Mrs. Cavanaugh's Candies Inc., the North Salt Lake-based chocolatier, confirmed Friday it has put itself up for sale.
"George is 80 and Marie is 75, and they have realized their dream," Lorraine Tennant said of her parents, Mrs. Cavanaugh's founder Marie Cavanaugh and her husband, George. "It has been a fun road, all the way."
Marie Cavanaugh launched her chocolate-making empire from a modest kitchen table in South Dakota in the 1960s and brought the dream to fruition in Utah over the next four decades.
As Tennant tells it, Marie had a knack for cooking — delicious meals, desserts and fine chocolates — and learned early in her marriage to George that she also had a feel for business.
"The whole thing started as a (church) building fund-raising project in South Dakota," said Tennant, who also oversees the company's Ogden store. "She'd had recipes handed down to her from her mother and her aunts, and she'd made candy for years. But (during the fund-raiser) she became so knowledgeable, and the candy was so popular, that she decided to go to the local banker, and the business was born.
"The way they tell the story, she went by herself to the bank with a box of chocolates," looking for start-up funding, Tennant said. "This was in the 1960s, so it was a real gutsy move for her to make. She borrowed, I believe, $15,000. The man at the bank gave her the loan, and then he ordered 200 pounds of chocolate to give to his friends and neighbors to help get her business launched."
Forty-three years later, Mrs. Cavanaugh's includes eight stores in Utah, from Ogden to Orem. It employs 17 full-time workers, plus about 100 seasonal workers.
This year, it opened a 26,000-square-foot factory and retail facility.
So why sell now?
"Thanks to all the wonderful support, the business has just become too big for them," Tennant said. "It's become overwhelming."
And in its February 2007 issue, Inc. magazine wrote that "the timing is right" for Mrs. Cavanaugh's to sell.
"Gourmet candy companies are in demand," the Inc. article said. "Among others, Hershey and 1-800-Flowers.com have acquired several such companies of late."
Tennant said the company has had "overwhelming response" from prospective buyers. Some are from Utah, she said. Others come from the coasts.
"If I had the money, I'd love to buy it myself," she said. "But I don't. They built this beautiful new factory, and it (the price) just went right over my head."
The purchase price listed in Inc., $2.5 million, is incorrect, Tennant said. The company did not disclose its asking price, nor when a deal might be expected.
"There are a lot of options that I'm not able to discuss right now," Tennant said. "We could still be very much involved in the business. But we won't sell it to someone who will change it. This business will go to someone who will keep it Mrs. Cavanaugh's, keep it local and continue with the traditions it is known for."
E-mail: jnii@desnews.com