In 1973, David and Penny Chapman purchased the Creamery in
Markdale, Ontario, a village just south of
Georgian Bay. The company started out as a small creamery with four employees and two trucks. On September 4, 2009, a major fire gutted the Chapman's creamery. No employees were hurt in the blaze. Chapman's had been using a smaller plant since the fire. On September 4, 2010, they opened their new facility on the anniversary of the destruction of the old plant. The smaller plant was converted into a nut facility, while the addition of the new plant became a nut-free facility (the larger of the two plants is about quadruple the size of the old one), allowing the hiring of 50 to 100 new employees. During the
COVID-19 pandemic, when the
Pfizer and
Moderna vaccines were being readied for distribution, which require strong refrigeration for storage, Chapman's volunteered the use of their industrial freezers for the Grey Bruce Health Unit for the vials. When the company decided upon a
vaccine mandate where any unvaccinated employees must submit to a company paid
COVID-19 rapid antigen test twice a week, while their vaccinated employees would get a $1 raise as the equivalent compensation for the cost of the tests, the company was subject to calls for a boycott by
anti-vaccination groups. However, there was also a wave of public support around Canada for the business in reaction to this hostility, although it was not clear how the activism of either side was affecting sales. Company vice-president Ashley Chapman said on CBC Radio's
As It Happens that the boycott had no effect on the company's bottom line. After U.S. president
Donald Trump announced
25 percent tariffs on all goods imported from Canada, Chapman's announced they would source ingredients that previously came from the United States from other countries, such as Italy. In addition, they began absorbing all immediate increases to the costs of the tariffs. == Facilities ==