve proven that this concept works and we’re so pleased with all of the submissions we received,” said Brenda Campbell, chair of the Downtown BIA. “The final decision was incredibly difficult because of the strong field of finalists who worked incredibly hard on their business plans and presentations.”
Fairy Sweets desserts are already well recognized and decorated, pardon the pun. They have won the Seeker Award for Best Homebased Business twice and they hold the world record for the world’s largest Ferrero Rocher.
“We’re bringing back to the community the old school feeling of things being made from scratch,” said Heitmann. “In the next year, we are hoping to hire on two people depending on how it goes.”
As it is now, Fairy Sweet is very much a family business with four generations of women taking part in the production of their delicious desserts.
Heitmann said that not only will this new space allow them to better showcase what they can do, but also to bring a whole new experience to the downtown.
“We’re always trying new things and trying to stay ahead of the trends and bring them to Cornwall,” she said.
When Fairy Sweet opens their new location, they plan on being open every week Tuesday to Sunday.
