Erik Thornally's Journey from Failed Supplements to Successful Swedish Candy

Yeah, absolutely. My name is Erik Thornally and I am the founder of Saturday Sweets and Saturday Sweets is a brand of authentic Swedish candy.

Man, it was a long time in the making. After I got out of college, I had a real passion for entrepreneurship and I really fell in love with the idea of creating something from scratch that had never been done before. And my immediate passion at the time was health and fitness, and it still is. So after I got out of college, I actually launched a dietary supplement company. But unfortunately, I launched that brand literally three days before the lockdown started in 2020.

So that business was entirely derailed when the gyms closed, people stopped buying pre workouts and protein powders and it crushed the business. So as devastated as I was, I went back to the drawing board and thought of like, what else do I care about? What else do I know something about? Where else do I see a gap in the industry where I could do something a little bit better? And me being half Swedish, I grew up eating this amazing Swedish candy my whole life. When I visit my family in Sweden, it was always my favourite part of the trips.

And I just connected the dots and it checked all those boxes that I just mentioned. So in the fall of 2020, about six months after the supplement company failed is when I launched the first version of Saturday Sweets. So it’s been around for almost four years now.

It’s a tough question because candy has such a high household penetration. 98 % of households in the United States actually buy and consume candy. So as much as we all need to kind of narrow down and identify that, that number one persona, with a product that’s as ubiquitous as candy, it can be tough. Now that being said, there are a few personas of people that I see frequently buy, Saturday Sweets and who it could be targeted for.

One in particular could be that person that’s looking for better for you options of candy compared to the traditional gummy worms and gummy bears. All of our candy is GMO free. There’s no high fructose corn syrup, no gelatin, no trans fat, a lot of it’s naturally coloured plant based gluten free. The list goes on and on, but most importantly is that it tastes incredible. So when you have somebody that’s looking for those better for you options, which is something that I’m personally extremely passionate about too.

It’s a great alternative to the really low quality candy that we’re so used to here in the States. On top of that, you know, I, like I mentioned, I have a huge interest for health and fitness. I’m really into bodybuilding style lifting. So you’ll catch me snacking on a few pieces of candy before a workout. So I share with a lot of my friends at the gym and they do the same thing. Or even like the mother that’s shopping for her children and wants to give her children a nice little sweets treat and not feel as guilty about it with all of the fake stuff that’s in American candy these days.

Yeah, so it’s candy. It’s tough to be revolutionary in candy, I think. I mean, when you’re talking about recipes of products, like everything’s been done, every shape, every flavour has been created already. So it’s really hard to do something unique. Now, that’s what’s so cool about Swedish candy is that Saturday sweets falls into the spectrum of like the better for you category of products because it is does have some cleaner ingredients than traditional American candy but the most important value proposition that I share with people outside of the nutritional benefits, because at end of the day, realistically, nobody really cares how much better it is for you if it tastes like trash. But so, that being said, the number one value proposition I share with people is that it’s the best tasting candy that you’ll ever try. Now, I know it’s a big statement, but it’s backed up. Swedish people in general, they eat the most candy per capita out of anybody in the world.

They’ve been perfecting their crafts for a long time and this is no different. So I, a good example I like to share to help people kind of grasp what that means and compared to something is how Mexican Coca -Cola comes in a glass bottle. It’s made with real sugar. It doesn’t have fake colouring. And when you taste that first sip out of that glass bottle, You’re like, wow, this is so much better than the American Coca -Cola that we have, which is loaded with high fructose corn syrup. It’s in the can. It’s got the fake caramel colour. And even though the regular Coca -Cola recipe, it still tastes good. It’s sweet. It’s what we’re used to. When people realise there’s a better version of something that they love out there, they just haven’t discovered it yet. It’s this aha moment that you can see on their faces. And I see it all the time with my Swedish candy.

Because as much as we love our gummy bears, our trolley, our sour patch, there is a better quality candy out there that’s made with better ingredients and tastes a lot better too that people just aren’t aware of yet.

My best selling product right now is our sour skulls. Now I’m unfortunately sold out of them, but the skulls have been a top seller because they got a really strong sour punch to them. And they also come in four flavours per bag. I would say the next best seller after that would be our mini dummies right here. And it’s a similar kind of style of candy where you get a whole bunch of flavours all mixed in one bag and not quite as sour, but it’s just strong fruit flavours. But my personal favourite is the sweet strawberry, I got a big sweet tooth so these big strawberry pieces are my favourite.

Yeah. Yeah. I go through a lot of taste testing and snacking on candy. And the tough part is to also like, even if it does, even if it tastes good for me and I love it, it might not be the right fit for here in the States. I mean, so many Swedish candies, like black licorice, are one of the most common candies and flavours in Scandinavia.

But black licorice here in the States, people would, it makes people want to throw up, including myself. I do not have the palette for something like black, salty black licorice, even though my mom loves it. My mom is the one that’s from Sweden. so you gotta kind of understand, like you gotta take the inspiration and ideas from Sweden, but then also put my own twist on it to make sure it’s something that’s suitable for the American marketplace here, but I can really predict it, performing well with this type of demographic.

Yep. And if it’s not the salty black licorice that gets you it’ll be the Swedish herring which is a pickled fish that comes in a jar and that one requires a refined palate as well I’ll tell you.

There’s some really exciting things on the horizon for Saturdays Sweets. Actually, it’s crazy timing the most. The biggest thing I have going on right now is I, I have a, I finished filming a business TV show that’s airing on Amazon prime next week and Saturdays Sweets is it’s myself competing with other entrepreneurs on a TV show. So, you’ll see me and Saturdays Sweets on that and I’m hoping that’s going to bring some exposure and attention to the brands to be on a big nationwide streaming service. It’s called 60 Day Hustle. Yeah, it’s a brand new series. Yeah, so I’ll be on there.

Hey, you know, it’s the technical side of the website thing. It’s not one of my strong points in all transparency, but the websites up there, it’s ready to go. And I’m really excited to see what kind of momentum that turns into, if anything at all. I mean, at the end of the day, I’m not expecting anything from it. I know that opportunities like getting publicity in that kind of sense can be huge for a small brand like mine, but at the same time, it’s not something that you want to consistently rely on as your only source of traffic or marketing.

So I’ll take what I can get from it. But at the end of day, it was a great experience. And it was really cool to be on a TV show, which is never something I was expecting to do.

There are a few stores in Canada, I think only three or four stores in Canada that do carry our products but 99 % of them are here in the United States and the few from, excuse me, few stores in Canada, the carrier candy, they’ve come in from fair, the online wholesale platform. So, it makes it pretty easy. I do want to stay focused on the United States for now. I really feel like this is the best market to introduce a candy like this, especially with Swedish candy being so viral on social media for all of this year. It’s an amazing time to have a Swedish candy business in the States. That being said, I mean, who knows where the international markets could take a brand like this. I have received interest from other stores in Iceland, in Australia, in Germany, but me being a, small you know, business, me doing everything myself, it can be almost intimidating sometimes to think about, okay, well, how do I even get started with a process like that? So I’m taking things pretty slow, but making sure I do it the right way.

Yeah, I mean, Saturday Sweets by no means is immune to challenges just because there’s a lot of interest in a candy like this right now. One of the biggest challenges that has been plagued for plaguing the business for a couple of years is being bootstrapped. I, you know, bootstrapped everything myself and it hasn’t been easy, but I never wanted to be in a position where I had this incredible idea in my head but I knew that I a hundred thousand dollars, half a million dollars, whatever it is to launch it and then have to rely on other people in order to make my dream a possibility. So because of that, I’ve been very calculated in my expenses, in how I proceed and everything that I do. I’m very lean right now and I’m sure there are quicker, more efficient ways to do things and especially outsourcing work and bringing on the right people to help out.

And I’m really excited when I can make those luxuries a reality, but I just gotta remind myself to be patient and everybody’s got a different story. So I’m writing my story one day at a time and outside of the bootstrapping thing, the big challenge I’ve had this year is staying in stock of candies. Like I mentioned, the sour schools have been out of stock for a few months now. I am burning through this candy just because there is so much demand right now. And with it all coming from Sweden, It can be difficult and, it can be difficult on the supply chain when shipping times vary with it coming overseas. I’ve even had some issues with imports, import documents with the FDA, and had shipments be returned back to Sweden, which have cost me a lot. So some of the supply chain issues are pretty stressful when you’re dealing with a foreign good like mine.

I tell, I try to remind myself all the time that if this was easy, somebody else would have done it before and because it is so challenging and difficult with things like getting a consistent supply of the candy and getting the import on the time when I need it. That’s why I’m sure people have tried and they’ve given up in the past because it hasn’t worked out been too difficult. I, that kind of helps me keep me grounded when I’m going through those tough times when things aren’t going so good.

I would give advice. The advice I would give to somebody trying to launch a brand would be to make sure you have a clear problem that you’re trying to solve with your product and make sure that you’re willing to undergo the long process it takes to turn it into something. That patience is something that I took for granted because everybody, including myself, when they think they have this incredible idea, they’re so excited to launch it. They think they’re going to turn into a millionaire in a year or two, And that’s certainly how I was in my first business. It usually doesn’t work out like that, unfortunately. And, me being four years into Saturday Sweets, I’m really grateful for all of the progress and where I am today, but it’s been a tough four years. And, I think that you have to be willing to undergo, you have to voluntarily accept those challenges.

knowing that you’re going to be making sacrifices, knowing that you’re going to have to say no to a lot of things, knowing that things are going to get worse before they get better in many circumstances. So mentally it requires a lot of fortitude to accept that challenge, which is why it’s not for everybody. But at the end of the, at the end of the day, with bigger risks like this come bigger rewards. And when I think of the dream lifestyle that I want to live, being mobile, being able to travel, live wherever I want, and just free up my time. There’s not a lot of professions or careers out there that you can do that with.

And I feel so grateful that I can share an extension of myself through my candy with people and I’m so passionate about it that I’m excited every day I wake up and get to my office and start working for Saturday Sweets. It’s a dream for me. So, it definitely helps with an idea that you are so passionate about. So I would also share with somebody looking to start their own thing that make sure it’s something you care about because that’s what’s going to help push you through on the days or the weeks and months when things aren’t going great and you are thinking about giving up.

Yeah, yeah, that’s right. Thank you so much. Really appreciate it.

My pleasure. It’s amazing to speak with you.