Among the winners were Eileen Spitalny and David Kravetz, of Fairytale Brownies in Chandler, Arizona.
Theirs is an archetypal, entrepreneurial story. They met on the kindergarten playground in Phoenix and stayed friends throughout grade school and high school. In 1992, without baking, manufacturing, or direct-marketing experience, they began Fairytale Brownies. Moonlighting out of a friend's catering kitchen during the first year, they sold mostly through catalogs...using David's mother's 49-year-old secret family brownie recipe.. In 1993, they moved into their own bakery and went online with www.brownies.com.
They got a big break in the summer of 1994. They got a great write-up in The New York Times...that came as a result of sending out their brownies...with their press releases. (This is a time-tested trick. In getting attention, food works...especially anything sweet, or chocolate!)
Today, David and Eileen oversee a growing direct-mail gourmet brownie business that ships over 2.5 million brownies annually.
The most popular item with their customer base is the Fairytale Dozen ($32), a sampler of one of each flavor in the three-inch square size. Kravetz describes 60% of the customer base as business gift giving, although not just for the holiday season. The typical consumer customer is female, between 35 and 50 years old. Not surprisingly, more than 50% of their business falls between Thanksgiving and the the December holiday season.
They are also SBA Small Business Persons of the Year. Kudos and congratulations to Eileen and David!
Comments