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 Connie Lawson has been making chocolates for 24 years. But the 33-year-old Spring City resident admits she’s only been making “chocolate that I’m really proud of for … 15 years.”
That’s right. She began making chocolate when she was only 9 years old. “My poor family and friends ate a lot of nasty chocolate,” she laughed. “Nine to 13 were not my good years of chocolate making.”
Those years of trial and error have paid off to the benefit of Spring-Ford area palates. Lawson, with her business partner father-in-law William Lawson, opened Sweet Ashley’s Chocolate on Main Street, Royersford, last November.
Prior to moving to the Spring-Ford area, Lawson and her husband, Rob, lived in State College. There she managed a coffee shop and began making candy for the college kids. A customer suggested the name “Sweet Ashley’s” in honor of Lawson’s daughter, who was 9 months old at the time. Now 8, Ashley herself is starting to learn how to make chocolates.
The name “had a good ring to it,” Lawson said, and her chocolate business was born. When they moved here because of her husband’s job (he works in the golf department at Rivercrest in Upper Providence), she took a few years off, then began looking for a place to open a candy store.
Lawson and her father-in-law had looked in Spring City, Phoenixville and Royersford for a couple of months when they spotted the Main Street location. As they looked into renting the shop, they discovered that the landlord’s parents had opened a candy store in that very spot in 1959.
“It was very reassuring when deciding on the place,” Lawson said. “It’s turning out to be a great location.”
Her father-in-law commented on the absence of parking meters in Royersford as one plus, and Lawson complimented the borough on the great job on snow removal last winter.
The reception from the community and businesses has been excellent, William Lawson said. “We have several customers that are local … (who) come back again and again.” Concerning other Main Street businesses, he added, “They seem to be happy that we’re here. We’re pretty much not competition for anybody.”
Lawson is pleased with the success of her business thus far. The business has grown to the point that she is leaving her full-time job as a distribution coordinator for Almac Clinical Services, Audubon, at the end of August “to come here and do this.”
“Our goals have been small. I’m not trying to be Hershey any time soon,” she reflected. “I think that’s why it’s so encouraging.”
Lawson makes most of the chocolates in her Department of Agriculture certified kitchen in her home in Spring City. Only those pieces which need to be put through an enrobing machine have to be made elsewhere.
“Our goal is to eventually make it all,” Lawson noted. Her first goal, she said, was to find a retail location with storage space for the gift basket materials, and that has been accomplished. The next step, she said, will be to move the equipment out of her house, hopefully to another Spring City location.
William Lawson remarked that if the business grows enough, an eventual goal would be to open a second store, “but we don’t want to get ahead of ourselves.” He added that they had established an 18-month target to reach a certain point and probably will reach that goal at about the 12-month point.
Lawson agreed that they are ahead of their goals. She said they had set realistic goals so they could check them off as they accomplish the goals. Laughing, she added, “Well, I know his goal is to move to Florida,” but the business will need to be completely self-sustaining and able to hire other staff before that can happen.
Right now, her father-in-law runs the store during most of the retail hours, enabling Lawson and her husband to work at their full-time jobs.
The creative genius behind Sweet Ashley’s, Lawson admitted, “When I’m bored I make new stuff. That’s how a lot of it came to be.”
Her favorite had been peanut clusters, but she ate a few too many and had to switch to something else. “I’m really a big fan of the cherries,” she added. Her preferred type of chocolate is milk chocolate, while William prefers dark. She just began making dark chocolates last fall, she said, and added the white chocolate line around Easter.
She is currently promoting a “summer trio,” featuring summery flavors. One piece is key lime pie, another is lemon, both in dark chocolate, and the third is blueberry cheesecake with a white chocolate coating.
Although many chocolate makers close in the summer, Sweet Ashley’s is able to stay open thanks to a cold pack system they developed with ice packs and Styrofoam boxes.
Sweet Ashley’s, 343 Main St., Royersford, is open seven days a week. Call 610-948-1085 for hours.
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