Not So Hard to Swallow

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Not So Hard to Swallow
From left

When Scott Samet and Douglas Chu left their jobs as investment bankers in downtown Los Angeles 20 years ago to open Taste of Nature Inc., they were taking a big risk in hopes they’d hit the sweet spot.

“We set up shop in the back of Doug’s parents’ house and we each invested $5,000 to start the business from scratch,” Samet said.

The initial concept was to sell healthy snacks such as trail mix and yogurt-covered pretzels to movie theaters in bulk. But they changed direction in 1997 after they developed Cookie Dough Bites, their first prepackaged treat and now their most popular product.

So they dropped bulk sales and adopted prepackaged candies, such as Sqwigglies and Care Bear Gummi Bears.

Now, Samet and Chu are preparing to add about 60 products to their line of 200, some to meet increasing demand for private-label orders from grocery stores and others.

But most were developed as holiday products. Among them: Christmas Muddy Bears, Valentine’s Day Cotton Candy and Easter Cupcake Bites.

This year, Samet and Chu expect almost $20 million in revenue. The Santa Monica company has come a long way from its modest startup days.

Taste of Nature candies are sold at grocery stores and mass-market retailers such as Wal-Mart and Target, as well as discount chains including Dollar Tree and 99 Cents Only.

Candy sales in general are up 4.2 percent this year, according to the National Confectioners Association, and sales of chewy and gummy candies, a Taste of Nature specialty, were up 4.4 percent.

While consumers may have cut spending elsewhere, they don’t want to deprive themselves of sweets, said Susan Whiteside, vice president of communications for the NCA. After all, it’s a low-price treat.

“Candy is a very affordable luxury,” Whiteside said.

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