Gregory Pringle Makes ‘Power Bar’ Oatcakes From Generations-Old Family Recipe
SAINT JOHN- Eight years ago, Gregory Pringle lost his job as a civil technician.
With only $100 in his bank account, he had to do think of something quick.
“I did engineering for 18 years,” says Pringle. “I lost my job just before Christmas and I had to make rent.”
He found his solution pinned to his refrigerator, a recipe for oatcakes that had been in his family for four generations. He got baking.
“If you would have found [Oatcakes] a couple of hundred years ago, they’re still very hearty. A lot of people use them as a grab-and-go snack,” says Pringle. “If they’re on the run, they’ll take a couple of oatcakes because it will keep them full for a couple of hours. A couple of hundred years ago, that’s what they used to do. It was like the original power bar.”
Pringle made rent that month, thanks to selling them at the Saint John City Market and to friends. Eight years later, Cape Breton Oatcake Society oatcakes are now carried in 30 retailers across New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia.
“Originally I was able to bake from home, but then when things started to really grow the rules changed,” says Pringle. “When I started getting approached to supply a couple of coffee shops and smaller places, I couldn’t do it at home anymore because it had to be in a certified kitchen. Now I have a classified commercial kitchen over on the west side [of Saint John].”
Cape Breton Oatcake Society also supplies oatcakes to Simply For Life chains across Canada under the Simply For Life brand.
“I modified my recipe to follow in line with their requirements and it just exploded,” says Pringle.
Pringle makes oatcakes in over 20 flavours, including original, cranberry, lemon, Reese’s peanut butter, English toffee, espresso bean with dark chocolate, to name a few.
“The base everything is the same. Then add whatever the flavouring is,” he says. “If it’s blueberries, I add in dehydrated blueberries. If it’s lemon, I zest in a lemon.”
Though the number of retail suppliers is growing, Pringle says markets and larger-scale Christmas and crafts fairs are still a significant part of his business. He recently shipped 10,000 oatcakes to Newfoundland and Labrador for Christmas on the Glacier Festival this week.
“Retail is very consistent. I know how much is coming in monthly on that. I can bank on that,” he says. During the market season . . . it’s very intense and I get a lot of business there.”
Attending big craft and Christmas shows around the region allows Pringle to make new retail contacts. He also gets to meet and chat with new customers in-person, always wearing his traditional Scottish kilt.
“I love people’s reaction when they find out the guy standing there in a kilt in front of them is the actual guy that makes them. They’re like ‘what, really?'” says Pringle.
“There’s more to this than a guy standing here in a kilt selling some oatcakes, I’m the actual guy that makes them, markets it, packages and does it all.”
Pringle has a few casual workers that help him at his commercial kitchen space he rents at the Maritime Opportunities Centre in Saint John, but he says he is looking to hire his first full-time person soon.
“It feels great. I went from eight years ago losing my job and basically having $100 in my bank account to now I supply 30 plus retail locations across New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and P.E.I., plus I supply a health food chain across Canada.,” he says. “Hard work always wins.”
Looking ahead, Pringle says he plans for “world domination,” starting with expanding to more retailers across Canada and expanding into New England.
“I do want to keep on expanding not just in Canada, but globally, he says. “Doing so, I know there is a lot of work ahead of me and I’m not afraid of it.”