Little did the McCabes know how influential that review would be. The gift guide’s verdict: Red Kite offered “the very best versions of the basics, shipped in retro-chic packaging from Thetford, Vt.” Of the candies themselves, the guide lauded their “luscious freshness (from local organic butter and cream) and just enough sweetness.”
“It was the New York Times … giving me a heads up that our Red Kite Candy would be featured in their holiday gift guide issue.”
“I sent out a number of samples to some influential media and in 2012, on the Friday before Thanksgiving, I received a phone call that would change everything,” she said. Gillingham & Sons and the Co-op Food Stores - to reaching the taste buds of customers around the globe?Įlaine McCabe recalled one key marketing moment. How did the company go from sourcing and selling to consumers in its own backyard - at locations like King Arthur Flour, Woodstock’s F.H.
#RED KITE CANDY FULL#
It was gratifying to see their business come full circle and that they are doing so well.” While at an event in Haverhill, I saw Red Kite exhibiting. “Fast forward to last fall, some six years later. “One of their first sales events was the fair on the green in Thetford in 2009, and I remember being there,” recalled Roy, of Vershire, a 14-year SCORE counselor. Today, hundreds of thousands of the confections - each individually wrapped in red - are consumed, not only throughout Vermont but in stores like Whole Foods and through online sales from around the world. Red Kite Candy took off in 2009 with product first sold at local farmers markets and gift shops in the Upper Valley.
But six years later, we have increased our sales tenfold and we’re not pulling any more all-nighters or 120-hour workweeks.” There were days when we ran to meet the (tractor-trailers) who couldn’t make it up the hill of our steep driveway to make deliveries. “The first couple of years were hellish, somewhat typical when starting a business,” Mike McCabe said. They began locally sourcing the ingredients and set out to put operations and marketing into place. With the validation of SCORE members and others who attended the workshops looking to start their own businesses, the McCabes transformed their Thetford Center home to start the operation, upgrading to a certified commercial kitchen and occupying a majority of their basement for operations and storage. The SCORE workshop covered topics such as identifying a legal structure for the proposed business, business planning, building sales, record keeping, cash flow and financing. She ultimately decided to go for it “because (SCORE) advisers like John Roy, Dick Meyer and entrepreneurs who attended the workshop gave me the confidence to get going, and besides, everyone liked my candy samples.”
#RED KITE CANDY HOW TO#
“I never wanted to turn my hobby into a business, but that changed in an instant when I starting thinking (about my mortality) and realized I love making candy and it’s fun, so why not give it a go? ” McCabe recalled.Īfter attending a SCORE workshop on how to start your own business hosted by the Upper Valley chapter, McCabe became even more motivated. With three young children at home, McCabe, with the support of her husband, Mike, planned out a two-year timeline for a business venture before officially launching Red Kite Candy in 2009. Having spent three decades making annual holiday toffees and caramels for friends and family, her entrepreneurial lightbulb illuminated. McCabe’s “aha!” moment came in 2007 during a treatment following a diagnosis of cancer. Today, the sky is the limit for the Red Kite Candy Co. When Elaine McCabe was at her most vulnerable, she allowed her daydreams and passion for crafting confections to take flight.
0 kommentar(er)
