Tasting success in natural foods

By Joyzelle Davis, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published February 23, 2008 at 12:05 a.m.

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Photo by Linda Mcconnell / Special To The Rocky

Sue Carroll, owner of Bones du Jour in Fort Collins, decorates a biscuit for a dog named Susan. Carroll hopes to place her products in more stores and boost her Internet sales.

Photo by Chris Schneider / The Rocky

JuJu Stx were created to help people stop smoking.

Photo by Linda Mcconnell / Special To The Rocky

Debra St. Claire, a vegetarian, developed her organic mints after learning that her favorite Altoids contained beef gelatin. Now her company, EcoNatural Solutions, employs 12 in Boulder.

Photo by Javier Manzano / The Rocky

Jennifer Esposito left high finance to start Espo's Gelato. And business is hot. She's the 2007 businesswoman of the year for Colorado's Italian American Business Association.

Photo by Linda McConnell / Special to the Rocky

Glennise Humphrey, vice president of marketing, in background, caps pints of Boulder Ice Cream at the factory on Walnut Street.

Photo by Linda McConnell / Special to the Rocky

Sue Carroll bakes and sells healthy treats for dogs as the owner of Bones du Jour in Fort Collins.

Photo by Linda McConnell / Special to the Rocky

Chocolove grew out of Timothy Moley's belief in applying the flavor philosophy of making wine to the technique of blending chocolate bars.

Scott Roy and Glennise Humphrey, co-owners of Boulder Ice Cream, sample their product. The company is launching its first organic line next month.

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Entrepreneurial Coloradans hope to stir up a winner, but capitalizing on the popularity of healthy eating demands financial sacrifices.

When Debra St. Claire started EcoNatural Solutions in 1993, consumers typically had to go to a specialty health food store to pick up her St. Claire's Organics Mints or, for that matter, most other natural or organic foods.

Now, her candies are available in a swath of stores across the U.S., reflecting the larger growth in the industry. Natural-products sales in the U.S. soared 9.7 percent in 2006 to $56.7 billion, according to The Natural Foods Merchandiser. And, for the first time in seven years, the mass market posted double-digit growth as everyone from Wal-Mart to King Soopers beefed up their natural- and organic-foods selections.

Colorado has long been at the forefront of the industry, starting with the founding of Celestial Seasonings in Boulder nearly 40 years ago. Natural-foods grocer Wild Oats, Horizon Organic Dairy and Izze Sparkling Juice are among the locally grown companies that have taken their healthy-living mantra nationwide.

That entrepreneurial spirit remains alive and well today. Whole Foods attracted about 350 vendors to its second Grower Producer Seminar this week in Lakewood, where buyers from the nation's biggest natural- and organic-foods grocer appraised products and answered questions about the grocer's standards.

The variety of vendors "span everything from growers to artisanal cheese makers to consumer packaged goods," said Barry Hirsch, associate marketing coordinator for Whole Foods.

The flurry of startup activity in organic and natural foods is typical of what happens in rapidly expanding industries, said Dawn DeTienne, a Colorado State University professor who specializes in entrepreneurship.

But she cautioned that the threat of a recession could spell trouble for entrepreneurs as cash- strapped consumers think twice about paying a premium for organic and natural products. The entry of mainstream retailers like Wal-Mart and Target also increases pressure to keep costs down, DeTienne said.

Like most of the companies profiled by the Rocky Mountain News, the typical entrepreneur doesn't have the luxury of angel investors. They max out their credit cards, tap their retirement incomes, and beg and borrow from friends and family to get their ventures off the ground, she said.

At any given time, about 12.4 percent of the U.S. population is in the process of creating a business.

"A lot of these people are working at another job, and that's how they see a niche and an opportunity," she said.

Bones du Jour

Gourmet dog biscuits from mostly organic and local ingredients

* When founded: 2003

* Web site: dogtreatssogood.com

* Where available: Most Whole Foods stores in Colorado, Bones du Jour's Web site

* Back story: Sue Carroll is a longtime animal lover who baked treats for her dogs for decades, but it wasn't until just a few years ago that she finally decided to make it into a business. At the time, Carroll was 12 years into her job as an emergency management dispatcher for the city of Fort Collins, "then I decided that I was just getting too old" for such stressful shift work, she said.

* Why natural: Her original recipe called for, among other ingredients, bacon grease. While the dogs loved the treats, Carroll slowly modified the ingredients to a healthier mix that included organic Colorado whole wheat and local free-range eggs.

"Our dogs and animals are exposed to so much more than we are - when there are pesticides on the grass they're inches from it and come home and lick their feet," she said.

* Goal: Boosting her Internet sales and getting into a few more stores

Espo's Gelato

Makes all-natural gelato and sorbets according to traditional Italian recipes

* When founded: 2003

* Web site: esposgelato.com

* Where available: King Soopers, Safeway, Whole Foods, as well as restaurants including Breckenridge Brewery, one of the first clients

* Back story: Even when Jennifer Esposito worked as a financial analyst in Manhattan, her heart was always in food - particularly ice cream. She never could find authentic Italian gelato that wasn't made from a powdered base, so she started whipping up her own recipes. Soon, she decided to go into business for herself, and she cashed in her retirement savings and all of the money her parents had set aside for her wedding to move to Denver. Starting out, Esposito single-handedly mixed and packed the gelato, delivered tubs and made sales calls.

Today, she has seven employees working out of her Larimer Street factory, where gelato in flavors like Orange Cream and Cappuccino Chocolate Chip are hand-batched and sent to restaurants and supermarkets across the country.

* Why natural: Going into the natural-foods segment wasn't as much a deliberate strategy as an outgrowth of the way Esposito has always approached food, avoiding additives and artificial ingredients in her daily life

* Goal: "I'd truly like to see us take a national foothold," Esposito said, and she'd also "love to use the business to make a bit of a difference for causes in a way I couldn't as an individual."

* Biggest challenge: "In the beginning, finding time to sleep. Now, it's controlling growth to where we balance maintaining our high standards of quality with staying ahead of the curve on national expansion and meeting all deliverables."

JuJu Stx

Bamboo toothpicks flavored with natural essential oils, including sweet fennel, star anise and natural sweetener xylitol

* When founded: 2004

* Web site: jujustx.com

* Where available: The $2.99 tins of 70 sticks are available at Vitamin Cottage, Whole Foods and JuJu's Web site.

* Back story: Tracy O'Shaughnessy and Carol Wilke decided to create a bamboo toothpick infused with natural essential oils to help a close mutual friend quit smoking. The thinking was that the oils would curb the nicotine craving while the sensation of chewing on a stick would give a smoker a stress-relieving way to do something with their hands.

At the time, O'Shaughnessy was working as a satellite-systems specialist for Lockheed Martin. After much deliberation, she quit the security of her job to focus on JuJu Stx full time from her Highlands Ranch home.

* Why natural: When they were just starting up, Wilke and O'Shaughnessy considered using artificial ingredients but quickly determined, "There was no reason for it other than to get products to last longer on the shelves," O'Shaughnessy said.

* Goal: JuJu Stx started with a goal of helping a million people quit smoking and chewing tobacco by August 2009. The company also would like to expand into a full line of "energizing products," from candy to gum to mints.

* Biggest challenge: "Getting the word out," O'Shaughnessy said. "We're a small company with a really big mission."

EcoNatural Solutions

St. Claire's Organics breath mints, herbal candy and lozenges

* Web site: econaturalsolutions.com

* When founded: 1993

* Where available: Whole Foods, most Vitamin Cottages, Trader Joe's and company Web site

* Back story: If it weren't for Altoids, EcoNatural Solutions might never have started.

Debra St. Claire used to be an Altoids aficionado, but then the vegetarian discovered that they contained beef gelatin. Her outrage congealed into inspiration, and St. Claire used her herbalist training to make what she describes as the first organic and all-natural breath mint.

Today, EcoNatural employs 12 people and churns out a line of hot cocoa, a mouthwash product and a variety of mints and candies at its 10,000-square-foot north Boulder factory.

* Why natural: St. Claire was making natural and organic products long before they went mainstream. Her products also have been embraced by parents of children with allergies because of her promise that the products are "allergen-free." She can make the claim because the products are made only on her own equipment.

"We've had mothers calling and crying because they're so happy that they've finally found an allergen-free food," she said. "Candy is such an integral part of our society, and if your kid is the only one in their class who can't have candy, it really messes with them."

* Goal: EcoNatural gives 10 percent of the company's earnings to the EthnoMedicine Preservation Project, which aims to save the medicinal plant knowledge of indigenous cultures. Sales of the products already have helped fund the purchase of 1,600 acres of rain forest in Peru.

St. Claire wants to get the company's annual sales to $10 million because at that level, "I'll be making substantial contributions to the preservation of the rain forest."

Boulder Ice Cream

Natural, superpremium ice cream, sorbet, gelato and frozen yogurt

* When founded: 1997

* Web site: bouldericecream.com

* Where available: Whole Foods, Vitamin Cottage, King Soopers, Safeway and Costco

* Back story: Scott Roy was a software developer when he decided in 1997 on a radical career shift: purchasing Boulder Ice Cream on Pearl Street. Roy and his family were longtime customers and good friends with the owner, who could no longer run the business by himself.

Just a month after taking over the popular scoop shop, Roy found out that the store's lease wouldn't be renewed. He had to lease another location that was far more expensive. To cover the higher rent, he started packing pints to sell to Whole Foods and other local stores.

Soon, the wholesale business was successful enough that Boulder Ice Cream shuttered the shop. Today, Boulder Ice Cream runs a 5,000-square-foot, six-employee ice cream factory, churning out its own flavors as well as private-label pints.

The company is launching its first organic ice cream line next month - something Roy has long wanted to do but couldn't because he was unable to secure enough ingredients.

* Why natural: Boulder Ice Cream's recipes were all-natural when Roy bought the business.

"There are some things we haven't been able to do - like use pink or blue dyes, or brand-name candies," he said. "Our flavoring has always been real food."

* Goal: Boulder Natural in 2006 added Horizon Organic Dairy co-founder Mark Retzloff to its board to help guide the company's strategy. Roy wants to carve out a larger share of the ice cream market and have his brand known beyond Colorado's border.

Chocolove

Nearly 20 Belgian chocolate bars, including Crystallized Ginger in Dark Chocolate, 33 percent milk chocolate and two organic bars. The bars are packaged to look like love letters and contain a poem inside the wrapper.

* Web site: chocolove.com

* When founded: 1996

* Where available: Whole Foods, Target and Cost Plus World Market

* Back story: Timothy Moley already had decades of experience in the food industry when he turned his attention to chocolate. He'd worked for years for a spice and tea company in northern California and then started studying how to make wine.

At the time, premium chocolate was a rarity in the U.S., but Moley believed there was an untapped market if he could apply the flavor philosophy of wine to blending chocolate bars.

Moley maxed out his credit cards to start, finally paying off the debt after three years. Today, he employs 16 people and runs a custom-built factory, which sends bars to Whole Foods and Target stores across the nation.

* Why natural: "Some of the best products out there have the fewest ingredients."

* Goal: "Stay the course and continue to be vigilant in maintaining our high quality standards. . . . It's a constant process of preventing things from going wrong and fixing things that do."

* Biggest challenge: Big chocolate companies, from Hershey to Mars, are moving more and more into dark and premium chocolate. So far, Moley isn't impressed by their efforts.

"The consumer is becoming more savvy and choosing to not support companies who are making chocolates loaded with artificial flavors," he said.

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