Sun, 01/03/2009 - 00:00 | by admin
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A Chilean start-up that, just a few years ago, was making sandwiches for a local bus company, has carved itself a new niche as an exporter of exquisitely-packaged gourmet products.
Its origins may have been humble but Chileangourmet has come a long way. Tapping into booming demand, particularly in North America, for high-quality, wholesome and natural foods, it is now one of Chile’s fastest-growing luxury food companies.
Its main product - accounting for almost half its sales - is honey. It produces five varieties, all made from the nectar of different flowers found in the native forests of southern Chile, explains Paulina Peñaloza, who set up the Santiago-based company with her husband Roberto Manieu in 2005.
The company’s other flagship product - merken - also has its origin in the south of Chile. A copper-colored spice made from dried, smoked red chili peppers and toasted coriander seeds, merken has been used for centuries by the area’s indigenous Mapuche communities, but came to new prominence a few years ago when it started to be used by chefs at fashionable restaurants in Santiago.
Chileangourmet has also put a new spin on ethnic tradition by mixing merken with olive oil to produce a spicy oil, suitable for dipping. It calls the oil Kultrun, the name of a Mapuche drum.
The company has all sorts of other gastronomic ideas up its sleeve, says Peñaloza. For example, it recently started producing ‘dulce de leche’ - a fudge spread popular in Chile and Argentina - from goat’s cheese, rather than cow’s milk, and has joined forces with an Ecuadorian chocolate company to make spicy chocolate, peppered with merken.
Last year, Chileangourmet’s sales more than trebled to US$ 450,000, up from US$ 133,000 in 2007 and, despite the economic crisis, it expects them to top US$ 1 million this year.
Some 25% of its sales come from Chile, where its products are available at a number of up-market delicatessens in Santiago, but 60% go to North America. In addition, it exports to Singapore, Brazil and France and recently clinched a major contract in Australia, which looks set to become one of its main markets in 2009.
This is a far cry from the company’s origins as a sandwich provider for TurBus, one of Chile’s biggest coach companies. “I think we must have a guardian angel watching over us,” says Peñaloza.
“If you ask whether we planned it this way, I’d have to say ‘no’,” she confesses. “But if you look back at how it’s all worked out, you couldn’t ask for a better business model.”
It was a trip to New York in July 2006 that changed Peñaloza’s and Manieu’s fortunes. They went to the Fancy Food Show, the largest specialty food fair in North America, and after learning about the gourmet market, decided they could provide it with something uniquely Chilean.
“We learned that our competition was going to be from Italian, Spanish and U.S. companies,” Peñaloza recalls. “And we also learned the importance of packaging and saw that all the manufacturers at the show had a very close relationship with their clients.”
The company’s first breakthrough came in October the following year when it secured a deal with Williams-Sonoma, a high-end culinary retailer with over 250 stores across the United States. “It really was the best way to enter the gourmet market because while Williams-Sonoma is not a big-volume account, it’s definitely a prestige account,” Peñaloza says.
Another major contract followed within months - this time with the Whole Foods Market chain, which has around 280 U.S. stores. And, now, Chileangourmet is looking to step up a gear; it is touting for the trade of regional supermarket chains in the United States and has even talked to Safeway which, if it became a client, would give the company access to some 1,600 U.S. outlets.
Back home in Chile, Chileangourmet is working with 180 families who provide it with honey, nuts and spices. Around 100 of them are Mapuche families in some of the poorest parts of the country and Peñaloza says social responsibility lies at the heart of her business model.
“I have a very strong social background myself,” she says. “When I was at school, I spent so many summers working with Mapuche communities and it always felt the same way to me - that this country is owned by a few rich families and that life is hard for the rest of the population, especially in rural areas.”
Chileangourmet operates what it calls an ‘open numbers’ policy - i.e. it tells its suppliers how much money it makes from their produce. That has helped build trust with local communities, Peñaloza says.
Still, you might think that Chileangourmet would be feeling the impact of the economic downturn. After all, if you were looking to cut down your supermarket spending, luxury products - like merken and bottles of spiced olive oil - might be the first items to cross off the list.
But Peñaloza says that, for now at least, the company’s business has shown no sign of slowing. U.S. consumers might have stopped eating in expensive restaurants but they are still buying quality food to eat at home, she reports.
“My problem is not the downturn, it’s just keeping up with the amount of orders we have,” she says. “We’re running around like crazy.”
From Sandwiches to Merken
By By Gideon LongPrintSend to friend
A Chilean start-up that, just a few years ago, was making sandwiches for a local bus company, has carved itself a new niche as an exporter of exquisitely-packaged gourmet products.
Its origins may have been humble but Chileangourmet has come a long way. Tapping into booming demand, particularly in North America, for high-quality, wholesome and natural foods, it is now one of Chile’s fastest-growing luxury food companies.
Its main product - accounting for almost half its sales - is honey. It produces five varieties, all made from the nectar of different flowers found in the native forests of southern Chile, explains Paulina Peñaloza, who set up the Santiago-based company with her husband Roberto Manieu in 2005.
The company’s other flagship product - merken - also has its origin in the south of Chile. A copper-colored spice made from dried, smoked red chili peppers and toasted coriander seeds, merken has been used for centuries by the area’s indigenous Mapuche communities, but came to new prominence a few years ago when it started to be used by chefs at fashionable restaurants in Santiago.
Chileangourmet has also put a new spin on ethnic tradition by mixing merken with olive oil to produce a spicy oil, suitable for dipping. It calls the oil Kultrun, the name of a Mapuche drum.
The company has all sorts of other gastronomic ideas up its sleeve, says Peñaloza. For example, it recently started producing ‘dulce de leche’ - a fudge spread popular in Chile and Argentina - from goat’s cheese, rather than cow’s milk, and has joined forces with an Ecuadorian chocolate company to make spicy chocolate, peppered with merken.
Last year, Chileangourmet’s sales more than trebled to US$ 450,000, up from US$ 133,000 in 2007 and, despite the economic crisis, it expects them to top US$ 1 million this year.
Some 25% of its sales come from Chile, where its products are available at a number of up-market delicatessens in Santiago, but 60% go to North America. In addition, it exports to Singapore, Brazil and France and recently clinched a major contract in Australia, which looks set to become one of its main markets in 2009.
This is a far cry from the company’s origins as a sandwich provider for TurBus, one of Chile’s biggest coach companies. “I think we must have a guardian angel watching over us,” says Peñaloza.
“If you ask whether we planned it this way, I’d have to say ‘no’,” she confesses. “But if you look back at how it’s all worked out, you couldn’t ask for a better business model.”
It was a trip to New York in July 2006 that changed Peñaloza’s and Manieu’s fortunes. They went to the Fancy Food Show, the largest specialty food fair in North America, and after learning about the gourmet market, decided they could provide it with something uniquely Chilean.
“We learned that our competition was going to be from Italian, Spanish and U.S. companies,” Peñaloza recalls. “And we also learned the importance of packaging and saw that all the manufacturers at the show had a very close relationship with their clients.”
The company’s first breakthrough came in October the following year when it secured a deal with Williams-Sonoma, a high-end culinary retailer with over 250 stores across the United States. “It really was the best way to enter the gourmet market because while Williams-Sonoma is not a big-volume account, it’s definitely a prestige account,” Peñaloza says.
Another major contract followed within months - this time with the Whole Foods Market chain, which has around 280 U.S. stores. And, now, Chileangourmet is looking to step up a gear; it is touting for the trade of regional supermarket chains in the United States and has even talked to Safeway which, if it became a client, would give the company access to some 1,600 U.S. outlets.
Back home in Chile, Chileangourmet is working with 180 families who provide it with honey, nuts and spices. Around 100 of them are Mapuche families in some of the poorest parts of the country and Peñaloza says social responsibility lies at the heart of her business model.
“I have a very strong social background myself,” she says. “When I was at school, I spent so many summers working with Mapuche communities and it always felt the same way to me - that this country is owned by a few rich families and that life is hard for the rest of the population, especially in rural areas.”
Chileangourmet operates what it calls an ‘open numbers’ policy - i.e. it tells its suppliers how much money it makes from their produce. That has helped build trust with local communities, Peñaloza says.
Still, you might think that Chileangourmet would be feeling the impact of the economic downturn. After all, if you were looking to cut down your supermarket spending, luxury products - like merken and bottles of spiced olive oil - might be the first items to cross off the list.
But Peñaloza says that, for now at least, the company’s business has shown no sign of slowing. U.S. consumers might have stopped eating in expensive restaurants but they are still buying quality food to eat at home, she reports.
“My problem is not the downturn, it’s just keeping up with the amount of orders we have,” she says. “We’re running around like crazy.” 
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