Hartford Business Journal

www.HartfordBusiness.com June 29, 2015 • Hartford Business Journal 5 Smulders hits right tune with health-conscious consumers By John Stearns jsearns@HartfordBusiness.com M ichael Smulders studied music and envisioned playing in an orchestra percussion section. Instead, he conducts a natural foods com- pany on a rapid growth trajectory. He expresses his creativity not in making music — although he and his music teacher wife, Melodie, play when they can — but in creating healthy food products. Smulders, 51, is founder and president of Bakery on Main, which makes certified gluten-free, non-genetically modified, and kosher foods that include granola, instant oatmeal, granola bars and fruit and nut bars. New products include a Nut Crunch snack and Happy Oats, a gluten-free prod- uct for use in oatmeal and baking. "Operating a small business is some- thing that I believe really feels like a cre- ative endeavor to me," Smulders said. "That's where my passion is." The company targets a general con- sumer base but aims to provide a healthy option for people with allergies. Revenues have grown about 30 to 50 percent annu- ally since 2006 and the company expand- ed into a $10 million, 111,000-square-foot facility in East Hartford in December. Around 2000, Smulders began experi- menting with gluten-free products at his small Glastonbury natural foods market, which he opened in 1992. He saw a need for wheat-free and then gluten-free baked products and made items like cakes, pies, cookies and brownies, plus carried gluten-free package products. Gluten-free items it shipped in were limited, and taste and nutritional quality were so-so, he said. "We kind of just set out to say, 'OK, we're going to make these products taste better, and we're going to improve the nutrition panel,' " Smulders said. By 2003, "it started to become apparent that there was a big need and that we could take these products out of the store," and Bak- ery on Main was founded. Needing more room to bake and meet demand, Smulders rented space in a Glastonbury bakery from 2004 to 2007 before moving into a 33,000-square-foot facility at 375 Park Ave. in East Hartford. That plant hit its capacity in 2011, he said. Smulders spent 2½ years getting his current facility, at 127 Park Ave., designed, upgraded and outfitted. He expanded in an enterprise zone, converting an existing warehouse into a modern plant. The state Department of Economic and Community Development provided a $3 million, 10-year loan at 2 percent interest to help Bakery On Main make improvements and purchase state- of-the-art machinery and baking equip- ment. The deal includes hiring provisions: The plant employs about 85 full-time peo- ple but expects to approach 100 this year and employ 150 to 175 in three years. "One of my primary things that I work on every day is continuing to grow our expertise, the really high achieving, qual- ity individuals who want to be part of a creative, fast-growing environment," said Smulders, whom the U.S. Small Business Administration named the 2015 Connecti- cut Small Business Person of the Year. In hindsight, Smulders said he would have acted sooner to hire additional exper- tise to make the business ramp-up smooth- er. The company has done well innovating and staying true to its mission but must market smarter as food giants like Kellog and General Mills aggressively enter the natural foods scene, he said. More competitive marketing and dis- tribution power makes it harder for small- er players to maintain shelf space, he said. Bakery on Main's products are found in stores like Stop & Shop, Big Y and Whole Foods. They're distributed through- out North America and in Europe, just entered Japan and will enter Australia in September. Smulders' Garden of Light health food store in Avon also sells Bakery on Main products and serves as a testing ground for new items, he said. Ron Yazmer, an accountant at Case, Cor- rado, Yazmer & Co. P.C. in East Hartford, praised Smulders' business acumen, forward thinking and treatment of employees. The company's growth pace has been impres- sive, and Smulders isn't done, Yazmer said. "You would have no idea that he's run- ning a business of that size," Yazmer said. "He's down to earth. He just fits in with the common man." n Michael Smulders Founder and president, Bakery on Main Highest education: Bachelor's in music performance, University of Connecticut, 1986. Executive insights: " It's very tempting in any business to focus too much on either competition or other things that are going on in the marketplace, or getting boxed in with too much trend analysis or too much research, when true disruptive innovation kind of is independent of that. You need to get yourself in a mindset where you can truly come up with something innovative." H B J P H O T O | J O H N S T E A R N S Michael Smulders traded in ambitions to play in an orchestra to run one of the state's fastest-growing natural foods companies. EXECUTIVE PROFILE PDS has been meeting the needs of the construction industry since 1965. Our dedicated team of design and construction professionals welcomes the challenge of serving its past and future customers on their most demanding projects. Family Dollar | Wethersfield, Connecticut PDS was selected as Design Build General Contractor to renovate the existing 20,000 square foot building and to construct a 10,000 square foot addition. This retail facility includes a Family Dollar and 5 additional tenant spaces for future businesses. Brick veneer and EIFS was a substantial component to the exterior construction of the building. Project Size: 30,000 SF 107 Old Windsor Road, Bloomfield, CT 06002 (860) 242-8586 | Fax (860) 242-8587 www.pdsec.com DESIGN BUILDERS • GENERAL CONTRACTORS • CONSTRUCTION MANAGERS SPOTLIGHT ON: Retail PDS ENGINEERING & CONSTRUCTION, INC. THINK • PLAN • BUILD Subscribe online: www.HartfordBusiness.com/hbjdelivers or call: 845-267-3008 Delivering Business. When you need information to grow your business, we deliver! Subscribe today to receive weekly issues in print and digital, plus special publications and full online access! G r e at e r H a r t f o r d ' s B u s i n e s s n e w s w w w. H a r t f o rd B u s i n e s s . c o m for more B2B news visit March 31, 2014 Volume 22, number 19 $3.00 subscribe online June 5, 2014 Only 10 weeks until C T B E x p o . c o m Index ■ Reporter's Notebook: PG. 5 ■ Week in Review: PG. 6 ■ The List: PG. 10 ■ Deal Watch: PG. 11 ■ Nonprofit Notebook: PG. 19 ■ Opinion & Commentary: PG. 20 Faces oF Business Main Street Mainstay Manchester's Bray Jewelers has survived for almost 100 years. Read about the family business' secrets to success and what makes customers keep coming back. PG. 3 Focus: economic DeveloPment Social Entrepreneurship Hartford business accelerator aims to nurture socially conscious businesses. PG. 8 Music copyright lawsuits cost restaurants unexpected thousands By Matt Pilon mpilon@HartfordBusiness.com A few years ago, nine songs were played inside Shelton's Vazzy's Cucina restaurant that ended up costing owners John Vazzano and Vincent L. Noce $18,000. That's because an agent of licensing giant Broadcast Music Inc., which represents the artists who owned the tracks, attested to being present when the tunes were played and sued Vazzano and Noce for copyright infringement, claiming the restaurant's music qualified as a public per- formance. Under federal copyright law, that meant the restaurant had to pay for the rights to play the songs, BMI said. Vazzano said he thinks a private party actually played the tunes. Broadcast Music Inc. • Founded in 1939 • Represents more than 600,000 songwriters and publishers with more than 8.5 million songs. • Distributed 85 cents of every dollar in licensing revenue in royalties — that amounted to $814 million in fiscal 2013. By Gregory Seay gseay@HartfordBusiness.com B y late May, the Corporation For Independent Living (CIL) expects to have in its hands title to the derelict Capewell Horse- nails factory in Hartford's South End in a bid to convert the idle eyesore into 72 apartments and an adjacent parcel into 24 affordable townhomes. If it does, it will open another fruit- ful chapter for a South End nonprofit that has leveraged — and exported — its talent as a group-home developer to shelter a diverse swath of central Connecticut's population. It, too, will be one of the final swan songs before the yearend retirement of its first and only chief executive. Since its launch in 1979 to finance, build, lease out — then ultimately give away — supportive shelter for thou- sands of the state's physically and mentally disabled, CIL has invested $458 million to construct or convert 2,205 dwelling units into shelter for 7,200 residents in Connecticut and Massachusetts. For at least a dozen years, CIL has applied that same skill set to its expand- ing for-profit realty development opera- tions that include Capewell, and a neigh- boring nonprofit-office-space cluster. In February, CIL announced it bought and will resume work on the $3.34 mil- lion Depot Crossing mixed-use project John Vazzano, owner of Vazzy's Cucina in Shelton, was upset when his restaurant had to pay $18,000 to settle a music copyright lawsuit. P h O t O | P a b l O R O b l e s Continued on page 16 Continued on page 15 Martin "Marty'' Legault, president and CEO, Corporation For Independent Living (CIL) With Legault, developer CIL soars as landlord Sued for a ong

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