Duties include: “leading candy committee meetings, being the chief taste tester … and all things fun.”
Several thousand candidates have already applied for the position, which was posted on LinkedIn in July, CEO Jamal Hejazi said. He noted that he has been surprised by the number of “golden ticket” applications and elaborate videos of entire families offering to share the tasting duties and salary.
But Hejazi also sees the attraction. “Imagine your best memories around candy and have them every day at work,” she said.
Candy Funhouse, based out of Toronto, is run by a quartet of brothers in their 20s and 30s who grew up in the area and whose parents owned donut shops and a local restaurant.
“My brother Mo, a sugarhead, founded it in 2018 and my mother was employee No. 2,” Hejazi said, adding that he and a younger sister and brother joined the company later.
Sales in 2021, boosted significantly by the pandemic, were “just under $15 million. I’m not kidding,” Hejazi said.
The family retains a 90% ownership stake.
The company said the Chief Candy Officer position is open to applicants as young as five — though parental permission will likely be required. Many parents have videotaped their child filling out the application and posted it online.
The company has 340,000 followers on Instagram and three million on Tik-Tok, including one Kardashian, Hejazi said, though he declined to specify who.
The company is currently gearing up for Halloween, its biggest sales period last year. “We have 40% of our reserves” so far, Hejazi said. Last week, candy giant Hersheys said it would struggle to meet Halloween-related demand this year.
Hejazi also noted that reports on social media claiming that the Chief Candy Officer will be required to eat 3,500 sweets per month are incorrect. (That number represents the different varieties the company carries.) “That would be 117 a day,” Hejazi said. “They are too many”.
