A year ago, Ryan Albright and his two business partners were hauling their product in the back of a Toyota Corolla, making deliveries in communities along the St. John River Valley.
Today, one year after launching the Covered Bridge Potato Chip Company, the trio owns five trucks that deliver their kettle-style potato chips to more than 500 stores in the Maritimes.
In fact, after just 12 months the company has extended its market as far west as British Columbia, and as far south as Texas.
Covered Bridge chips are now sold in nearly every province, and in states from New Hampshire to North Carolina.
When Albright and his co-founders began last January, they were selling a couple hundred bags of chips a week. Now that number ranges between 8,000 to 10,000 and revenue has increased 12-fold.
"All in all, a good year. But you can always do better,"said the 29-year-old, who founded the company with his brother Matthew and cousin Shaun. "That's what the new year is for."
Despite the company's initial success, the year was not without challenges, or surprises.
"There are new challenges every day. We're learning as we go about how the industry works,"said Albright in a recent phone interview from Rhode Island, where he was meeting with distributors.
The biggest surprise, meanwhile, involved the Hartland-based potato chip plant becoming a local tourist attraction.
Roughly 120 tour buses, carrying 10,000 people, stopped at the Covered Bridge factory last summer.
Tourists were given a tour of the facility and a historical talk on Hartland's covered bridge - the longest in the world.
They also watched the potato chips being made, and received their own bag of the crispy treats straight out of the cooker.
Albright said he is hoping for close to 300 buses to pull up to the factory this year.
The Covered Bridge Potato Chip company also plans to launch new flavours and a tortilla line this year.
