Success is Sweet When they found their niche making high-quality confections, a Dover-Foxcroft couple also discovered…

There are no Oompa-Loompas helping Sue and Mike McGeown produce their decadent chocolate candy in Dover-Foxcroft’s own “Willy Wonka” factory on Pine Street.

Unlike the little people who mass-produced candy bars in the 2005 movie “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,” the McGeowns make their mouth-watering candy one chocolate at a time inside their small, spotless kitchen.

“Just as soon as you think you’re caught up, you’ve got new stores to fill,” Sue McGeown, 34, owner of Mainely Sweets Homemade Treats, said during a recent interview. “It’s pretty exhausting; it’s a lot of labor.”

From cooking to placing their packaged candies on display in stores from Orono to Greenville to filling their Internet sales, it all falls on the couple’s shoulders.

“We had to start small because we didn’t have a lot of money,” Sue McGeown said.

Seated on a stool, her hands stirring a pot of dark Belgian chocolate on a recent weekday, Sue McGeown recalled that the business started at the urging of others. With no money for presents for their family and friends their first Christmas together, the couple made chocolate chip cookie cream sandwiches, bars and turtle candy. The latter, a confection made of melted caramel topped with cashews covered with Belgian chocolate, was a hit.

“By far, the most popular item were the turtles. Everyone ranted and raved about them and everyone said we needed to sell them,” said Mike McGeown, 36. But other things in their lives took precedence and the suggestion was shelved.

That is, until fate stepped in twice. The couple fell in love with Maine while vacationing at a relative’s camp on Sebec Lake. “We were planning to relocate anyway, so we decided to bite the bullet and move here,” she said.

After they arrived, Sue McGeown said, she took a job as a medical assistant but left when she started experiencing problems with walking. She later was diagnosed with a form of dystrophy. Looking for something to do at home, she started making the turtle confections and giving them to friends. Again, those who were lucky enough to be offered one wanted more.

With that encouragement, the couple in 2006 put together a plan, researched the Internet and scoured the state to find the best-tasting Belgian chocolate, the freshest cashews, the creamiest caramel. Freshness was important to them, Sue McGeown said. After finding suppliers, the couple obtained the necessary state permits and incorporated as “Mainely Sweets Handmade Treats.”

The McGeowns began production of about 1,500 turtle candies a day, made in batches of 500, three times a day. They intend to expand to 11 other types of candy by February.

“We like to put our standards pretty high,” Sue McGeown said. “We try to make it economical for people to enjoy a higher-quality chocolate treat.”

Although Mike McGeown works for a landscaping firm in the summer and as ski school supervisor of instructors at Sugarloaf Mountain during the winter, he fills in where necessary.

“I get a lot of razzing from the guys I work with,” Mike McGeown said. “They call me ‘Mikey Wonka’ and say, ‘So how many turtles did you make today?'” He takes that teasing in stride, he said, especially since the business has taken off and he and his wife now are thinking of expanding their line of candy and moving the business to a new location.

What they want is a storefront with a large picture window. “We’re envisioning a place where people can watch us make the candy,” Sue McGeown said.

For the McGeowns, a premium product is important but being good citizens also matters.

“If you’re going to have a company, you might as well give back something to your community,” Sue McGeown said. As such, they plan to donate a percentage of each candy sale to the Maine Children’s Cancer Program. “Our children are our future.”

As for the McGeowns’ future, they hope soon to have their own “Wonka” factory producing chocolates renowned the world over.

For more information or to place orders, visit www.mainelysweets.com.