‘It’s just change’ Business model that powered Nutty Club ‘no longer there’, says company president By: Gabrielle Piché Posted: 5:44 PM CST Wednesday, Dec. 20, 2023 Last Modified: 9:19 AM CST Thursday, Dec. 21, 2023 Updates

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Within a boardroom showcasing Nutty Club candy bags and pink popcorn, there’s a sign: “A Taste of the Past…”

The Nutty Club’s east Exchange buildings may eventually be up for sale. First, though, James Burt is focused on wrapping up the brand and other operations under its parent company, Scott-Bathgate.

Burt, Scott-Bathgate’s president, sat down for an interview with the Free Press Wednesday. It comes a week after the 120-year-old institution announced its impending closure.

“It’s just change,” Burt, 90, said of the decision. “After 120 years, there’s just been too much change.”

He’s led the company for five decades. Last year, he had a heart attack. It triggered his choice to end the candy manufacturer’s operations, he said.

He didn’t establish a succession plan.

“The business model that Scott-Bathgate was built on is no longer there,” he stated.

In its heyday, Nutty Club snacks were stocked aplenty in corner stores and local grocers. Burt recalled small shops on “almost every corner” in the city when he began at the company in 1959.

Since then, grocery stores have amalgamated. A handful consume most of Canada’s grocery sector. They often ask suppliers to produce goods for national sale, Burt said.

Scott-Bathgate didn’t ink such contracts.

“We just didn’t feel that that was either necessary or feasible,” Burt said.

Instead, the company continued selling to smaller grocers and gas stations. Peppermint-striped Nutty Club bags have filled shelves in provinces west of Manitoba and east to Thunder Bay.

“Not too many kings 100 years ago would have the choice of products that the average household has today.”–James Burt on the expanding food market

Many of those stores shuttered during the COVID-19 pandemic, Burt relayed.

Meantime, as the years have passed, labour costs have increased and more food options have become available.

“Not too many kings 100 years ago would have the choice of products that the average household has today,” Burt said.

He deemed Scott-Bathgate’s journey “a good run,” noting the earlier downtown Winnipeg closures of department behemoths Eaton’s and The Bay.

Some 50 people nationally will be laid off once Scott-Bathgate ends next January; Burt will officially retire.

The east Exchange buildings emblazoned with the Nutty Club’s peppermint stick mascot, Can-D-Man, will likely be sold, though Burt has no immediate plans of selling.

The Pioneer Avenue Nutty Club warehouse was added to Winnipeg’s historical buildings list in 2017.

Burt said he’ll divest the properties that are “not necessary.” The company has used 130 Galt Ave., the former T. Eaton’s Company Warehouse, for roasting nuts and packaging candy.

Last week, the company mentioned it would work through its remaining stock.

Bags of Nutty Club products — banana chips, red pistachios — still line an aisle in a Sobeys Cash and Carry off Dufferin Avenue.

The Can-D-Man smiled at Alyssa Corbett, one of many shoppers surprised by the local institution’s closure.

“It’s a staple in some households,” she said, eyeing the peppermint-striped boxes.

Her family buys the brand’s unshelled sunflower seeds during the holidays. She figured she’d buy a bag before they’re gone.

Scott-Bathgate sold its products to companies through an “old-school method” of printed product catalogues, explained Janis Thiessen.

Thiessen, a University of Winnipeg history professor, wrote the book Snacks: A Canadian Food History around seven years ago. Nutty Club was part of her research.

Scott-Bathgate did little to innovate, including changing its sales techniques and products, for many decades, Thiessen stated.

She wasn’t surprised by the company’s announcement last week.

“This is… a function of the decline in their sales, the decline in their competitiveness slowly over the last two decades. It’s not a sudden change,” she said.

The closure is a loss: “there’s a connection that the company has with many Winnipeggers — if nothing else, just by virtue of that mural on that one building.”

However, it isn’t as big a loss as it would be in company’s prime in the 1950s, Thiessen continued.

She spoke to colleagues about Nutty Club’s imminent end, she said.

“The common response has been, unfortunately, ‘I thought they were already dead.’”

Other longstanding brands like Old Dutch have introduced new flavours and different branding as the decades have passed, Thiessen noted.

Scott-Bathgate employees were notified of the company’s closure weeks ago, Burt confirmed. They’ve been offered severance based on their years of service, according to the company.

gabrielle.piche@winnipegfreepress.com