Sudbury brittle goes international

Lively entrepreneur Cindy Babcock will be participating at the 2010 Olympics — not for her athletic abilities, but for her peanut brittle products.

Babcock, owner of Sinfully Deelicious gourmet brittles, is one of 15 vendors at the Ontario Pavilion at the Vancouver Olympic games, which will be held Feb. 12-28. The proceeds from the 5,000 bags of candy sold during that period will help fund Olympic events.

Babcock first learned of the opportunity to market her brittle to the world after getting a tip from the Sudbury Regional Business Centre. She was given contact information for the Vancouver Olympic Secretariat office in Toronto and, after several attempts, Babcock managed to find someone there who would sample her confections.

Within days of receiving the samples, the office called Babcock to tell her the brittle would be featured at the Ontario Pavilion.

“I was just elated,” Babcock said.

“I was just in shock. (Then it hit me) I didn’t have much time to do this.”

After realizing she needed help to purchase supplies to make her product and ship it to Vancouver, she asked several local businesses to help her out.

Smith’s Market and National Grocers donated sugar. Battistelli’s Your Independent Grocer donated butter. Manitoulin Transport stepped up to ship the candy.

Production firm M-Plicit created a commercial featuring the brittle. The commercial will play inside the pavilion, along with other commercials.

Babcock even received help to change the labels on the packages of brittle to give the sweet treats “more of a Canadian look.” Sinfully Deelicious has eight different flavours of brittle, but only two flavours — the decadent cashew crunch the peanut variety — will be featured at the Olympic pavillion.

Babcock said she hopes to gain national and international exposure and draw attention to northern Ontario and Sudbury. She says she is the only vendor from northern Ontario.

Babcock launched her company in her basement in 2005.

“What started as a hobby has now exploded into a brittle frenzy,” she stated on her website. “Our brittles are supplied all over Canada to such companies as Cineplex Odeon and Your Independent Grocer.”

Babcock said all her brittles are hand made and can last for three months in the packaging. She also offers sugar free versions of her brittle. The candy comes in flavours such as almond brittle, pistachio brittle, pumpkin brittle, rum and butter pecan brittle and maple almond brittle, among others.

Babcock had a booth at the Royal Winter Fair last fall as part of the FedNor-sponsored Northern Ontario Pavilion.
For more information, visit www.sinfullydeelicious.com. Phone 692-0505.