MONTREAL — Sugar shack owners across Quebec are reopening their dining rooms for the first time since the pandemic began, and strangely they are crediting COVID-19 with revitalizing their sector.
© Provided by The Canadian Press
The spring sugar shack experience—eating baked beans and ham at long tables with strangers, enjoying tractor rides through slush, and nibbling maple taffy on wooden sticks—was declining before the pandemic.
But two years of COVID-19 lockdown have forced the industry to reinvent an outdated business model. Some even say that it is more durable than before the health crisis.
“We had been doing the same thing for 50 years,” said Camélie Gingras, manager of the La Goudrelle sugar shack in Mont-Saint-Grégoire, Montérégie, in an interview. “When I told my 84-year-old grandfather that we were going to do boxed meals for online orders, I can tell you he looked at me with a question mark on his face.”
Ms. Gingras and other sugar shack owners credit the sector’s revival to an online retail platform launched in February 2021 that allows them to sell take-out versions of traditional spring meals. Created by the Quebec Sugar Shack Association, the Ma Cabane à la Maison platform has helped reinvent the experience.
Sugar bush owners can now sell their products online all year round. They can also opt for a hybrid model: reopening for a limited indoor dining experience, with reduced overhead, and also selling take-out meals.
“People who did not go to sugar shacks before the pandemic now order our meals to eat at home, testifies Ms. Gingras. This is such a great opportunity for us.”
The pandemic might have been just what Quebec sugar shacks needed to revamp their traditional, lackluster offerings, says Stephanie Laurin, president of the Quebec Sugar Shack Association. Before the pandemic, the industry faced an existential threat: the lack of succession to take over businesses amid aging owners.
Ten years ago, there were more than 200 sugar shacks across Quebec. That number had dropped to around 140 before the pandemic, says Ms. Laurin.
“We were stuck in our old habits and our traditions, and we didn’t dare to evolve,” says Ms. Laurin, who also manages the Chalet des Érables sugar shack in the Laurentians.
“The pandemic made us realize that we had stagnated while society was at a place where we needed online stores and things to be accessible.”
Last year, the association estimates that the online platform generated $11.5 million in revenue for participating businesses over an eight-week period. In addition, Ms. Laurin specifies that 75% of customers surveyed said they wanted the online store to be permanent, even if the dining rooms were allowed to reopen.
“We were flabbergasted to know that,” he said. We have written a new chapter in the history of the sugar shack in Quebec!”
Of the 70 companies that participated in the project in 2021, 50 have decided to stay there this year, adds Ms. Laurin.
Mélanie Charbonneau, co-owner of Érablière Charbonneau, in Mont-St-Grégoire, is one of them. When the Quebec government gave its approval to the reopening of dining rooms, it was at the start of the sugar shack season. She deemed it more prudent to adopt a hybrid model.
“You can’t reopen a sugar shack with only a few weeks notice,” says Ms. Charbonneau. You need a plan. These meals in these metal boxes are like insurance.”
She points out that by selling these products all year round via the internet, her business is even more profitable than before the pandemic.
“When people can no longer make reservations or go to a dining room, they buy take-out meals. There is real demand. It’s here for good, in my opinion. The pandemic will have had that positive.”
Pierre Gingras, co-owner of La Grillade, a sugar shack in St-Alphonse-de-Granby, the hybrid model allows him to worry less about the lack of labor which has been aggravated by the pandemic. According to him, it is particularly difficult to find staff for the sugar shacks because the season usually runs its course from February to the end of April. In addition, the sector faces competition from restaurants across the province to recruit employees.
Ms. Laurin says the combination of dining and take-out is the road to success for sugar shacks.
“Netflix does not prevent cinemas from existing, she compares. One encourages the other. Why can’t people order a meal and also enjoy the experience of a meal at the sugar shack during the season?
Virginie Ann, The Canadian Press