Giffin’s Maple Syrup Products has been a family business for nearly four decades. Husband and wife team Jean and Don Giffin owned it and ran it together until Don passed away in 2017, leaving Jean alone to handle the business. Their daughter Diane and her husband Adrian decided to help out rather than leave the work of her parents and grandparents to the footnotes of history. Jean, Diane and Adrian all run it together now.
The Kingsville Times recently interviewed Giffin’s Maple Syrup Products.
“It’s kind of cool when people older than us have memories of coming to the sugar bush when they were kids,” Diane told The Times. “People know us, they look for our products and we are here to keep the local icon alive.”
Kingsville Times:
How would you describe your services and products?
Giffin’s Maple Syrup Products:
We make high-quality maple syrup and maple products. We have been world champions, and our family has been judging maple at the Royal Agricultural Winter Fair for nearly 25 years. We keep our standards very high and strive to deliver quality in every product.
KT:
Who are your target clients?
GMSP:
Everyone. Who doesn’t like our sweet stuff? We used to focus more on the tourist market, but we started to work closely with the grocery market about a year ago. This has helped us to not be as heavily impacted by COVID, since some of our markets were closed down for quite a while. We still do offer nicely decorated bottles for the tourism industry, but we’ve noticed a significant decline for the time being.
KT:
What is your business motto?
GMSP:
“Quality first.” We use the same bottles on our kitchen table that we stock in the stores.
KT:
What do your clients say about your business?
GMSP:
Since we’ve continued the family business of nearly 40 years, we’ve established trust and a following in our community and people look for the Giffin brand.
KT:
What are your plans for business growth? New services and products that clients can look out for?
GMSP:
We have been undergoing a massive brand refresh this past year. We have gone from the typical brown plastic jugs to a clear plastic. People want to see what they are buying and these new bottles have been well received. We have been investing heavily into new equipment to improve efficiency. This allows us more time to focus on our customers and promote our business.
Our Whisky Barrel Aged Maple Syrup is a new product. This barrel came from a local distillery and we filled it up with syrup. It has been seasoning for a couple of months, and the flavours have infused into the syrup. It’s quite a treat on ice cream and French toast!
KT:
How has COVID-19 affected your business and what have you done to COVID-proof your business?
GMSP:
Tourism has come to a full stop. Just as COVID was setting in, we were at the John R. Park Homestead Maple Festival. All the March break programming was cancelled, and we happily refunded the unsold products. We donated a large amount of maple syrup bottles to the May 16th Miracle, so it was a win for everyone.
To lessen the impact of COVID, we have been able to expand into more grocery markets, as these are an absolutely essential service and the local support has been terrific. Just before the pandemic hit, we launched our website and made a secure no-contact pick-up stand. This was just lucky timing on our part to already be prepared.
KT:
What advice would you give to others who might be considering starting a business?
GMSP:
There is a lot of competition out there and you have to find ways to stand out. We go to great lengths to be unique. Whether it be in packaging or products we do what most others don’t. Standing out from the crowd helps us to be noticed.
Giffin’s Maple Syrup Products Website:
www.GiffinsMaple.com
Phone:
1-888-83-MAPLE (62753)
Email:
info@GiffinsMaple.com
Address:
18883 Communication Road
Blenheim
Ontario
N0P 1A0
Photos provided by Giffin’s Maple Syrup Products
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