Covered Bridge Chips officially back 18 months after fire, leadership change

Covered Bridge Chips is up and running 18 months after a fire and leadership change.

It looks like a regular warehouse with an office building attached, and tractor-trailers sitting outside.

But the smell gives it away immediately.

It’s the new headquarters for Covered Bridge Chips, now located in Woodstock, N.B., about 18 kilometres from where a fire destroyed the company’s original facility in Hartland 18 months ago.

The business has been a New Brunswick success story for the past 16 years, evident by the number of messages of support on social media in the days after the fire – and by those who bought shelves’ worth of the chips.

In the months following, the company was using every single square foot of space it could find, across 10 different factories and locations, to process the chips.

But today, the company is officially on its own – and processing even more chips than it did before the fire.

“We’re fully self-sufficient now. Farm-to-table, the way we started,” said Brook Dickinson, the company’s executive vice-president.

The warehouse had to be completely gutted and rebuilt into a chip-processing facility. Now, russet potatoes are being sliced and fried and chips are racing down conveyor belts – and employees are back too.

Dickinson said they rehired everyone they could, and now employ over 110 people.

“I’m extremely proud. It’s been hard, but our staff and team have been resilient,” he said. “Everybody just rolled up the sleeves and just looked at it as another challenge, and we got the job done.”

The fire wasn’t the only challenge, either.

The company’s co-founder and long-time president and CEO took a leave of absence following a charge of domestic violence last October.

The Albright family is still involved behind the scenes – they farm much of the russet potatoes used.

But Dickinson is now leading the team after working for the company since 2009.

When asked about the change in leadership, Dickinson said the team has been steadfast.

“We’ve got a great team, I can talk about that all day long,” he said. “We’re focusing on that team, and we’re very proud of where we’re at today.”

Then there’s the ongoing U.S. tariff situation and the uncertainty that comes with it. Mostly the impact has been in trying to source particular equipment. And the price of avocado oil.

But Dickinson says overall growth is up year-over-year, and so are plans to increase production.

“We’re going to build up our popcorn operation. You know, we had a lot of people who don’t realize we had a thriving popcorn line, thriving part of the business of the company … so popcorn’s next on the agenda,” he said.

That operation will likely be added to the Woodstock site.

As for the Hartland location, Dickinson says they’re hoping to build a more permanent gift shop and museum. However, rebuilding a manufacturing facility at that site has yet to be determined, he says.

But the chips are falling into place, and he credits their employees, and loyal customers.

“I wouldn’t say we’re fully recovered. There’s still more work to be done. But we’re a lot more comfortable now than what we were certainly, you know, even just six months ago.”

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