B.A. Sweetie Candy Company is Now Employee Owned

One of the largest candy stores is the country is now partially run by its own employees.

At the end of March, the B.A. Sweetie Candy Company has been restructed and run under an employee stock ownership plan. Roughly 50 of its 70 workers now have a limited say in the company’s future along with more padded retirements after they leave.

That was the end result of previous owner Tom Scheiman’s exit plan for semi-retirement. He sought succession plan for the company and a way to keep productivity and employee morale high.

“The ESOP checked all the boxes,” Scheiman wrote in a press release. “All employees are now walking with a spring in their step. They own a part of a successful, nationally-known, Cleveland-based company.”

Founded by entrepreneur Benjamin A. Sweet in 1950, B.A. Sweetie grew to a gargantuan distributor of candies and a tourist destination. In 2012, its shop migrated to a 40,000-square-foot beige building off Brook Park Road, which houses over a thousand varieties of chocolates, popcorns, sodas from about 200 manufacturers, and more.

ESOPs, as their commonly known, are rare in Northeast Ohio but not without their benefits on the ground floor. Many company owners that make the switch, like Great Lakes Brewing (in 2024) and the AKA Team (in 2021), tout healthier retirement savings and a general boost in morale.

And, as the data shows, a better financial outcome.

A report released by Rutgers in 2024, which analyzed two decades of ESOP data, showed that workers with employee stock options were twice as weathly and worked three years longer than their non-ESOP counterparts.

“Statistically, that’s what it’s shown,” B.A. Sweetie President Peter Kempton, Jr. told Scene. “When it’s gone to a ESOP, you see an uptick in productivity. People really take more of a—I guess, pun intended—more of an ownership of their jobs.”

“Our employees here all do a great job already,” he added, “it just gives them that extra incentive to really go the extra mile.”

And stay longer. Kempton predicted the average tenure for a B.A. employee — currently about four years — might grow with workers cognizant of the perk for their pocketbooks. Though Kempton didn’t say what those financials would be, they would be “pretty significant” upon retirement, he said.

Workers have to be full-time and have at least a year under their belts before ESOP benefits kick in.