Niche food producer “Sweets from the Earth” thrives using innovation, uniqueness and an unwavering focus on quality.
A neighbour’s stew turned Ilana Kadonoff off meat at the age of seven. Since then, she’s adopted a vegan lifestyle and has built her baked goods business accordingly: Sweets from the Earth, which ranks No. 111 on the 2014 PROFIT 500, uses only all-natural, 100% plant-based, GMO-free ingredients. Kadonoff’s two Toronto facilities—one for peanut-, nut- and seed-free products, and the other free of gluten and wheat—turn out more than 150 types of egg- and dairy-free goodies, which are stocked at retailers and food outlets across Canada. She gave us a tour and shared some secrets of her success.
Stay patient
Kadonoff usually tests new products an average of 15 times, but it can take up to six months to actually get an item out to market. The company has to source ingredients and suppliers, and develop nutrition panels and packaging, among other things. “When I first started, and it was just me, I could have an idea and I could develop the product, and then the next day I could start making them and selling them, says Kadonoff. “Now everything is a huge process.”
Stick to core values
“Everything we do is completely from scratch, from the vanilla beans that Ilana scrapes to the colours we make for our own products,” says Marc Kadonoff, Ilana’s brother and vice-president of Sweets from the Earth. “Most bakeries will use a little bottle of colour. What Ilana will do is fresh press spinach or kale, or carrots or beets to get the colours we need. It’s all fruit and veggie based.”
Diversify your customer base
Sweets from the Earth sells about 55% of its products in retail stores and 40% through food-service operations. The remaining 5% are custom items like birthday and wedding cakes.
Steal ideas from customers
Inspiration for new products and recipes comes from different places, including customer requests. “Our [Berry Bran] muffins were a result of a customer calling me up, saying, ‘I really love those fruit and fibre muffins from McDonald’s—can you make me something like that?’ So I went to McDonald’s, and bought some of these muffins and begrudgingly tasted them, and then I went online and looked at their ingredient list to see what they put in them,” she says. “Then I just started playing in the kitchen.”
Offer shoe allowances
Five years ago, Sweets from the Earth only had seven employees. Today it has 35 full-time workers—each of whom receive a shoe allowance, because outdoor shoes aren’t allowed in the company’s gluten- and wheat-free facility. Employees are also required to wear lab coats, hairnets and gloves to prevent any contamination from outside sources.
Invest in infrastructure
At top speed, the company’s wrapping machine can package 120 items per minute. (Each item is run through a metal detector afterward, to ensure no foreign objects have fallen in.) “We haven’t raised our prices in seven years, and the reason we’re able to do that is because we keep on investing in infrastructure and equipment to make us more efficient,” says Marc Kadonoff.
Buy locally (most of the time)
Kadonoff uses local Ontario carrots in Sweets from the Earth’s spiced carrot cake—at least during the fall and winter, when harvest-time prices are affordable (by summer, prices increase by as much as 55%).To offset the rising costs of raw materials, Kadonoff buys in bulk: 5,000 kilograms of spelt lasts the company about two months.
- Reposted from the original article in Profit Magazine by Kristene Quan June 12, 2014
This column focuses on business problems and how to solve them. Andrew Gregson, BA, MA , M.Sc.Econ is an economist, author and a Senior Partner in iNTENT Financial Inc, a Kelowna based finance and consulting company. The 4 partners specialise in finance, pre-determined profitability, sales and marketing. If you need further information, please contact us through the website at www.intentfinancial.com.
This article is written by or on behalf of an outsourced columnist and does not necessarily reflect the views of Castanet.