Sweet deal
Talk about sweet deals. Former Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker Robin Cole is helping to tackle unemployment in Fayette County by opening his Unforgettable Sweets cheesecake bakery in Republic. The commercial bakery opened in late April at the business incubator building owned by the Fayette County Community Action Agency and, by the end of May, had added a second shift of workers. A third shift was added recently, bringing the number of employees at the facility to 36. The goal is to increase staffing to 65 to 70 people by the end of the year and continue to grow until the company employs about 200 people.
While Cole’s company is actually incorporated in Vermont, not Pennsylvania, we’re pleased to see a small business – albeit one with a big name attached – bring such quick job growth in our area.
And while incorporated out of state, it’s also encouraging to see Cole set up shop – and put his dream of recreating his grandmother’s cakes into action – right here in our area when he could have chosen to open anywhere. Cole, who is married to a Fairchance native, decided to stick with the southwestern Pennsylvania roots he developed as a player and we applaud his decision to make Fayette County his company’s home.
Right now, the company’s cheesecakes are being sold in a number of grocery and convenience stores in southwestern Pennsylvania, as well as being sold to restaurants. Fayette County native Don Smotzer has been helping Cole transform the business from a local specialty company into a national distributor.
Smotzer said coming back to help Cole with the cheesecake business is his way of giving back to his home county. It’s great to see that even after leaving the region some 30 years ago, Smotzer still has a sweet spot for his old stomping grounds and is playing a big role in Cole’s success here.
Fayette County isn’t the only part of the state benefiting from Cole’s Unforgettable Sweets bakery. Cole said all of the ingredients for his cheesecakes are produced in Pennsylvania, including the cream cheese that he buys 10 tons at a time.
We also applaud Unforgettable Sweets for pledging to donate 10 percent of its pre-tax profits to various nonprofit organizations, including but not limited to the Obediah Cole Foundation, formed in honor of Cole’s father, who passed away from prostate cancer at the age of 49.
It’s great to see this feel-good, taste-good story unfold here in our backyard. We rooted for Cole as a player; now we’re cheering for him to succeed as a businessman.