Libertyville High grad making good on a sweet dream

While many spend a lifetime figuring out what they want to be when they grow up, Shane Wimmer’s lightbulb moment came when he was eight years old and watching an episode of “Unique Sweets” on the Cooking Channel.

The show featured an old-time candy shop, and the treat being made was salted caramel.

“It looked challenging to me,” said the now 21-year-old Libertyville High School grad. “That got the passion going. There were big dreams right away.”

Since that day, Wimmer has dedicated himself to pursuing his passion for making candy.

Wimmer recalled having his mom, Joanna, take him to the grocery store after that television show to buy ingredients for salted caramel.

“They turned out looking like puddles in the end,” he said of that initial effort.

But they tasted good.

“They were amazing. We shared them with the neighbors. They loved it.”

Years later, Wimmer would recount that first foray into candy making in a five-page narrative seeking approval from Libertyville officials to operate his GourminiS as a full-time business in an industrial district just east of downtown.

“From that moment forward, I knew that I wanted to learn everything I could about candy making and chocolate,” Wimmer wrote.

And so he has. Through a series of life lessons and experiences, including an apprenticeship in France, Wimmer refined his boyhood fascination into a gourmet handmade candies business.

As a teen, Wimmer learned how to file business sales taxes and obtain needed certifications and permits. As sales to neighbors extended to friends and small parties, Wimmer began thinking about candy making as a career.

“Even when I was younger, I would ship orders throughout the country, mainly through word-of-mouth and family and friends,” he said.

Looking to expand his market, Wimmer in 2019 began selling at the Libertyville farmers market. Other farmers markets would soon follow.

“It was zero to 60 out of nowhere, straight to five farmers market a week,” he said. “It was a lot.”

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Wimmer learned different techniques and how to increase production. And while his high school classmates were preparing for college, Wimmer didn’t send a single application, opting instead to focus on growing GourminiS.

The company name came from an offhand comment that stuck. Wimmer’s mom had been taking his pies, cakes and other creations to work. Her boss at the time described Shane as a little gourmet — a “gour-mini,” she recalls.

“He’s had an entrepreneurial spirit since he was little,” Joanna Wimmer said. “I keep forgetting he’s 21. He had a Roth IRA when he was 13.”

After graduating from Libertyville High in 2022, Wimmer spent three months in Sarreguemines, France, working as apprentice under champion chocolatier Franck Kestener.

Returning with new skills and a desire to grow his business, Wimmer connected with Brian Bossler, founder of Libertyville Coffee Company, who had space available. Bossler said he’d seen Wimmer at the farmers market and tasted his products.

“I’ve worked with a lot of businesses that are getting off the ground,” Bossler said. “Betting on Shane was easy.”

Now, he’s a one-man crew, cooking and cutting 16-inch by 16-inch slabs into individual caramel pieces and preparing them for sale out of the operation he opened last month in brick house built in 1930.

“I wanted to start with something I knew inside and out,” he said. “These caramels, it’s second nature.”

Outwardly, Wimmer is composed and congenial. Inside, his mind is constantly working, like a little tornado, says his mom. Earnest is an apt description for someone who has made and pursued his own opportunities, she added.

“He had to learn,” said Joanna Wimmer. “He got his master’s degree in business by doing this.”

Wimmer has a five-year lease at his current location and plenty of ideas for other products. He said he doesn’t want to get too comfortable.

“We’re fortunate that the journey that took him as far as France to hone his craft brought him back to Libertyville,” said Heather Rowe, the village’s community development director.