Ashley Ehmann has always been a confident person. But she admits it was rather bold to predict that her company’ s pretzels would someday be given out to passengers on flights with Canada’s biggest airline.
Ehmann was teaching elementary school in Calgary a few years ago when one of her brothers told her about some really great pretzels he’d had.
“We were having Christmas dinner in 2018, and he told us he had just come back from the States, and that pretzels were really making a comeback.”
Ehmann had helped her mother, Ruth, make cookies and dinners over the years, but wasn’t really a cook. She and her brothers decided it would be fun to try some pretzels of their own, so they put Mom to work.
“We went through literally thousands of iterations and recipes,” Ehmann told Open Jaw in an interview.
“Some went right to the garbage can,” she said with a laugh. But they kept trying. Her mom would cook up a batch with one flavour or another and put them in little containers for Ashely and her brothers, Kirk and Mark Brant, to try.
They finally landed on Buttery Herb and Garlic as the best flavour option. They shared samples with family and friends, got great reviews, and launched their business in Calgary.
“We started with a commercial kitchen and took the pretzels to local stores. I still remember our first sale. It was such a neat feeling, a real moment, and it just took off from there,” Ashley said.
Within a few months, they were selling to stores across Alberta.
It was early on in the game when Ehmann set what she calls her “big, audacious goal,” which was to land the Air Canada pretzel contract within three years.
With that in her long-term view, Ehmann and her brothers began boosting production and adding more flavours. Their products (they also make Fire-Roasted Jalapeno pretzels, Zesty Dill Pickle pretzels and a Creamy Cheddar Ranch variety) are now found in 7,000 outlets across Canada. They recently became available in Quebec.
The pièce de resistance came when Air Canada recently called and said they wanted to feature TWIGZ Buttery Herb and Garlic pretzels on many of their flights. Bingo; goal reached.
So, we asked Ehmann, are you usually someone who makes big, audacious statements?
“I set high goals for myself,” she said with a laugh. “I think it’s the teacher in me. I’m pretty organized, and a bit of a perfectionist.”
Today, Ehmann is more or less the chief organizer of the company. Brother Kirk has an engineering background and handles operations and other tasks, while Mark, who has a sales background, worries about that aspect of the biz, which has ten full-time employees.
Not only does her company get to sell thousands of bags of pretzels to Air Canada, TWIGZ will benefit by having their product devoured by people from all around the world. TWIGZ pretzels are now complimentary in all cabins on North America flights shorter than two hours and economy cabins on international flights.
“It’s a match made in heaven,” said Jacqueline Harkness, Air Canada’s Managing Director, Products and Services. “We know how important snacks are to our passenger’s journey, and to their experience.”
Harkness said AC put out a country-wide RFP a year ago as part of its goal of revamping its food and beverage offerings, which it announced this week.
“We really wanted to find some incredible savoury products. We’d seen craft pretzels in other markets but we wanted something home grown.
“It’s even better that it’s championed by a woman, and that there’s a nice, family story. When we first tasted the pretzels and met Ashley, we knew we had our match.”
Harkness calls TWIGZ their “hero product.”
“They’ve only been available a couple weeks but the feedback from crew and customers is amazing.”
Bigger, bolder flavours do well in a depressurized airplane, and Harkness said passengers are loving the pretzels.
Air Canada this week announced 100 new dishes, with new textures and a more contemporary flavour profile. The new menu is representative of Canada’s amazing diversity, Harkness explained.
“In the past, we maybe had butter chicken only on inbound flights from India to Canada. Now it’s all over. Every menu has at least one option with international flavours.”
The garlic shrimp with spices and noodles is one of her personal faves, but Harkness also loves the green curry, and also the teriyaki salmon on Shandong noodles.
