Mmm ... another candy please.
| Auteur | Sethi, Aradhna |
| Fonction | Business Unusual |
Selling candies is not as easy as you may think. Neither is it profit-making from the start. Swiss News speaks with entrepreneur Alexandra Bisaz.
What she had was a sweet tooth and a passion for candies. That was Alexandra Bisaz eight years ago. What she has now is a 'finely refined' sweet tooth, a constantly growing passion for candies, a motivated business partner named Nicole Reolon and a booming candy business with their 'Lolipop' outlets all across Switzerland.
Yes, the dynamic duo, who sorted with one shop, have now expanded their enterprise--Lolox AG--country-wide and are known as one of the best stores for gummies, marshmallows, sweet drinks and more.
With 70 different kinds of candies to choose from, the Lolipop chain now retails 250 loose candies and 700 other branded sweets--some with tiny toys and puzzles attached. The enterprise imports candies from all over the world, and the selection process depends on the taste buds of the entrepreneurs!
"We never settle for the cheapest products. For us, taste, aroma, consistency, etc. are important. Price is secondary. I taste every, single candy before I decide whether or not to buy it for our shop. Of course, I also check out the expiry and manufacture dates. These are important," insists 34-year-old Bisaz
The Entrepreneurial Streak
Born and brought up in Graubunden, Bisaz moved to Zurich at the age of 18 and went to visit the US, two years hence. "I came back and took up different odd jobs--painting walls, bar tending and many more." But the idea of starting up her own business didn't surface till much later.
It was in 1996 that Bisaz met Zurich-based Nicole Reolon--her current business partner. Says Bisaz, "We got acquainted with each other then and in 1998 we spoke about starting our own business."
But it wasn't the candy business they were thinking of. What the duo had in mind was selling three-dimensional digital cameras. "We saw the cameras and called the person in-charge of retailing in Zurich. We asked him if we could sell the cameras for him. He agreed. But soon, we had to give it up as it wasn't really profitable," she says, continuing, "We then started importing drinks--a particular alcopop from England. We did that for six months." However, that didn't work out either. The two young women were now determined to and confident of starting up a business, although they weren't sure of what would really work.
Booming Business? Not Always
It was in the summer of 1998, on a...
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