A sweet way to build a business

PBN Staff photo/Stephanie Ewens

Sheila Vinacco, left, started Sweet Twist by dipping pretzels in chocolate for her friends. Since then her sisters – Ann Ross, center, and Mary Lada – have joined to make the business a success.

COMPANY PROFILE
Sweet Twist
Owners: Sheila Vinacco, Mary Lada and Ann Ross
Type of business: Chocolate and candy emporium
Location: 5707 Post Road, East Greenwich
Employees: 8
Year established: 1994
Annual Sales: WND

Sisters grow a candy emporium from a creative idea for pretzel treats

It started with a twist – a “sweet twist,” that is, a tiny pretzel dipped in chocolate. Sheila Vinacco came up with the name when she started selling the treats in creative packages to friends and family. Soon she was setting up tables at small craft shows, then running a small business in East Greenwich, taking orders for the holidays.

Today, Vinacco’s moonlighting job has grown into a gourmet candy emporium – named Sweet Twist – with more than 3,000 kinds of confections on its shelves.

The business, which Vinacco co-owns with her sisters, Mary Lada and Ann Ross, stocks a wide array of brands, including Garrison Confections, Perugina, Lindt and Valrhona.

The store sells plenty of boxes of chocolates, Lada said – “it’s still what people want to give as a gift.” But the emporium’s niche, she said, is clearly its handmade chocolate confections.

“Customers are looking for gifts made in Rhode Island, something fresh, something they’re not bombarded with at the supermarket or CVS,” she said. “They’re looking for something unique. You can find … Lindt and Jelly Belly anywhere.”

Along with “sweet twists,” popular handmade items include chocolate-dipped pretzel rods, chocolate and caramel-dipped apples, chocolate-dipped potato chips and popcorn drizzled with chocolate (milk or white). The product line has evolved over time to suit customers’ tastes.

“It was a lot of hit and miss … mixing different combinations together with chocolate, testing proportions, seeing what worked and what didn’t, what tasted good and didn’t, testing freshness, perfecting presentation of the item,” Lada said.

Along with word-of-mouth, the sisters have used ads in local papers, baby and wedding publications, and cable TV to develop business, along with a Web site, sweettwist.com. When the store outgrew its original location, they formed an LLC and bought their current building on Post Road. In 2004, their first full year there, sales rose by more than 50 percent, fueled in part by being named “Best Candy Store” in Rhode Island by a local publication.

Sales have continued to rise steadily, by 15 to 20 percent each year, Lada said. (She wouldn’t provide specific figures.) Women make up the bulk of the clientele, whether they’re buying treats for their husbands, or corporate gifts. About 20 percent of business now comes from out of state, she said; a New Hampshire company has been buying chocolate-covered apples for many years. “That’s an area we hope to expand on,” Lada said.

Business is somewhat seasonal, with sales rising around Halloween, peaking around Christmas, and then slowing after Easter. “We’re just catching our breath right now,” Lada said. But they’re also working to develop more business, with trips planned to a food show in New York and a candy expo in Chicago, among others.

“We stay on top of what’s out there,” she said, “whatever it is – from crazy kid things to new flavors of jelly beans … we’ll discover it.”

The company also makes unique bridal and shower favors, a great source of repeat business, Lada said. “We’ll do favors for a bridal party, then down the road, a baby shower and a First Communion.”

The sisters also have plenty of business customers, for whom they’ll do almost anything: from chocolate toothbrushes for a periodontist, to chocolate business cards. A university recently opted for truffles imprinted with the school’s colors.

Now the chocolatiers are working on a five-year plan, but Lada didn’t want to reveal details. “We don’t want to let that out of the bag just yet,” she said, “but there are some really exciting plans in the works.”

Immediate concerns are streamlining inventory control, the possibility of streamlining production from two locations into one, and exploring e-commerce options, she said. “It’s exciting to see where this business is going to go,” she said. “There’s a lot of potential here.”

Published 05/20/2006
Issue 21-06