Fletcher Jones Motorcars had a banner year in 2006, selling more than 9,000 new and used autos, 1,000 in December alone.
The Newport Beach-based Mercedes dealer said it beat its prior December record by two cars. For the year, it surpassed the $500 million mark in sales.
Fletcher Jones also was the top Maybach (pronounced mybock) dealer in the nation, selling 18 new ones and another 12 used ones.
Maybachs, relaunched in 2004, are the super luxury, $350,000 sedans that some OC executives use with a chauffer.
Fletcher Jones’ Maybach sales beat Mercedes-Benz of Beverly Hills and Mercedes-Benz Manhattan.
The Maybach competes with Rolls-Royce’s Phantom, which was relaunched a year ahead of Maybach in 2003. It also competes with the Bentley.
Newport European on Pacific Coast Highway in Newport Beach is the only Rolls-Royce dealer in OC. The 13-employee Rolls-Royce Motor Cars NA LLC is headquartered in Woodcliff, N.J. President Peter Miles lives in OC.
Wonderland Bear
Anyone who has ever chatted with Sondra Ames, co-owner of Wonderland Bakery, knows that she’s enthusiastic and a big booster of her daughter and business partner, Allyson.
Some of her sales techniques include selling cookies out of the trunk of her Maserati, and sending cookies and cupcakes to deejays, who spread the word on the radio. Daughter Allyson is the baker. The twenty-something has been baking since she was 5.
Wonderland surpassed its $1.2 million sales target for its first full year.
“We far exceeded that for 2006,” she said.
The bakery opened at The Bluffs in Newport Beach in September 2005. It recently hired a director of corporate sales, Susan Bommarito, who used to run the Western division of a beverage company.
The mother and daughter team plan to open three more bakeries this year, including another in OC and one in Las Vegas. They also are expanding the Wonderland brand to include aprons, cookie jars and a bear, a custom Gund bear.
When Sondra saw the animated and talking Gund Christmas bear, she knew she wanted a Wonderland bear to sell at the bakery. She asked her Gund Inc. representative (Wonderland sells Gund items) and learned 5,000 was the minimum order.
“I said, ‘5,000 was going to be a stretch for me.'”
She soon learned the representative had been mistaken. The minimum order was 50,000.
Undaunted, Ames said she called Doug Branch, senior vice president of Gund, and told him she wanted a custom bear for the bakery. But 50,000 was impossible, and 5,000 was too many.
She pitched “the little bakery that could,” its philanthropic endeavors with her usual passion for the business.
“Everything that we create, we see, we touch, we feel,” she said.
“He says: ‘No, we can’t do it.'”
He called back a few days later and agreed to make the bears, according to Ames. He’ll be at the bakery in a few days with a prototype. There will be a book, and mother and daughter aprons to go along with the bear. The Allyson Wonderland Storytime Bear will tell Allyson’s story,”about a girl who can be anything she wants in the world today.”
Mother and daughter get along well on the job, according to Ames.
“We understand our division of duties,” she said. “The only time we struggle is when we’re overworked and overtired.”
That’s typically around the holidays, Ames said.
They meet a couple hours a week to talk about new products and packaging. Right now, they’re working on Easter.
Recently, the bakery was deep in cookies and cupcakes. The mother and daughter duo were baking hundreds of goodies for Star 98.7. The radio station was promoting its morning show. It hired afternoon deejay Sean Valentine from its sister station KiiS-FM, to host the morning show at Star with Lisa Foxx.
Valentine has been a fan of Wonderland ever since the bakery sent him “bad apple” cookies, which are apple-shaped cookies with a worm in them.
“He loved the cookie,” Ames said.
“American Idol” host and deejay Ryan Seacrest is a fan, too.
Wonderland also was decorating cookies for the Golden Globes, and prepping hot pink and lime green frosted mini cupcakes for Nordstrom’s special event coordinators for a tasting.
Wonderland plans to help Nordstrom launch the spring Juicy Couture line. Wonderland also is working on promotions for Traditional Jewelers and Kate Spade, both at Fashion Island.
