Our Story
1921
John Hastings began his career in the wholesale food business. Together with his brothers, he began manufacturing and packing wholesale meat and other grocery items.
1940-50’s
John’s son, Jack, prospered by fulfilling his customers’ demands for confectionery as there had been drastic shortages of these sweet delicacies during the war years. Utilizing a fleet of delivery vans, he serviced local areas with delicious treats such as chocolate bars, hard and chewy candies and other snacks. To further enhance sales, he sought out and worked with other wholesalers to reach even more retailers.
1951
Jack succeeded in importing his first overseas shipment, toffee from the United Kingdom. This would be the first of many imported products including hard boilings, lollipops, liquorice, fudge, chocolate and English biscuits, to find their way to Hastings’ customers.
1970’s
The scope of the business expanded with distribution reaching out to all of Canada with an emphasis on sweets for the specialty market. Jack’s son, John, further extended the product ranges and added new suppliers from many parts of the world.
TODAY
J. E. Hastings Ltd. is involved with many aspects of the confectionery trade, touching on manufacturing, custom packing, importation and domestic distribution. The company inventories over 1200 SKU’s and serves several thousand retail and wholesale customers in all regions of Canada. The next generation has joined the family business. John’s sons, Jeremy and Colin Hastings have taken on the responsibility of maintaining and extending the company’s scope of business. After over 100 years of family tradition, the Hastings still adhere to their great grandfather’s motto, “You will never regret selling quality!”.