Putting things in pretty bottles helped Shonfeld’s USA Inc. do nearly $100 million in sales last year.
The Santa Ana company, founded by Boaz Shonfeld in 1995, sells bottled concoctions,such as dried red chili peppers and black peppercorn in chili oil,in 2,500 stores.
Among them are Bed Bath and Beyond, Macy’s and Kohl’s.
This fall, the company plans to do gift products for Liz Claiborne Home and Villager brands.
Shonfeld’s products are decorative, something you’d bring to a housewarming, a holiday party or other occasion.
They’re designed and bottled in a 150,000-square-foot plant in Santa Ana. The bottles are made at Shonfeld’s 550,000-square-foot plant in China.
Now Stacie Parker Shonfeld, who owns Shonfeld’s with her husband, has struck out on her own with a new venture: Boz Spirits Inc.
Boz, short for Boaz, markets 267 Infusions, an upscale line of alcohol in svelte bottles. 267 Infusions is sold through distributors at liquor stores, retailers, restaurants and bars.
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Bath gift bottles from Shonfeld’s: company had $85 million in 2005 sales |
Some varieties in the initial line: vodka mixed with oranges or cranberries, rum combined with mango and tequila with chili peppers.
“Our tagline is ‘infused not flavored,'” Stacie said.
The liquors sell for about $25 for a small bottle.
Boz needed to be a separate company to go after the luxury market, she said. Boz employs eight people and shares Shonfeld’s headquarters.
But soon it will be looking for its own space, Stacie said.
“Our staff will be growing,” she said.
Couple’s History
When Stacie’s husband was building Shonfeld’s on the East Coast, she was opening stores and creating brands on the West Coast.
She developed a bath product line called Dotts and opened three stores in San Francisco: Union Clothing, Union Shoes and Loft, a 5,000-square-foot home decor store.
Prior to the stores, she learned the retailing ropes at Saks Fifth Avenue Enterprises and Limited Brands Inc., where she helped open 265 stores.
In 1999, Stacie and Boaz met at an entrepreneur conference in New York. Both were members of the Entrepreneurs’ Organization and shared a love of business.
“We fell in love,” she said.
They married. By 2001, they had their first child and decided they wanted to live near the beach. The pair moved Shonfeld’s from the East Coast to Orange County and bought a home in Laguna Beach. Once their lives were merged, they had a host of businesses between them.
“We had to pick and choose what to keep,” Stacie said.
She sold her three San Francisco stores and began making her mark at Shonfeld’s. She melded her Dotts bath line into Shonfeld’s.
The company then created product divisions,there now are seven. Stacie’s marketing helped take the company from $14 million in sales in 1997 to $85 million by 2005. Along the way, the business went year-round.
“Originally it was a fourth-quarter business,” she said.
Shonfeld’s bolstered ties to stores, doing research to help them better sell the company’s products.
Stacie took a year off with the birth of her daughter in 2003. Sort of.
She said it wasn’t long before she was itching to get back into business full swing.
“I love creating brands,” she said.
Mixing booze and fruits was her husband’s idea, she said. Turning it into a business was hers.
“This was my opportunity to develop my own brand,” she said.
The all-natural 267 Infusions is an extension of the “Shonfeld lifestyle,” she said.
“In our home we eat all organic,” she said.
A bottle of 267 Infusions is more memorable than say, a bottle of wine, Stacie contends. It could replace martinis and beer at the barbecue, she said. At a bar or restaurant, drinkers would have to specifically ask for 267 Infusions, she said.
And there’s the challenge. 267 Infusions faces a market crowded with more established vodkas, from upscale brands such as Bacardi & Co.’s Grey Goose to the more exclusive Ultimat from Poland.
Boz doesn’t have the marketing muscle of a Barcardi or Diageo PLC. But Stacie is picking her moments: She was on hand at the Grammys, giving away bottles of 267 Infusions at the celebrity gift lounge.
Costa Rica Inspiration
A Costa Rican vacation inspired the liquors, according to Stacie. Every year, the Shonfelds and seven families rent a hotel in Costa Rica, she said.
The bartender there whips up exotic fruit and drink mixes.
“We’d come home and make these concoctions,” she said.
The liquors took about a year to develop. Stacie said she and the company’s artist sculpted the bottle prototype out of clay and sent the design to China to be made. Boz launched in January.
She and her husband complement each other in business, she said.
“We challenge each other’s creative ideas,” she said. “We have a lot of the same skills.”
“It’s a terrible idea,” Stacie said of mixing marriage and business. “If we could do it differently we would.”
It works because the Shonfelds both love business, she said.
“We couldn’t do it if we weren’t in a business we loved,” she said.
