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From Jersey Milk treasures to fruit-flavoured Rockets, Toronto has a long history when it comes to producing sweets. In 1833, there were only three confectioneries listed in the town of York — the most well-known belonged to an Italian immigrant named Franco Rossi at 217 King St. and Alexander Erskine at 5 King St.
Six decades later, the city directory listed more than 150 businesses involved in confectionery and cocoa production. According to the City of Toronto, this growth was partially fuelled by innovations in chocolate-making — chocolate started to taste better and had smoother textures!
Mom-and-pop confectioners were eventually replaced with large-scale manufacturers, and by the early 20th century, Toronto’s chocolate industry was monopolized by three big players: Neilson’s, Laura Secord, and Willards.
William Neilson began producing chocolate at his Gladstone Avenue plant (near Gladstone and College) in 1906. The plant was first a small dairy operation, but Neilson manufactured chocolate as a way to keep his ice cream makers employed during the slow winter months. By 1914, Neilson was pumping out tons of chocolate — more than 500,000 lbs per year!
When the chocolate maker died in 1915, his son Morden took over the family business, and he led the company to become one of Canada’s largest chocolate makers. Popular chocolate bars originally created under the Neilson brand, like Crispy Crunch (developed in 1923) and Jersey Milk (created in 1924), are still produced today. And, of course, our beloved Caramilk, which is only made right here in Toronto, although there are different versions under different names worldwide.
In 1913, around the same time that Neilson first set up shop, Frank O’Connor and his wife Mary opened the first Laura Secord store (named after the well-known historical figure) at 354 Yonge Street, near Yonge and Elm. They sold chocolate products manufactured in their apartment kitchen and emphasized the quality, purity, and dignity of these chocolates — values that are still important to the company today. By the mid-1920s, Laura Secord had grown internationally, with 57 stores in Canada and 19 in the U.S. (under the now-defunct Fanny Farmer brand).
Now onto the somewhat dubious part of Toronto’s chocolate manufacturing history — Willards was founded in 1914 by E.G. Robinson (ironically, a former Neilson’s employee). It’s possible that he had a less-than-stellar reputation, as various historical accounts have suggested he used price-cutting and “sharp practices” to avoid paying bills. Willards was incorporated in 1920 and moved its headquarters to 453 Wellington St., becoming stiff competition for Laura Secord.
In 1931, the brand launched (and eventually became well-known for) its “Sweet Marie” chocolate bar, filled with crispy rice, peanuts, caramel, and nougat covered in chocolate. In addition to the now-defunct Sweet Marie bar, Willards became notorious for its role in the 1920s labour dispute — the company was accused of violating Ontario’s Minimum Wage Act by falsifying payroll records and underpaying female employees! Willards was fined for the violations and it thankfully opened up a deeper discussion about labour rights.
Chocolate isn’t the only sweet thing that Toronto has had a hand in producing. In the early 1960s, Rockets Candy (oddly known as Smarties in the U.S. due to trademark issues) was produced at a factory on Queen St W (where the Candy Factory Lofts are located today). The candies are super popular around Halloween as they taste fruity and sugary (in the 1970s, candy makers switched from cane sugar and beet sugar to dextrose) and are relatively cheap compared to other candy.
The factory building was sold in the late 1980s, and production was moved to Newmarket, where billions of packets of the tablet-shaped fruit-flavoured candies are still made today.
As for the chocolate factories — they underwent some mergers as time went by. Neilson’s was bought out by George Weston Ltd. after Morden passed away in 1947, and the Gladstone plant continued operating for a few years. Weston then acquired Willards in 1954; the two chocolate subsidiaries were merged in 1970.
Today, the Neilson brand is part of Mondelez International, and its Gladstone Avenue plant manufactures delicious favs like Dairy Milk, Crispy Crunch, and Mr. Big chocolate bars.
