WCAX.COM Local Vermont News, Weather and Sports-Budding Businessman

Williston, Vermont - August 21, 2009

Like most 14-year-olds, Alec Distler has plenty of time to have fun. But when he's done shooting hoops, it's time to get to work. He chuckles, "It keeps me busy!"

He's the guy behind the brand name Alec's Spicy Pretzels. Distler started his own company as part of an eighth-grade project on entrepreneurship at Williston Central School. He turned a favorite family recipe for pretzels coated in cayenne pepper and other spices into a small business. "They're pretty addicting," he says.

At first he'd just sell the snack at his school and at Champlain Valley Union High School. But now, Alec's Spicy Pretzels have a following, with about 20 stores stocking them. Mom, dad, and two sisters all pitch in. Alec's dad Frank Distler admits, "He's just 14. We do have to put the hammer on him to get going at times. 'Time to do pretzels!' But for the most part, it's been enjoyable and he hasn't complained."

The family rents an industrial kitchen to handle the baking, and does packaging at home. Ten percent of their profits go back to the community: about $500 each quarter to the Chittenden Emergency Shelter and the Chittenden Emergency Food Shelf.

But the young company is seeing some growing pains. Alec Distler explains, "We're not having enough time, and I'm playing football right now, so that's cutting into pretzel making."

So as this 14-year-old businessman prepares to enter ninth-grade, he and his parents are thinking about hiring staff part time to keep the company growing, to keep Alec's Spicy Pretzels "Made in Vermont."

"I'm just a normal kid trying to run a business!" Alec Distler says.

Click here for a link to the pretzel company's website.

Jack Thurston - WCAX News - Made in Vermont