Opportunity Grows

For commercial clients, the timing is right to try the farm-to-table approach.  

“We try to help clients grow things that they wouldn’t be able to grow otherwise,” she said. “I think right now it’s a perfect opportunity for those looking to recreate themselves. There were some supply chain issues during the pandemic, and this is an opportunity to create a really amazing space.”
 
Sales for this year, which would be Heirloom Potager’s first full year in business, are expected to total $200,000.
 
Currently, the business is Irene and her husband, Nathan Goltz,—an engineer by day and hobby woodworker who has done most of the woodwork for Irene’s gardens—with some part-time employees hired depending on the project.
 
Residential installs typically take about a month and cost about $100 per square foot. A restaurant could take two to three months at $125 to $150 per square foot due to additional costs, such as permitting or materials to accommodate sizes that are typically larger than residential.
 
Return to Heritage

Irene, who grew up on her grandparents’ farm in central Wisconsin, has always had a love for farming.
 
She was a fashion design major, giving her an eye for design, that later came in handy in creating her own gardens. She later earned her MBA and served as a brand consultant, while also taking care of her mother, who was battling cancer, for some 10 years.
 
The push to start Heirloom Potager came following her mother’s terminal cancer diagnosis last February.
 
“Before she passed, one of the things she had always been saying to me is ‘After this, I really want you to live your life.’ Faced with that, I realized that I wanted to do something different. Something that not only brought me a lot of joy, but something that would bring clients a lot of joy. I’ve found that gardens are one of the most joyful things for people,” she said.
 
Irene had already been helping neighbors and friends with their own edible gardens, and they encouraged her to turn her talent into a business.
 
Her and Heirloom Potager’s focus and niche has been encouraging clients to grow heirloom varietals, or seeds over 50 years old.
 
“I find those special because they are a connection to our past and our present,” she said. “They are an opportunity for us to reevaluate food and flavors. In the last 60 years we’ve lost a lot of that. For us, food is whatever’s available at the grocery store. We lost the idea of seasonality. This is a way for me to help encourage people to grow seasonally.”

Health, Wellness

That philosophy ties into the company’s name. Heirloom refers to the varieties grown, while potager refers to kitchen garden by the French or also soup of the day.
 
“It’s bringing back health and wellness into our lives. When you get to eat things that are grown organically, because that’s a core tenant of our business, when you do that, you’re eating something at the peak of its freshness and so you experience it almost in its absolute best form,” Irene said.
 
So far, Irene’s own handiwork has been the business’ biggest advertisement, along with good words put in by happy clients, friends and family.
 
Some days, Irene said, it doesn’t even feel like work to build out or help maintain her clients’ gardens. She mentioned this as she sat down at a rustic table her husband built for her at the house. The table, she said, will one day serve as a good anchor to an outdoor showroom for clients to meet with her once COVID is in the rearview mirror.
 
“That idea of coming to the table, enjoying delicious food and having good conversation is really a way for us to create that sense of community,” she said.
 
“There’s so many things right now with the pandemic, political issues and economic disparities. So, I look at this idea of a table as essentially a bridge in a different form.”
 
She cited the adage, “If you are more fortunate than others, it’s better to build a longer table than a taller fence.” She has a sticker of that saying on the back of her phone case.
 
“That, in a nutshell,” she said, “that’s my company.” 

The post Heirloom Potager Blooms with Rise in Farm-to-Table appeared first on Orange County Business Journal.

Wakse LLC’s founders initially wanted to bring an upscale DIY experience into people’s homes with their hair removal products.

Now, they’re doing the reverse with the opening of their first physical store and salon at the Irvine Spectrum Center.

The space for Wakse (pronounced “waxy”) includes about 900 square feet dedicated to retail, and another 1,100 square feet for a salon, boasting six private esthetician rooms and in-store coffee bar.

This first door of the Irvine-based beauty company is expected to lead to an eventual expansion of a handful of carefully planted flagship hybrid salon-retail experiences for the business.

The company believes it can continue momentum that began during the pandemic, with more and more people who once frequented in-person salons trying, and succeeding, with the do-it-yourself approach to waxing.

The increased demand has led to new retail accounts, such as Costco, and overseas expansion.

Boutique Feel

In the near term, monitoring the recently opened physical Spectrum location will be key to further understanding what steps to take next with Wakse.

“When we first started, we became known for reinventing the waxing experience,” said cofounder Andrew Glass. “We knew that we wanted to expand the Wakse experience and transform the service portion of the category and not just the retail portion. It really is an elevated experienced compared to what I would say is a normal experience. The rooms look beautiful and smell beautiful.”

Customers are greeted with a cappuccino upon arrival. Waxing rooms are tailored to fit the service. So, for example, if a client is coming in for the rose gold wax, the lighting might be adjusted to have a rose gold hue. The chocolate wax experience might have a chocolate scent wafting throughout the room.

The point is to make the experience more upscale boutique, and less of a stark medical aesthetic, the company’s founders say.

Starting Point

That strategy of aspirational branding has so far worked out well for Wakse, which was launched in 2018 by Glass and Shayan Sadrolashrafi, serial entrepreneurs originally operating out of the Atlanta area.

The duo (self-described as “two hairy guys”) self-funded the business, pairing Sadrolashrafi’s digital design expertise with Glass’ branding experience and beauty industry connections to sell at-home waxing products—jars of hard wax beans priced from about $15 to $32 in scents, such as lavender, bubblegum, caramel brûlee and gingerbread.

“It was like a perfect marriage,” Glass said of the two founders’ meeting at a former employer. “We stumbled upon hair removal products and realized there really hadn’t been any innovation.”

About a year ago, the two made the decision to begin transitioning the business to Irvine.

“We knew we wanted [headquarters] to be in an area with warm weather,” Glass said.

A local warehouse opened about a year-and-a-half ago, followed by the office.

The company’s still small with some eight employees at corporate and another four employed at the store. It continues to be entirely self-funded after being bootstrapped by the two founders. They’re also not looking to raise outside funding any time soon with Glass saying they’d rather focus on organic growth.

“We definitely don’t need to be thinking about that,” Glass said. “I think we’re being smart and not growing too fast. We’ve definitely turned down some large retail opportunities because we want to sustain the business and not have to look outside for financial opportunities.”

3,500 Stores

The duo appears to be doing just fine without the need to raise additional capital, with the brand now sold direct-to-consumer through its online shop and recently opened location, in addition to about 3,500 stores globally.

The majority of those accounts, about 3,000, are in the U.S. at retailers, salons and spas. Some of those deals plant Wakse at big name retail partners, such as Neiman Marcus, Anthropologie and Ulta. It also recently went more mass via a deal inked with Costco where it sells an exclusive kit. The business also just expanded into New Zealand, Australia and Canada via a distributor.

Glass’ beauty industry connections helped from the start, managing to get Wakse into some large retailers almost instantly.

Three months after its launch, the business secured CVS in a deal that placed it in some 4,000 stores. The brand has since exited the drug store chain as its refined its distribution strategy.

Next Steps

Wakse’s successes have it now poised for further growth.

“This has been our most successful year,” Glass said. “We’ve been on the really lucky end of the spectrum in that we did not expect it, but when COVID took a big hit in the U.S. and everyone had to go home, we saw a 1,000% increase in sales because people were looking for a DIY solution.”

That surge in the business has since leveled out, but sales are overall still up for Wakse, Glass said.

Next year will see the company make a big push in media campaigns and continuing to evolve and expand the product lineup.

About 75% of the business is generated from female customers, but Wakse’s seeing growth from the men’s side.

“We try to be as gender neutral as possible,” Glass said.

Interestingly, the growth from the men’s side is coming from some niche areas, such as the cycling community where both avid amateurs and pro cyclists require smooth legs for better performance. But even in the early days of the Irvine Spectrum location’s opening, pre-booking for men’s brow services have been strong, officials said.

They’ll continue to closely watch how the door does as more consumers find it.

“We’re going to obviously see how the store performs, especially since it’s such an interesting time,” Glass said.

He estimates about a year-and-a-half from now additional brick-and-mortar locations could open in Hawaii and then possibly Europe. Site selection, he said, would be based on where the company is shipping its products.

Glass also said the goal is to bring manufacturing in-house with Wakse eventually owning its own production facility to make its own products and also do private label for other brands. The company currently makes its products in the U.S. and China.

“Because of all [that happened this year] we’ve definitely tapped into a consumer we probably wouldn’t have before because people were forced to look for a DIY option. Customers who didn’t think waxing at home was an option are now converted,” Glass said. “At the same token, I think our brick-and-mortar has allowed us to open up to a customer we wouldn’t have before.”

The post Wakse Bows First Store, Sets Sights on Growth appeared first on Orange County Business Journal.

Chapman University said today Matthew Hanson will replace Shan Steinmark as director of its entrepreneurship center, the Ralph W. Leatherby Center for Entrepreneurship and Business Ethics. Hanson will start Sept. 1. The center is part of the Argyros School of Business and Economics.

Hanson is a Chapman alum, earning his MBA from the university in the mid 1980’s and then getting a Ph.D. in Aerospace Engineering from USC in the late 1990’s. He has served as an adjunct professor of finance at Chapman since 2012.

The center, established in 1995, houses more than 10 teams at its Launch Labs incubator facility, with approximately 25 teams overall in the Launch Labs program. The center provides resources for start-ups, such as mentors and workshops, and also supports the entrepreneurship minor and emphasis.

Hanson is senior program manager at Brea-based Beckman Coulter Inc., where he led international teams in the development of an automation system and development of the company’s first cloud-based customer application. He’ll be giving up this position when he becomes director of the entrepreneurship center, said a University official. Hanson retired as a lieutenant colonel in the U.S Air Force; his last position was in the science and technology office of the Secretary of the Air Force in Washington, D.C.

Steinmark has run the Leatherby Center since late 2014. Prior to that, he was a lead mentor with the center for two years. He co-founded several companies in Hawaii and California, including Strategic Transitions Research and EyeOnBusiness Institute.

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The University of California-Irvine Paul Merage School of Business full-time MBA program rose five spots in the U.S. News & World Report Best Graduate Schools rankings, tying with Southern Methodist University’s Cox School of Business in Dallas at No. 48.

The 2017 full-time MBA rankings were based on a survey of the 470 master’s programs in business administration accredited by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business.

Nearly 400 programs responded, and 129 provided the data used to calculate rankings based on a weighted average of various indicators, including quality assessment and placement success.

The George L. Argyros School of Business and Economics at Chapman University also made the list of the top 92 ranked programs, tying with The School of Management at University at Buffalo-SUNY at No. 81.

—Deirdre Newman

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Huntington Beach Chamber of Commerce President and Chief Executive Jerry Wheeler plans to retire April 8.

Wheeler, 68, led the chamber through a period of growth. When he became president in June 2011, the group had some 600 members; it now has about 700. Members pay $345 to $1,000 to join, based on company size.

He also expanded sponsorship and attendance at the organization’s business expos by holding them in public venues.

“Under Jerry’s leadership, the chamber … restored and fortified its financial stability and operational integrity,” said Patrick Brenden, the chamber’s board chairman. “Jerry is leaving us in a far better condition than when he arrived.”

Before joining the Huntington Beach Chamber of Commerce Wheeler headed a chamber in Lake Oswego, Ore. He’s moving to Sacramento where his wife, Celia, who has led March of Dimes work in Orange County, has taken a promotion.

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Numbers are down in the Business Journal’s annual survey of MBA programs that serve Orange County—and that’s a good thing.

Deans at OC programs said the results generally follow an old adage: when the economy’s bad, go to school; when it’s good, go to work.

Local schools showed a year-to-year decline of about 1.5% in the number of MBA students enrolled as of September to 3,341. The schools combined for 6% fewer graduates in June, with 1,539.

“We see it as basically being flat,” said Gerardo Okhuysen, associate dean of master’s programs at University of California-Irvine’s Paul Merage School of Business. “Given … an improving economy, this is a good outcome.”

The Business Journal alphabetically lists 41 MBA programs. Data for about half the entries are provided by the schools, with estimates provided for others.

UCI had 676 students enrolled in its MBA as of September, down 1.3% from last year, and 314 MBA graduates in June, down 5.7% year-over-year.

It has the largest MBA program of schools based in Orange County.

A second factor in the down year involved the overlap of the perennial student demand for programs that can be finished fast and the developing trend of specialization in graduate business offerings.

Students are enrolling in programs other than the MBA.

“Specialization identifies you” in the market, said Darryl Stevens, assistant dean of graduate business programs at Chapman University in Orange.

Chapman had about 11.3% fewer MBA students enrolled as of September, or 220, down from 248 a year ago, and its number of graduates this June was down by 21%, or 25 fewer students than earned the MBA in June 2014.

Focus

Stevens said some of the enrollment decline is due to students taking new, focused programs instead of earning a general MBA.

“One-year specialty degrees are pretty robust.”

Chapman added a master’s of science program in accounting two years ago and is considering adding specialized graduate business work in finance, management, and data analytics (see related story page, 16).

“We also have what we call a ‘4 + ½’ program,” Stevens said, in which undergraduate students studying accounting start taking graduate courses in their last semester of bachelor’s work and can earn an M.S. degree six months later.

UCI added a master’s degree in accounting in 2013 and a certificate program in entrepreneurship that begins this year, is tentatively aiming for a fall 2016 launch of a master’s in finance program, and has begun the process of adding a master’s program in data analytics further down the line.

“We’re starting to think of students as lifelong learners,” he said. “We want to be in a position where we can help serve our communities at any age or need.”

Speed

Speed is crucial, the deans said.

“Most of our students can finish in about 16 to 18 months,” said Stephen Christensen, dean of the business school at Concordia University in Irvine. “One guy did it in 10 months. He took three classes a week and told me he had no life, but he did it.”

Concordia reported 115 MBA students enrolled as of September, down 11% year-over-year, and 63 graduates, a decline of 6%.

Christensen said Concordia plans to launch specialties next fall for its MBA in management, finance, marketing, entrepreneurship, and international business—the last effort connected to the school’s satellite location in Shanghai.

“You can drill down deeper into the subject matter (and develop) an expertise,” he said.

He said the school is also planning a separate master’s degree in accounting.

Pepperdine University’s Irvine location has amped up flexibility by accepting students who haven’t taken the Graduate Management Admission Test, or GMAT.

“It’s an alternative for individuals with a strong academic background,” said David Smith, dean of Pepperdine’s Graziadio School of Business and Management.

The school began offering the waiver last year, and 20% of its 162 OC MBA students are in the program on that basis.

“We also increased scholarships for part-time students with a strong profile,” Smith said, meaning high GMAT scores and “several years of work experience at the mid-manager level.”

Anomaly

Scholarships have been key at Brandman University in Irvine—one of a few schools with more MBA students this year.

The school, part of the Chapman University system, had 154 MBA students enrolled as of September, up 5.5%, and graduated 67 MBA students in June, up 8% year-over-year.

Dean of the school of business and professional studies Glenn Worthington said scholarship money has come from local firms that “identified some of the leaders in their companies, and they got reduced tuition.”

He said the MBA is 5 years old and “has grown every year for those five.”

The post MBA Programs’ Numbers Down in Strong Economy appeared first on Orange County Business Journal.

Scott Gladstone didn’t manage to hold on to Anna’s Linens Inc.’s name, according to documents filed with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Central District of California in Santa Ana.

Gladstone, whose father Alan founded the Costa Mesa-based household-goods company in 1987, was part of the group outbid by Michael Fallas during an auction held Sept. 17 at the Los Angeles office of the retailer’s attorney.

Fallas is president and chief executive of Gardena-based National Stores Inc., which sells discounted apparel, school uniforms, home goods and toys, and gets about $900 million in annual sales.

He acquired the rights to Anna’s Linens’ intellectual property rights for $235,000 under affiliate I & K Vending LLC. The buy includes the Anna’s Linens name, trademarks, copyrights, domain names and customer lists.

The next highest offer for Anna’s Linens’ intellectual property came from Florence, N.J.-based Burlington Stores Inc., which put up $230,000 but was considered as a backup bid in the end. Sensio Inc. in Montreal, Canada, bid only on the bankrupt retailer’s Bella line of table linens, which it acquired for $40,000.

Fallas had earlier taken over leases for 41 of Anna’s Linens stores for $1.46 million in an auction held Aug. 27. The deal with FP Stores Inc.—a National Stores subsidiary that’s better known as Fallas Paredes—included one Orange County location, at 2120 S. Bristol St. in Santa Ana. Another 10 are in Los Angeles County, and the rest are spread throughout the nation—Texas, Florida, Nevada and North Carolina, among others.

1,200 Jobs

Fallas told the court his chain plans to hire many of the 1,200 people who were terminated after the end of liquidation sales at the stores his company acquired.

Anna’s Linens filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on June 14 after defaulting on an $80 million line of credit from Salus Capital Partners LLC of Needham Heights, Mass. It had more than 2,331 employees and 252 stores throughout the U.S. and Puerto Rico prior to the filing.

It hired Hilco Merchant Resources LLC in Northbrook, Ill., and Boston-based Gordon Brothers Retail Partners LLC to manage liquidation of all of its merchandise, store furniture, fixtures and equipment, which has since been completed. It also retained Hilco Streambank, officially known as Hilco IP Services LLC, in Dedham, Mass., to coordinate the marketing and sale of its intellectual property. New York-based RCS Real Estate Advisors was marketing store subleasing opportunities and managed to get Rockaway, N.J.-based Party City Corp. into 13. The deal for Halloween pop-up shops, effective Sept. 1 to Nov. 22, could bring $250,000.

The younger Gladstone, who became chief executive of Anna’s Linens in 2014, was part of the insider group that was looking to “retain Anna’s name and operate over 100 stores,” Chief Financial Officer J.E. Rick Bunka said during a creditors hearing on Aug. 7.

The retailer last week asked the court to allow it to walk away from its corporate office lease on 3560 Hyland Ave. It was paying about $65,000 per month to Costa Mesa-based C.J. Segerstrom & Sons.

The lease was set to expire on Aug. 31, 2019.

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The Orange County/Inland Empire Small Business Development Center at California State University-Fullerton plans to focus on Latino-American business owners with its third site here.

It has two other sites in the county now—one in Santa Ana, hosted by Rancho Santiago Community College, and one in Aliso Viejo, hosted by Octane. The group also runs centers in Riverside, San Bernardino and Palm Springs.

The group issued a request for proposals to find a host site for the Latino-focused center that it hopes to start this summer.

Applications are due by April 6 with a decision expected by the end of April, said Katrina Payne Smith, interim regional director of the group.

“We’d like the center to be open by July 1,” Payne Smith said, though she conceded that might be an “aggressive” timeframe.

The new site would get $25,000 from the Fullerton SBDC, which handles administration for the other sites, and must provide a like amount from its own resources, she said.

It’s expected to “better align our services and help promote further growth in our region,” said Dr. Anil Puri, CSUF dean of business and economics, in a statement.

The Fullerton SBDC’s operations are funded by $2.2 million from the U.S. Small Business Administration, which is matched by host institutions, corporate donors and others, Payne Smith said.

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