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Friday, January 2, 2009

Clarin´s Top 10 - Sugar & Spice Makes the List


Not a bad way to end the year or start a new one. Clarin, Argentina´s largest newspaper, included us in their round-up of entrepreneurs with the most innovative ideas. For some reason, the online article is not complete so you would have to read the actual paper or you can click on the picture above if you can read Spanish.

Another expat (this one from the UK) was also mentioned. His company is 0800-Vino and it is a wine delivery service that promises to have your order delivered to your home within the hour.

Clarin chose among all the companies that they interviewed during the year. This was a complete surprise to me, and I found out about it after a friend of mine wrote to me congratulating me on the article. Thanks Tom!

The article is in Spanish, so what follows is my own personal translation of our part of the article.

Frank Almeida said that he came to this country out of love. He arrived in 1999 with his then girlfriend, now wife, but he soon started to miss some things. "I could not find cookies, like I knew cookies". To satisfy his nostalgia, his wife started baking out of their home. Today they are the owners of Sugar & Spice, a brand of gourmet cookies that invoiced $1,500,000 pesos in 2007.

We first "baked them at home and sold them to local bars and cafés of Palermo Viejo". Later they rented a space, bought an oven and designed their packaging. They managed to sell to Falabella (multinational departement store chain) and that is how they started their relationships with large clients. They also obtained angel investment to the tune of one million dollars. With that money they bought a factory with 800 sq meters of space. Today you can find their products in Jumbo, Disco, Libertad and La Anonima.


Of course we can also be found in many small gourmet shops, cafés, wine shops, cheese shops, video stores, chocolate shops, etc throughout the country from Tierra del Fuego to Misiones.

11 comments:

Paddy in BA (Quickroute) said...

Congrats Frank and Hapy New Year!

Holly said...

Congratulations Frank!

99 said...

Fantástico Frank!

Anonymous said...

Congratulations Frank!! Your the man. Someone came into my office the other day with a Sugar and Spices bag, I freaked out! congrats again!

Unknown said...

Hi Irish, Sra Capone, 99, and Rob,

Thanks! and I also hope you guys had a wonderful New Years!

Emepol said...

Congratulations!!

Anonymous said...

Yah!
Bravo!

Heidi Mathews said...

Congratulations Frank! I have yet to find your yummy cookies here in San Juan, but I'll keep looking! :)

Unknown said...

Hi Heidi,
Thanks! I just tried looking at some of my clients to see if any of them are in your town and I could not find any yet.

San Juan seems to be nestled in a green valley and you seem to have lakes and mountains all around you. How is San Juan? I have not heard of it as a tourist destination, but on a map it looks like it could be very nice.

What supermarket chains do you have in your town?

Heidi Mathews said...

Hey there Frank!
Yes, San Juan is gorgeous and there are lots of tourist attractions here. It all depends on what you like to do as to where you'd go. There are lots of vineyards and bodegas, mountains, lots of diques, etc. Sarmiento was born here and was governor and his childhood home is now a museum. If you're ever on this side of the country, let me know and I'll suggest some places :)
The supermarket chains that we have here are Vea, Libertad, CarrefourExpress, and WalMart. I see that you supply Libertad, but I haven't seen your products, maybe I'll have to look a little harder.

Unknown said...

Hi Heidi,

Sorry I could not respond quicker. I was on vacation. Yes, we have our products in Libertad and that one should have our products. You should ask them. If they tell you that they do not have them please let me know and I will follow that up.

As for the other chains you mentioned... I am working on most of those.