There’s no skimping on space for Susan’s Healthy Gourmet, which is looking for a bigger building.
For the past 12 years, the Irvine-based company has been making healthy refrigerated and frozen soups, sandwiches, salads and entrees out of its 4,000-square-foot kitchen.
Now with $6 million in yearly sales and 50 employees, owner Susan Johnson says it’s time for the company to grow into something a little bit roomier.
Johnson said Susan’s Healthy Gourmet could move into a bigger building or take on additional space at its headquarters, which rests in a nondescript business park near John Wayne Airport.
“We’ve got a lot of people squeezed in here. We need more room,” she said.
Johnson started Susan’s Healthy Gourmet in 1996 after noticing there was a void of companies that made gourmet and nutritious packaged meals.
Rather than trying to sell her food in grocery stores, which is an expensive move for startups, Johnson opted to sell her food through weekly and monthly meal plans where customers can pick and choose meals and have them delivered to their doors every week.
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Susan Johnson: looking for more space for Susan’s Healthy Gourmet |
Unlike other weight management companies such as Carlsbad-based Jenny Craig International Inc. and New York’s Weight Watchers International Inc., Susan’s Healthy Gourmet first carved its niche by selling only refrigerated foods that were ready-to-eat or microwavable.
“I wanted to stress the importance of freshness,” Johnson said.
But getting started wasn’t easy.
The San Diego transplant didn’t know anyone in OC when she started her food company, which made it hard for her to get the word out, she said.
The company started out small, reaching out to local residents, Johnson said.
That tactic garnered the food company enough attention to start distributing outside of OC.
The company now sells packaged meals throughout Southern California.
Susan’s Healthy Gourmet also makes the meals eaten on VH1’s “Celebrity Fit Club.”
Johnson, who recently passed on the management duties to her daughter Kerry, spends a good chunk of her time reading cookbooks and food articles to develop creative menu items that are rotated monthly.
“I want to offer a lot of variety so that our customers don’t get bored,” she said.
Johnson works closely with the company’s dietitian to develop meal concepts that are balanced with vegetables, fruits, lean meats and whole grains. All of the meals fit different caloric intake levels, Johnson said.
Susan’s Healthy Gourmet buys its ingredients from local and national suppliers such as Costa Mesa-based Ingardia Brothers Produce Inc. and Houston-based Sysco Corp.
The meals are prepared and packaged in the company’s kitchen by 20 or so of its workers and delivered weekly with 10 trucks.
The menu boasts more than 144 items such as enchiladas, butternut squash soup, grilled salmon and orange chicken aimed at diabetics, senior citizens and customers who want to lose weight or detoxify their bodies. A week’s supply of food costs anywhere from $230 to $270.
This year the company plans to make a push in Northern California, Johnson said. The company is also going to grow its frozen food brand LifeSpring Nutrition, which it bought a few years back.
Energy Efficient Expansion
Tustin’s Progressive Lighting & Energy Solutions Inc. has opened a 2,000-square-foot office in San Francisco.
Progressive, which counts $10 million in yearly sales designing and installing energy-efficient lights that reduce carbon-dioxide emissions, opted to open a San Francisco office after nabbing a windfall of contracts in the area.
The Hyatt Regency Embarcadero, Stanford Court Hotel, Fairmont Hotel in San Jose and the JW Marriot in San Francisco have tapped Progressive to outfit their hotels with lights.
Past clients include Costa Mesa-based Ceradyne Inc., Tustin Hospital and Medical Center, the city of Stanton and others.
Founder and Chief Executive William Tauber said the national trend toward all things green has helped generate business.
A slower economy is also pushing more companies to reduce their operating costs by installing energy-efficient lights in their offices, factories and warehouses, Tauber said.
Progressive counts 27 workers in OC.
The company is staffing up in San Francisco, Tauber said.
So far, Progressive has 12 employees, including an installation crew, in San Francisco.
Depending on how many more clients Progressive nabs, the company could end up opening an office in San Diego in the next few years, Tauber said.
Kettle-Cooked Treats
Laguna Hills-based Maw ‘n’ Paw Kettlekorn expects to hit $1 million in sales next year making the classic treat often found at carnivals and farmers markets.
Maw ‘n’ Paw makes 32 kinds of kettle corn from original and chocolate covered to jalapeno and cheddar cheese flavored. The company buys premium corn kernels, oils, flavorings and chocolate from local vendors. It pops, coats and packages its popcorn at its 1,300-square-foot OC headquarters.
Maw ‘n’ Paw tries to differentiate its kettle corn from other specialty popcorn makers such as New Jersey’s Dale and Thomas Popcorn, Maryland-based Fisher’s Popcorn and Colorado’s Pike’s Peak Gourmet Popcorn by using less chocolate and flavorings in its treats.
“We sell popcorn, not candy,” said President Jon Kendall. “We want the flavor of the popcorn to come through.”
Maw ‘n’ Paw uses a delivery truck and third-party carriers to ship its kettle corn to about 40 stores in Southern California, Arizona, Nevada and the East Coast.
Founder Shawn Holmes started the business in 1999 as a store and tapped Kendall to help him run it.
The business grew gradually during the years with customers requesting Maw ‘n’ Paw to make specialty popped kettle corn. To generate more sales, the company shifted the business from retail to manufacturing and started selling its popcorn to other specialty food stores. It even took a stab at making popcorn for other food companies, Kendall said.
“We realized that we couldn’t rely on our own store to generate the sales we needed,” Kendall said.
