Today we’d like to introduce you to Christen Kugener.
Christen, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
Ten years ago, my husband, Vincent Kugener, and I met the highly-acclaimed French caramel-maker, Daniel Palix. M. Palix was nearing retirement and was looking to pass on his traditional recipes and legacy to the next generation of caramel-making entrepreneurs. As luck would have it, we ended up spending the following year traveling around France with M. Palix learning the business of making and selling traditional French sea salt caramel.
In 2008, we decided to move to America to set up a caramel factory in East County, San Diego—leaving our family, friends and community back home in Europe. (We brought with us M. Palix’s caramel-making equipment.) We were starting from scratch.
My mother (who is our resident artist) is American and growing up, we used to visit my grandmother in El Cajon. I have fond memories of visiting her as a child. Today, San Diego is not only home to our business, but also home to our family which includes our two children. (I am honored to share that Vincent recently became an American citizen.)
Le Caramel’s inception in 2009 began with one product—sea salt caramel cream—which is still a best seller. Our national wholesale business quickly launched and a little more than a year later, we purchased a candy-making machine, which expanded our business from one caramel cream product to assorted candies and creams (offered in many different flavors.)
Visit our caramel Product List. Le Caramel began its partnership with the Autism Tree Project Foundation (ATPF) in 2013. We are proud of the partnership we have with this local, San Diego organization. Its mission is to provide free autism screenings for every child in the greater San Diego community. For every purchase of our Autism Sea Salt Caramel candies, Le Caramel donates 40% of the proceeds to the ATPF. It is one way we can make a difference in a child’s life.
By 2014, our small business had grown considerably and with that came a couple of warehouse moves and relocations. In 2015, Le Caramel expanded and we began hiring employees through Partnership with Industry (PWI), a local organization that gives employment opportunities for people with disabilities.
Eventually, customers started to come to the factory to ask if they could purchase our products for individual use, so in 2016 we decided to open a little boutique in the front hall and start a retail business.
In 2017, Le Caramel moved to a new factory with a bigger and brighter boutique located at 1181 Pioneer Way, El Cajon, CA 92020. Vincent and I also purchased The Basket Corner—a gift basket company that was family owned and operated out of Alpine, CA for 18 years.
Our team has grown and currently includes:
• Us, the owners and managers, Christen and Vincent Kugener
• Our cook, Ana
• Our candyman, Chris and his protogé, Jordan
• Our basket designers Debbie and her seasonal help Deborah, Charity and Brie
• Our marketing consultant, Sarah
• Our QA French intern, Pierre-Andre
Visit our Media Kit webpage on “10 Years, 10 Events”
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Owning and operating a small, local community business has come with some challenging moments, but it has always been incredibly rewarding. We began with nothing—no family, no friends and no business partners—and to experience the growth and success for the past decade (due in large part to the support of our local community) is humbling and remarkable.
When we worked with M. Palix in France, he informed us that caramel had a season, a summer season. This is not the case in America, where the majority of people enjoy caramel in the wintertime, around the holidays. While this may seem like a minor challenge, it really forced Vincent and I to brand, market and sell our products differently than how we were initially taught. Plus, most of M. Palix’s business was from print marketing materials and word-of-mouth. E-commerce and selling directly to the consumer (not just wholesale) has come with its unique challenges and a necessity for new employees.
Two years ago, we decided to purchase The Basket Corner (a local gift basket business). We knew the company for several years before the investment as they had often utilized Le Caramel products to fill their baskets. The business is a direct-to-consumer, which is one of the main reasons we moved to our current factory-boutique location (1181 Pioneer Way, El Cajon, CA 92020).
This investment brought on another set of challenges—new employees, processes, space, creating efficiencies and inventory. (Vincent tallied the amount of ribbon we inherited with the business at its onset: 30 MILES) While this company is also very seasonal, we are looking at ways to expand the business throughout the year. For example, we have been joining convention, hospitality, commercial real estate, local business and wedding markets. We recently just picked up a contract with the San Diego airport and can be found on the San Diego Tourism Authority website.
Speaking of yards, we have had a good laugh and some costly mistakes on our conversions of meters to yards—wrong sized bags, stickers and other products. But we get creative about using these mistakes in different ways.
Please tell us about your business.
We have been crafting our award-winning, traditional French caramel in San Diego since 2009. The recipe was handed down from the renowned Daniel Palix—France’s famous caramel-maker—after a year of us studying his expert savoir-faire. We source most of our ingredients locally, use GMO-free ingredients, are Kosher certified, FDA registered and third-party audit compliant.
website: https://le-caramel.com/
email: info@le-caramel.com
follow us: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn
For the past 20 years, The Basket Corner has been committed to using locally sourced products and to supporting small business organizations in the San Diego community and beyond. This family-owned-and-operated factory boutique—located at 1181 Pioneer Way, El Cajon, CA 92020—handcrafts each gourmet gift basket, with care and attention to customer-driven details. Create custom gift creations for corporate events, employee recognitions, weddings and personal celebrations, conventions and more. The Basket Corner can customize any order to match your tastes, budgets, colors and preferences. The company also offers custom logo ribbon-imprinting.
website: www.thebasketcorner.com
email: gifts@thebasketcorner.com
follow us: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn
What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
Our Le Caramel products taste delicious and are unique to American caramels. Our proprietary recipes produce award-winning candies and creams. However, while the caramel products and gift baskets are what we sell to remain in business, we would have little value without our fabulous employees. Their dedication, loyalty and longevity with our organization have contributed greatly to our success. Ten years after attending our first food trade show in California, we see a few vendors that we recognize from our inception, but our annual employee photos contain many of the same faces.
Pricing:
- Sea Salt Caramels $5.00 in store
Contact Info:
- Address: 1181 Pioneer Way, El cajon CA 92020
- Website: www.le-caramel.com / www.thebasketcorner.com
- Phone: 619-562-0713
- Email: info@le-caramel.com / gifts@thebasketcorner.com
- Instagram: www.le-caramel.com / www.thebasketcorner.com
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LeCaramel/ and https://www.facebook.com/TheBasketCorner/
Image Credit:
147 photos (Antoine Didienne)
YC Photography (Yrsina Colangelo)
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