Today we’d like to introduce you to Jack Bessudo.
Hi Jack, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
We started Sugarox Candy Studio down in Mexico City, that’s where I am from. The idea was to open an artisianal candy shop. All of the candy was made in an open kitchen concept, where customers could come in and watch us color, pull and form hard candy. From the very start, our most popular candy were our fruit flavor candy pillows with the chili lime seasoning in the center. Our store became a bit of a tourist hotspot, and we got the interest from several upscale gift shops to stock our candy. These stores were mostly inside hotel gift shops, so we would then start getting emails from guests of that hotel asking where they could find our candy back in the USA. That was when decided that we should start exporting and distributing our candy in the USA. One day when we were making a batch of these candy pillows, a customer that was watching us mentioned that they looked like tiny tamales or in Spanish tamalitos. We thought that was super cute, and from that moment on we started calling them Tamalitos. When it came time to develop the branding, we knew we could not trademark a generic term like Tamalitos, so we changed the “s” for a z and we branded our candy pillows Tamalitoz by Sugarox.
That is how it started, but how we got to where we are today is another story. We have had many ups and downs, made many mistakes, but have also made some very good moves. Our biggest shift was deciding on partnering up with a co-packer, someone that could scale production. It took a long time to find the right partner, someone who understood our process, understood that hand-crafted is something that we did not want to lose.
This really lets us focus on building the brand.
Today we have ten flavors of Tamalitoz and starting the end of May, you will be able to find all ten flavors at HEB!
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
It has been a roller coaster ride for sure. So many lessons learnt. As a small startup, you as the owner have to wear many hats. From production to distribution, marketing and sales, it is a lot of work and at each steps we have made some big mistakes. But every mistake has been a lesson, Dec (my husband/partner) and I often say in a couple of years, we need to write a book about our life and times as candy guys. I think that is why so many small businesses don’t make it, obviously there is no budget to hire out production managers, hire warehouse staff, salesforce, admin people, you just have to do it all yourself. Each one of those roles is probably a full-time position for someone, but you have to do all of them.
Because Dec and I don’t have any kids, we honestly feel like the business is our baby. Most of our time and effort goes into making sure it grows strong and healthy.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I say Artist / Creative because prior to starting a candy business, I worked in the business of creative ideas. I was a brand planner at a multinational ad agency. Planners get to be the voice of the consumer, bring insight to brands and hopefully create inspiring brand ideas. Ideas that creative teams at the agency can sink their teeth into and ideas behind brands that resonate with consumers. I loved my time as a planner, but to be honest after doing it for so many years, it started to feel more like a manipulation game. I remember the tipping point for me was we were developing the brand strategy for a new brand of toilet paper. In other times in my life, it would be a fun challenge, how do you get people excited about using a new toilet paper, but I was not feeling particularly inspired, I did however spend the next three months of my life diving into the world of toilet paper, you can imagine what the focus groups were like. I had just had enough. I wanted to build my own brand. Something that excited me, something also that I could maybe get outside of my head and work with my hands. I had always liked working in the kitchen but never thought I could make a living at it. But the concept of a candy kitchen / lifestyle brand / seemed to tick all the right boxes. I decided to leave my job in advertising and started a candy business, and that has been what I am most proud of. Now I get to make people smile every day, I am candy and we bring joy and flavor to people every day. I am living for it and could not be more proud of the work my husband and I have been able to do.
Where we are in life is often partly because of others. Who/what else deserves credit for how your story turned out?
My Husband/Partner Dec, I could not have done this without him. His background is in managerial, admin, sales roles. So he is the one that manages the numbers, he is the bottom-line guy. I am focused more on the look and feel, what we have to say as a brand, who we partner with. We each play to our strengths and it works perfectly. We have also had some great partners along the way, our co-packer changed everything for us, although I loved my time making candy, there was no way I could continue to make the amount of candy we need to supply our orders. They have become a very important part of the Tamalitoz family.
Pricing:
- $3.99 – $5.99 per pouch
Contact Info:
- Email: hello@sugarox.com
- Website: www.tamalitoz.com
- Instagram: tamalitozusa
- Facebook: tamalitoz
Image Credits
Dani Parsons
