Beanilla, an online specialty vanilla bean retailer, continues its growth trajectory with the recent addition of its second full-time employee. According to co-founder Brent Reame, the new hire is a result of six years of steady growth. "We recently brought one full-time person (two total) to simply help us keep up with daily operations and customer service," he explains.
The story of Beanilla begins at a 2005 Collegiate Entrepreneur Conference where co-founder Rob Conley had an idea to sell vanilla beans online. Soon, a website was launched, followed by Reame joining the venture. After operating out of Conley's bedroom for a time, the business needed more room and moved to Reame's house in 2007. With demand for the specialty sourced vanilla beans growing, the business moved to its first commercial space in January 2011. A few months later, Beanilla added its first full-time employee.
Reame attributes their growth to a focus on customer service, high-quality products and the continual addition of new varieties of vanilla beans and new products, such as pure flavoring extracts and saffron.
What's next? According to Reame, the firm is readying to launch a new venture. While Reame is not quite ready to make a formal announcement yet, he promises the new endeavor will appeal to the gourmet and baking community, and will really "spice" things up. For now, the focus is on the holiday season, for which the team has has added two part-time employees to help with operations and content development.
To learn more about Beanilla and to order their products, you can visit their site
here.
Source: Brent Reame, Beanilla
Writer: John Rumery, Innovation and Jobs News Editor
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