Jammin’ Business
When Jim Stott and Jonathan King took their cooking talents out of the kitchen and into the marketplace, their fortunes turned sweet indeed.
In 1991, Jim Stott and Jonathan King got a small folding table, a big umbrella, and took hand-labeled jars of their homemade jam to their first farmers market under the name Stonewall Kitchen. When they sold out before the day’s end, they knew they were onto something.
For the next five years, the duo brought their vinegars, oils, pesto, jams, and baked goods—created in a kitchen that looked out at an old stone wall—to the farmers market. After someone bought every last jar of jam they had before the market even opened, their wholesale business had begun.
“Jonathan and Jim started with about a dozen products initially,” says Cynthia Maranhas, executive assistant to the owners. “They made vinegars, pickled veggies, marinated goat cheese, cookies, and, of course, jam.” The product line was expanded to include mustards and sun-dried tomatoes in olive oil, and continued to add more products based on what was fresh and available.
The company was first headquartered in an 18th-century barn in Kittery. They quickly outgrew the space and renovated an old community store in York and promptly moved in. King and Stott did everything from mixing ingredients, packing boxes, and helping customers out front, to taking their own photographs.
In 1995, Stott and King took Stonewall Kitchen on the road to the Fancy Food Show in New York City—a tradeshow that attracts over 36,000 buyers. They won the Outstanding Jam award for their Roasted Garlic Onion Jam and came in second for Outstanding Product Line. They left with orders from retailers across the country.
In 1999, the duo purchased an eight-acre parcel of land and built their 46,000- square-foot headquarters, manufacturing plant, and flagship store on Route 1 in York. The move was followed by the Stonewall Kitchen Café, a breakfast and lunch bistro adjacent to the flagship store, and the Stonewall Kitchen Cooking School, offering classes for all skill levels in their 32-seat, theater-style, state-of-the-art kitchen.
With more than 6,000 wholesale accounts nationwide, catalog and web divisions, nine retail company stores along the East Coast, a staff of hundreds, and over two dozen prestigious awards, Stonewall Kitchen is a very sweet success story.
Consistency and quality are two key elements to Stonewall Kitchen’s success, according to Maranhas. “People know when they open a jar of our Wild Maine Blueberry Jam they are going to see loads of tiny Maine blueberries,” she says.
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