Sharp’s Candies owners Bob and Becky Sharp, left, founded Sharp’s Candies in 1973 in the Old Rosemont Garden shopping center. Now based on Regency Road and owned by Lisa and Rob Sharp, right, the family business is this year celebrating its 50th anniversary.
Lisa Sharp said that after three decades in the candy business, people often ask her, “Are you sick of eating it? You probably don’t eat it anymore, do you?” She admits that she eats plenty of candy, every day. It’s that good.
“Oh my God, yes,” she said. “I’ve loved candy my whole life!”
Sharp and her husband, Rob, co-own Sharp’s Candies. Rob’s parents, Bob and Becky, now retired, founded the business 50 years ago at a location in the Old Rosemont Garden shopping center. The company has been based at its current Regency Road location, which resembles a gingerbread house, for more than 30 years, Lisa said.
Lisa said she knows how lucky she is, marrying into a candy-making family, where a team of six employees makes mouthwatering confections — more than 100 varieties, all from family recipes. Currently, Rob and Lisa are the only family members working there, she said, but she considers it a family atmosphere all the same.
In the candy business, things don’t need to be high-tech — including the website, which appears stark and simple by today’s standards. And not the equipment, which still works well while whipping up large batches of fudge, divinities, caramel apples, toffees, caramels, and “saddles,” named by Becky Sharp years ago as a nod to being located in horse country. They’re clusters of caramel, pecans, and chocolate.
Lisa Sharp displays a tray of caramel apples. Sharp’s Candies makes nearly everything in-house based on family recipes.
“When you’re very small, those [technologies] just become more laborious,” she said. They wouldn’t dream of outsourcing the work, as most everything is made in-house, which is key to quality control.
“We know when everything was made because we make it,” she said. “We box it. We do everything.”
Sharp’s Candies also partners with Woodford Reserve, a company that also believes in time-tested methods and quality, in making bourbon balls, bourbon creams, bourbon cherries, and bourbon truffles.
Another valuable trait for all team members has been flexibility, Lisa said. She said everyone involved knows they must pitch in to do whatever task is needed at the time to get the candies made and into customers’ hands, whether that’s a candy-making task, sweeping the floor, unloading a truck, or answering the phone.
There’s little need to pad the lineup that customers return to year after year with flashy new products, though in recent years Lisa said the company has introduced a few new fruity confections — a key lime truffle and a mango cream.
Lexington’s not really that big of a market, she said, and there aren’t thousands of people walking past their storefront wanting to pop in and try something new, so it’s not really necessary or wise to offer niche candies with narrow appeal.
These approaches continue to serve the company well, as Rob reports the company sells about 34,000 pounds of chocolates between Thanksgiving and Christmas alone. They’re not immune to challenges that face other small businesses, Lisa said, including staffing. Though there are some long-term employees, it can be tricky to add enough seasonal workers to meet the demands of the busy holiday season, their peak time of year.
Candy-centric holidays like Valentine’s Day and Easter provide business boosts, but then summers are slow, she said, and that time is spent making candy and preparing for the holiday whirlwind that’s to come.
“It’s a hard pace to go from zero to 60!” she said.
To commemorate its milestone 50th anniversary this year, Sharp’s Candies, which roasts its own nuts in-house, extended its popular cashew sale throughout November. Lisa doesn’t hesitate when asked the best part of the job.
“Eating the candy!” she said.