Nearly 13 years into business, the owners of MaMa Jean’s Natural Foods Market LLC are three stores deep and considering a fourth well outside the Springfield market.
Speaking this morning at Springfield Business Journal’s 12 People You Need to Know breakfast, Susie Farbin and Diana Hicks said growth is carrying the owners of Springfield’s largest women-owned business toward another store opening, which would be “more than 50 miles away, but less than 300,” Farbin said.
“Less than two years is a reasonable amount of time that I’d like to see one opened,” she said. “To add a few more locations in the future, not necessarily in Springfield, gives us more buying power that we’ll need to have to stay competitive.
“You can’t be too comfortable.”
After posting almost $17 million in revenue last year, the company continues to build its presence at 3530 E. Sunshine St., where the business partners opened a third store in April 2013. Farbin said MaMa Jean’s received a “partnering” offer this summer from a major company, but the business partners turned it down.
The company employs over 160 across its stores - with the other two at 1727 S. Campbell Ave. and 1110 E. Republic Road. At the Sunshine store, Farbin said MaMa Jean’s offers more in the way of a “restaurant” experience with menu options.
The ‘cides’MaMa Jean’s follows the organic food movement Farbin says has moved beyond a trend into a concept with staying power.
“People are just becoming more aware of what is in their food, and it frightens them,” she said. “I think that they’re starting to take more responsibility of what goes in their bodies.
“Anything that ends in a ‘cide’ - herbicide, pesticide, suicide - we try to steer away from those.”
Hicks added: “Just eat organic, and you’ll be safe.”
MaMa Jean’s sells organic-certified food, which Farbin said needs to be strictly tested to make sure it contains less than 3 percent genetically modified organisms. If a product is found be too heavy on GMOs, it’s pulled. That was the case with Xochitl, a company that was recently found to have secretly included GMO ingredients in its chips.
“They were saying non-GMO, and they were tested, and they got caught,” Farbin said. “They’re off the shelves.”
Farbin and Hicks say the consumer needs to be educated to make healthy food choices. To that end, their employees are well-trained and versed in organic foods, and the company conducts classes for businesses and events, as well as articles about healthy eating posted at
MamaJeansMarket.com.
Farbin said one piece of advice is to, “Buy food that will fuel you, not to fill you.”[[In-content Ad]]
