A SINGLE BITE
Charleston Magazine
November 1, 2005
A SINGLE BITE: Charleston Cookie Company
The city takes top billing as the first word in the name of Judith Moore’s company. And the entrepreneur knows that the best way to her potential clients’ hearts is through their stomachs. “The best advertising is a cookie in someone’s mouth,” she laughs.
The ingredients for the Charleston Cookie Company began to come together in 2001. During that holiday season, Moore set out to find the perfect chocolate chip cookie, but wasn’t satisfied until she developed her own. The cookie, based on a simple butter cookie dough and combined with pecan meal, fresh eggs, extra vanilla, French chocolate, and a secret ingredient, became her company’s first product when it officially opened for business in September 2003—after Moore spent a second holiday season testing the recipe’s potential.
Originally Moore targeted local hotels, hoping to avoid the expense of a retail location, and Embassy Suites was the first to sign on. “They bit into the cookie, and that was it,” Moore says. Ten varieties of cookies later—including such delectable recipes as White Chocolate Lime—the company boasts six staffers and has inked a deal with international gourmet retailer Dean & Deluca, rocketing the business’ humble beginnings into an entirely new level of success.
Moore’s new goal is to increase distribution throughout the Southeast, and she’s planning on doing it in classic style: a salesperson will take samples to wholesale and retail prospects in the region’s major cities. “Charleston is a town known for its hospitality,” she says, “and people love anything associated with it as long as it’s of high-quality. That’s what my company is about—high quality and Southern hospitality.”
If Ms. Moore could give just one piece of advice to a woman starting a business in Charleston, she says it would be this: “Seek out opportunities to network and develop mentors among successful business owners and leaders.”
by Tiffany Jonas
Principal, trJONAS
A writing and design firm
http://www.trjonas.com