Lilla Swedish Candy to Open in Thornes Marketplace in July

NORTHAMPTON — A Whately couple with several successful online businesses will, in July, expand its Lilla Swedish Candy store to a physical shop on the lower level of Thornes Marketplace.

Nic Jansson and Holly Berrigan will serve as co-owners for their first brick-and-mortar store, which will carry sweets from Sweden as well as the rest of Europe.

“We’re really excited to open. We’ve had so much positive feedback with our online store in the last 12 months,” Jansson said, noting that ‘lilla’ means small, or little, in Swedish. “We’re so excited to bring the traditional Swedish pick and mix experience to the Valley and connect more to our local community.”

Lilla Swedish Candy is the husband-and-wife team’s third business enterprise, founded in 2025 online at lillacandy.co and @lillacandy on TikTok and @lillaswedishcandy on Instagram.

While Jansson grew up in Sunderland, he was born in Stockholm and spent his childhood summers at a rustic lakeside cabin near Hällefors, in central Sweden. There, ‘lördagsgodis,’ or ‘Saturday candy,’ was a big part of his weekly tradition.

“In Sweden, candy is a Saturday thing,” Jansson said. “Every Saturday you go to the store, pick out your little bag of candy, and that’s your weekly treat and what makes it special.”

Lilla will offer a pick and mix experience in 60 to 85 bins of candy on the shelves, which will be sold by the ounce, as well as some pre-packaged candy. Jansson describes the sweets as gummy-style candy, both sweet and sour, and candy that is foamy, or chewy, with some hard candies in a wide range of fruit flavors with some chocolate, salty licorice, and other popular styles as well.

“The flavors are going to be pretty unique and different,” he said. “It’s a little bit fresher. It’s non-GMO, and there’s no red 40 or high fructose corn syrup. What you get is a little bit more premium than your standard grocery aisle candy. It’s definitely a unique flavor profile, but enough that will feel familiar as well.”

One highlight will be a small area at the top of a short flight of stairs in the shop, where the couple will recreate the feel of some of the rooms in Jansson’s ‘sommarstuga,’ or summer cabin, which is accessible only by boat and has no electricity and plumbing.

A tiny kitchen area, for instance, will have merchandise such as dish towels, and a tiny living room will offer books and other Scandinavian delights. “The merchandise will correspond to the theme of the room,” Jansson said.

Jansson and Berrigan also own a natural wine marketplace, MYSA Natural Wine, which they launched in 2019 and sell at mysa.wine, and Jansson operates a sales and marketing consulting company called HOLLAS.

Jansson holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from UMass Amherst, and Berrigan, an Oklahoma native, holds a bachelor’s degree in international diplomacy from Oklahoma University and a master’s degree in international economic development from the same institution. Both have a background in marketing.

When they decided to open a physical storefront, Jansson and Berrigan chose Thornes because of the tight community and strong, existing customer base. “We’re not starting from zero,” Jansson said. “We have the support of the Thornes marketing engine and all they do to support retailers.”

The business will be located on the lower level of Thornes, in the former home of Captain Candy, and Jansson is pleased that his business neighbors will be Hometown Arcade, Herrell’s Ice Cream, and Provisions, as they all have a similar, family audience.

Jansson and Berrigan are seeking sales associates and a retail team leader who can help manage the store when Jansson and Berrigan are caring for their two small children, ages 1 and 3.