Freeport chocolatier gets $100,000 business plan grant
Courtesy / Wilbur's of Maine Chocolate Confections
Tom Wilbur and Catherine Carty-Wilbur, co-owners of Wilbur's of Maine Chocolate Confections based in Freeport, won a $100,000 Chase Bank Mission Maine Street Grant Program award.
When Tom Wilbur, co-owner of the family-owned and operated Wilbur's Of Maine Chocolate Confections in Freeport, applied to JPMorgan Chase Bank’s Mission Main Street Grant Program, he said he thought he’d sooner be hit by lightning than be selected as a recipient.
But the program notified him on Wednesday that he would receive a grant of $100,000. He said he plans to build a demonstration kitchen and establish a candy school as an extension of the kitchen, both aimed at making Wilbur’s a destination.
“We’re so excited,” co-owner Catherine Carty-Wilbur told Mainebiz, adding that she and her husband use the titles “king” and “queen” instead of conventional business monikers. “We were thinking of something to help the state of Maine and us, and we considered three programs, but applied to this one. We’re amazed.”
The couple started the business in 1983 as a retail establishment on Bow Street in Freeport. At the time, there were only two outlets in Freeport. Tom soon began experimenting with chocolate, developing Wilbur the Moose. Production grew, requiring moves until the factory landed at its current location at 174 Lower Main St. in 2008.
Along the way, it added a Brunswick store, which in 2011 moved from the Tontine Mall to Main Street. When their son Andy joined the business, he continued to develop new recipes. Today, the business makes more than 200 products.
According to the Mission Main Street Grant Program website, the program is an effort to increase awareness of the important role small businesses play in local communities and to help small businesses grow. The funds are designed to enable an established for-profit small business to execute a business plan that will result in expansion and growth.
Chase designated $2 million to be awarded to 20 recipients, each receiving $100,000. Applicants were required to respond to five essay questions, which asked about their businesses and what made them unique, what inspired them to become entrepreneurs, what their greatest achievements and challenges were, how their businesses were involved with their communities and how the funds would be utilized.
According to the program website, almost 1.7 million votes were cast for applicants, and those that received at least 250 votes were assessed by a diverse team of small business experts.
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