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ONE ON ONE GOURMET NEWS JANUARY 2014 www.gourmetnews.com 27 One on One Sarabeth Levine Sarabeth's Founder Gourmet News recently sat down with Sarabeth Levine, founder of the eponymous specialty food and restaurant company Sarabeth's, to discuss the company's roots and the secrets to its success. Tell our readers about how you got started. I began making one product, Orange Apricot Marmalade from a secret family recipe in my apartment in New York City in 1981 and began selling it to local gourmet food stores. In September of 1981, I rented a small store near my apartment and with the help of my husband, Bill, a General Contractor. We built a bakery/kitchen where we made the jams and pastries. We eventually put in tables and started serving breakfast and lunch. The store became very popular, and we built on its success, expanded all facets of the business, the jams, bakery products and restaurants. What would you say makes the Sarabeth's brand different from the competition? Under the Sarabeth's brand, we manufacture our own line of gourmet products, own our own artisanal bakery and control 12 fine dining restaurants. I believe there are very few competitors that can say the same thing. Also, because it is a family owned business, we are intimately involved with every aspect of the business in order to maintain the high quality standards we strive for. How do you see the Company evolving over the next five years? In order to accommodate the growth of our bakery and jam business, we are planning a move to a larger facility to consolidate the bakery and jam production in one location. At the same time, we will be increasing our product lines over a broader spectrum of the gourmet food industry. There is a great deal of interest from Asia in our brand. Right now, there are two Sarabeth's restaurants in Japan. Four more are in the planning stage in Japan over the next two years, while others are being planned for Taiwan, China, Jakarta and Hawaii. Further restaurant expansion throughout the United States is also in our future. Sarabeth's continues to receive accolades such as the recent selection in O Magazine. What differentiates your products, and how do you maintain this level of excellence? I am a very picky person. You might call me a perfectionist. Sometimes that is a good thing and at other times, not so good. Perfectionists move very slowly, and sometimes things never get done because they are never satisfied. I have a great team in place at our jam factory, bakery and restaurants. Many of our employees have been with us from the very beginning. They know what I need our products to be. They care about the quality and our reputation and I believe that is what differentiates our products from others. Your brand is unique in that you are a wholesaler to stores such as Williams Sonoma and King's, but you also operate your own retail operation through your Chelsea Market bakery and sell products through the Sarabeth's catalog and website. In addition, Sarabeth's restaurant concept operates over 12 locations in the United States and Japan. How Sarabeth's Shinjuku Branch in Tokyo do you market to consumers in these very different segments? A lot of our marketing is done through our various websites, providing information and selling products directly to consumers through a shopping cart program. I am also writing my second book, which is a great vehicle for brand recognition. I use my Twitter, Blog, Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram accounts (when I have the time) to disseminate the latest information on our products and [to inform our followers] when we create something new. We do trade advertising for our wholesale business, such as in Gourmet News. Our next marketing tool, which we will start using in 2014, will be the use of mobile applications, which is the wave of the future. We need to be on top of the wave. It is often said that a successful business is the sum of its parts. How does Sarabeth's fit with this credo? We have been lucky to have a team of the best and loyal employees. They are the backbone of a successful business. That goes for the management, production and administrative personnel. A successful business offers customers consistent quality at reasonable prices. In our restaurants, we strive for fine food and service. And when a customer is not satisfied, we do our best to respond quickly and to their complete satisfaction. What new Sarabeth's products and sales venues do you think will grow dramatically in 2014? We have recently introduced Sarabeth's Perfect Pancake & Waffle Mix and Sarabeth's Perfect Biscuit Mix. We expect to expand that line into scone mixes and cookie mixes. Our Hot Chocolate Parisienne, which won the sofi Gold Award for Outstanding Hot Beverage has really taken off in sales. We are changing the size from 16 ounces to 12 ounces to make it more affordable at retail. We are also planning to launch Sarabeth's line of packaged cookies, with extended shelf life without preservatives. We will be creating additional soups to add to the Sarabeth's Legendary Velvety Cream of Tomato Soup, which won the sofi Gold for Outstanding Soup, Stew, etc. We will be broadening our sales by adding distributors and/or brokers to underserved areas and increasing direct sales to large house accounts such as Williams Sonoma, Sur La Table, Loblaw's and others. To learn more about Sarabeth's, visit www.sarabeth.com, call 212.989.2424, or email goddessofbakedom@gmail.com. Also stop by the Sarabeth's booth #2638 at the Winter Fancy Food Show in San Francisco. GN *This interview is sponsored content.