Veggie Grill founders Kevin Boylan and T.K. Pillan say business has far exceeded their expectations in the two-plus years they’ve been open in Irvine.
Next year, the partners hope to see $10 million in revenue from their two Irvine restaurants, their location in El Segundo and their restaurant set to open in West Hollywood this fall.
The sales projection is twice what the partners initially expected, according to Boylan.
Veggie Grill’s plant-based food is made to taste like chicken and steak and is high in plant-based protein, such as soy. Plans are to have about a dozen locations in Orange and Los Angeles counties in the next couple of years.
Boylan, a former senior executive at onetime Wall Street investment bank Drexel Burnham Lambert, said he was inspired to cater to a high protein, low fat diet by the book “The China Study” by Colin Campbell. The book looks at how people in rural China are healthier than many Americans.
“Four years after it came out it still had a high sales ranking,” he said of the book. “We realized there was a business for it.”
Along with Pillan, who founded the Marina del Rey-based e-commerce company Guidance Solutions Inc., the partners insisted their food taste great, which proved to be a long road of trial and error.
Not until the founders met Laguna Beach restaurateur Ray White, who created the Palm Springs-based chain Native Foods Inc., were they able to pull off what they thought was a good menu, he said.
It took White about a year to put foods together in a way that would please even non-vegetarians, Boylan said.
So far, Veggie Grill has served about a half million customers, the vast majority of them non-vegetarians.
Boylan said he always gets requests to franchise the restaurant, but for now he is only focused on running his own business.
Veggie Grill doesn’t spend any money on advertising and instead relies on word of mouth.
Pillan and Boylan put down an initial $1.5 million of their own money to get the business started. Since then it’s taken in another $4.5 million, all from family, friends and individual investors.
Printer Move
Western Printing Group has taken over Kenny the Printer of Irvine.
It’s also moved its operation in Orange to Kenny’s Sky Park Circle location, which the company held for nearly 30 years.
The deal, which closed in the spring for an undisclosed amount, didn’t involve a loan.
Western Printing designs, prints and distributes brochures and promotions for local companies, many of which have sales at more than $100 million.
Kenny the Printer will continue to operate under its name, creating advertising such as billboards and mailers.
The combined operations have sales of about $10 million, according to Stan Spencer, vice president of sales.
Spencer said Western Printing was attracted to Kenny’s equipment, which includes automated envelope stuffers.
The company plans to invest about $500,000 in more equipment in the coming months, including more mailing equipment and digital printing machines.
Sales for Western Printing have been growing in the double-digits for the past five years, making it somewhat of an anomaly as the industry struggles with the economy, Spencer said.
“We’re such a small fish that we can continue to get business,” he said. “I don’t mean to sound arrogant, but the reality is we’ve been hustling.”
With less than 50 workers and 20,000 square feet, Western Printing is much larger than the scores of mom and pop type shops throughout the county, though it is dwarfed by larger outfits such as RR Donnelley & Sons Co. of Chicago.
Locally, there are about a half dozen similar-size operations, Spencer said.
Kenny’s former owner, Kenny Fisher, is credited with helping create the retail model for selling printing services, and he used to travel the country giving lectures on how to do it.
Western Printer’s owner, David Smith, has four other similar printing businesses. Western Printing is looking to make at least a couple more acquisitions.
Executive Matchmaker
Aliso Viejo-based executive search and consulting company Cerius Inc. says a tough economy has been a boon for its sales.
Revenue has grown 50% a year for Cerius since it launched five years ago. It declined to disclose the amount.
The company is an executive matchmaker for its customers, placing candidates in positions for temporary periods and helping companies find ways to save money and to solve problems.
It makes educating its customers a key part of its service.
“A lot of people have bad tastes in their mouths from consultants,” said Pamela Wasley, chief executive and president. “We don’t leave people not understanding the changes we’ve made.”
Sales actually began picking up for it after it dropped the word “consulting” from the end of its name.
So far, it’s had about 100 customers, including Huntington Beach-based Creative Teaching Press.
Wasley says her company helped Creative save $500,000 in nine months after bringing in former Honeywell International Inc. executive Marc Koehler, who came in as a chief operating officer to help reduce inventory, cut the workforce and increase efficiency.
Cerius works with about 500 executives across the country, about a quarter of which they find through the Internet.
About 80% of its business is in Southern California.
