Phoenix Business Journal - August 2004 - Sunfare
Press > Phoenix Business Journal - August 2004 - Sunfare
L.A. firm brings healthy meals on wheels to valley
Busy executives could soon have something in common with Hollywood stars.
A Los Angeles-based upscale meal delivery company that has catered to celebrities such as Charlie Sheen and Sandra Bullock is expanding into Phoenix.
Sunfare has leased 10,000 square feet near the Deer Valley Airport to open a kitchen facility where healthy meals will be prepared daily for working mothers and busy executives throughout the Valley. Deliveries are expected to begin Oct. 1.
Since 1997, Sunfare has been helping keep clients in California thin, healthy, and beautiful. But Sunfare isn’t alone in courting busy executives with meals designed to fit specific diets.
Phil Guana has been doing just that in Phoenix for four years with his firm, Living Fit Gourmet, but says he isn’t worried about the competition.
“I’m not going to be scared away by competition,” Guana said. “That’s just the way it goes. Competition is always healthy. It provides customers more choices and raises the awareness of the type of programs available.”
John Stewart and Carl Ferro, founders of Sunfare in Los Angeles, decided to make Phoenix their first new market.
Sunfare’s Los Angeles operation employs 85 people and cooks up 7 million in annual revenue.
Stewart said all the meals are prepared specifically for individual customers, whether that person is following the Atkins diet, the Zone diet, South Beach diet, a vegetarian diet, a calorie-restricted diet or any other diet that comes along.
He never really intended to focus on celebrities; it happened because he was practicing good customer service, Stewart said.
He and his partner were providing nutrition and fitness consulting, helping clients learn how to eat healthy and exercise.
One day, he was looking through the trash in his office and found a message from a woman who had wanted someone to prepare healthy meals for her. His staff didn’t bother to call her back because they didn’t provide that service at the time.
After ranting and raving at his staff for not returning all phone calls as a basic courtesy, he called the woman, who put Stewart in touch with her husband. Her husband happened to be president of feature films at Warner Bros. The studio executive then invited Stewart to a meeting that also included a producer friend interested in having healthy meals prepared and delivered.
“They started telling their friends,” Stewart said. “Everybody they knew was in the entertainment industry.”
Sunfare’s big break came when Charlie Sheen signed on to the program and lost 30 pounds – a story he told on several talk shows.
“That was the big person who did everything for us,” Stewart said.
But Stewart said he doesn’t expect to find the same type of clientele in Phoenix. He hopes to cater to working mothers and busy executives, as well as those who want to eat healthier without all the work.
He hopes word of mouth will work in Phoenix like it did in Hollywood. Stewart plans to start with trial offers as well as cable commercials, direct mail and other publicity.
It’s one thing to talk about balancing carbs and proteins, but another to do it, he said.
“Going out there and doing it is so terribly hard,” he said. “We can be the crutches to you to visually see the food. With us, you’re getting the education through sight as opposed to struggling with weighing and measuring food.”
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