Meet Maile Morales and Percy Swint of Canelé Gourmet Pantry in Long Beach

Today we’d like to introduce you to Maile Morales and Percy Swint.

Maile is a Los Angeles native who attended Le Cordon Bleu Culinary School. After completing the patisserie and baking program, she worked in various bakeries and restaurants (Porto’s Bakery, Craft Restaurant, and Bottega Louie to name a few). After working in the industry for 3 years, Maile started her own bakery in Eagle Rock, CA. After 4 years of hard labor she went on hiatus and worked at an office job for 2 years. Finally, in 2015 she quit her office job. Only a few months later she created Canelé Gourmet Pantry. In the first month, she searched Craigslist to find a logo designer. And she found Percy…

Percy is from Philadelphia. He relocated to Southern California in August of 2013. With a 4yr Bachelor of Science degree in Landscape Contracting, he expected to find employment within a fair amount of time. Work did not come quickly as Percy expected so he decided to make money using what he had. With experience with art and computer software, Percy naturally picked up Graphic Design and has been doing it since October 2013. Along the way, Percy helped his clients design websites, logos, and other promotional items. Along the way, Percy acquired Maile as a client and was hired for many short-term gigs with different companies. In September of 2015, Percy was hired as a full-time Graphic Designer with a big manufacturing company. During Percy’s time with the company, he enhanced his creative experience and was responsible for the creation of all marketing materials. At the beginning of March 2017, Percy quit his job and decided to partner up with Maile to develop Canelé Pantry.

Canelé Pantry is 2 years young. It did not start with much capital at all. For the first year and a half Maile operated on her own, while occasionally paying Percy for various marketing tools. Similar to her bakery, it was very labor intensive with very little help. She was successful in staying busy, but it was difficult to do quality work since she did everything on her own (admin work, sales, manufacturing, delivering, etc.).

Maile and Percy developed an intimate relationship after being friends for a year. Naturally, Percy wanted to do more for Canelé. When Percy joined Canelé full-time in March 2017, it allowed Maile to focus on improving the products and account management. Percy did a complete rebrand for the company before relaunching the website. He organized accounts payable and receivable, calculated profit margins, updated work documents, and created useful marketing materials. During this time of business reconstruction (about 3 months), there was no effort in acquiring new accounts which affected the cash flow greatly. After the reconstruction, Maile and Percy were able to improve relations with existing accounts while acquiring new accounts with updated product prices. Canelé products are currently carried in over 20 retail locations in Southern California.

Much of their success so far has come with many obstacles. Their challenge has been figuring out affordable shipping for online retail, acquiring and retaining good help, and keeping a steady flow of orders and cash. More importantly, Maile and Percy had to juggle their business and personal relationship. Spending so much time together as work and intimate partners put a strain on daily operations. In June 2017, @caneleundipped was created on Instagram. The objective behind this account was to show the good, the bad and the ugly when running a business and managing your love-life. Canelé Undipped serves as a platform to inspire entrepreneurs/partners, and as a means to connect with their audience.

Maile and Percy are optimistic that Canelé Pantry will be the number one Gourmet company that appeals to vegans and non-vegan customers, nationwide and internationally.

Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
The ride has had its bumps.

Maile took on a ton of work at the beginning. She wore a lot of hats, so it was difficult for her to produce quality in all aspects of the business.

When Percy came on full-time it resolved a lot of these issues. The new challenging was a lack of capital/cash flow since Percy quit his job. Canelé was not able to support both Maile and Percy financially, at first.

All the while running a business, Percy and Maile also had to make time for themselves.

Current challenges that face the two are:

• Shipping their products without melting
• Making sure the labels look presentable
• Cash Flow

Alright – so let’s talk business. Tell us about Canelé Gourmet Pantry – what should we know?
Canelé is a gourmet business that primarily manufacturers vegan products. We specialize in creating chocolate truffles, and we are known for our famous Cinnamon Almond Buttercups and Peanut Butter Marshmallow Bonbons.

We are most proud of the feedback we get from our customers. They continue to reassure us that we are creating a delicious, wholesome treat. What sets our products apart is that they are beautiful as much as they are good for you. Healthy doesn’t have to be ugly!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.canelepantry.com
• Phone: (267) 456-6609
• Email: [email protected]
• Instagram: @canelepantry @caneleundipped
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CanelePantry/

Image Credit:
Annie W (@anniewphotography)

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