Kim & Scott Holstein: Success with Gourmet Pretzels

The most successful businesses are those that are able to spot opportunities -- even in the seemingly ordinary things in our every day life.

Kim and Scott Holstein were in a supermarket in Wilmette, Chicago looking for unique flavored pretzels. However, all that was offered in the frozen food ailes section was plain salted pretzel.

Then a lightbulb lit up: why not offer uniquely flavored soft pretzels as the gourmet alternative to the plain salted pretzel? They would experiment with various flavors, adding fruits, cheeses, spices, cheddar jalapeno, herbs, sun dried tomatoes, and others to see which flavors work best.

Believing that a huge market exists for their distinctive pretzels, the Holsteins decided to launch their business in May 1995 out of their cramped studio apartment. With $25,000 borrowed from family members and credit cards, the couple launched Kim & Scott's Gourmet Pretzels (http://www.kimandscotts.com/).

The challenge, however, was that they both did not know anything about the pretzel business. Though Scott's family owned a Ben and Jerry's franchise, the Holstein's had no culinary experience and education. They had never sold baked goods before either! To help them develop their pretzels, they hired a chef to bring forth their ideas for a unique line of pretzel.

Now their pretzels are sold in restaurants, coffee shops, and grocery stores nationwide, including Barnes and Noble coffee shop, Sams Clubs, Whole Foods, Albertsons, among others. However, their biggest sales outlet is the home shopping network QVC where they have appeared more than 22 times selling about 625,000 pretzels!

Check out (Kim & Scott's Gourmet Pretzels ).