WCAX.COM Local Vermont News, Weather and Sports-Orange County's cocoa king

Wells River, Vermont - January 22, 2010

The bottles of cocoa are filling up fast at Burnham & Mills in Wells River. "It's a comfort food!" beams company founder Jonathan Rutstein.

Burnham & Mills has become one of the nation's leading names in gourmet cocoa, shipping drink mixes to all 50 states and beyond. Their wholesale customers are independent retailers and big chains like Whole Foods & Marshall's. Jonathan Rutstein says, "It's all Made in Vermont -- everything's Made in Vermont."

Burlington-born Rutstein calls it a midlife crisis when he gave up a job as an urban planner in the late 1980s. "We started the company in the recession of '89/'90," he recalls. "So we've been through at least four recessions."

His wife Fran Rutstein adds, "We went for probably eight years where we lived off our savings to where we are now. It isn't something that comes easy. You have to work at it!"

That work paid off. Burnham & Mills now employs more than 20 workers at peak times, selling close to $1.5 million a year in product. The line includes lollipops and pancake mix, but most sales are of hot cocoa. "That's really the success of the company," Jonathan Rutstein says.

Peak time for the staff is July and August, as they prepare for holiday sales to major retail chains. Most of those stores want their products in-house several weeks before Thanksgiving, so that means the Vermonters are busiest in the summer.

There are lots of cocoa companies out there, but Rutstein says the market is receptive to feel-good-foods. "Somebody did a sample of cocoa in the United States and there are 65 styles. But it's the distribution and the marketing that makes the difference," he says.

Burnham & Mills sets itself apart through packaging, targeting different designs for different markets. Its line of tins with children's story characters is a top seller in the United Kingdom, while American customers seem to like bottles that are reminiscent of the old-time milkman's delivery.

"We were up 20% in 2008 and this past year we were up 30%," Jonathan Rutstein says.

He hopes to continue that growth, adding to Burnham and Mills' extensive packaging line in 2010, trying to claim the throne of the "king of cocoa."

The company gets many of its accounts through online marketing and large food conventions that can attract more than 20,000 buyers, like the Winter Fancy Food Show that wrapped up this week in San Francisco.

The Rutsteins' "Made in Vermont" success now has them grateful for that midlife crisis. "It's having its reward!" Fran Rutstein chuckles.

Jack Thurston - WCAX News - Made in Vermont