Mainebiz

O N T H E R E C O R D W W W. M A I N E B I Z . B I Z 33 J U LY 1 3 , 2 0 1 5 A fter all, the business, which started in 1984 using family money, is more than just selling jams and chutneys: Peter makes sculptures that dot the premises, helping draw visitors who in turn linger, tour the 375-square-foot factory, buy jams or art, snack in the coff ee shop or browse the gift shop. e have two year- round employees, and fi ve part-time seasonal employees. A visit to Nervous Nellie's defi nes experiential buying. Pulling into the parking lot, the fi rst sight is a large sculpture of a man and a woman drinking coff ee on a deck outside a small cottage. e Beerits sell 90% of what they produce in person, over the phone or via the Internet. ey have one distributor, Nova Foods in Ellsworth, that puts their jams and chutneys into 15 small coastal specialty shops. at comprises less than 10% of sales. Total sales are around $400,000. Mainebiz took a leisurely tour of the sculptures and kitchen, and talked to the owners over a scone with fresh-made raspberry jam. e edited transcript follows. Mainebiz: How did the business start? Peter Beerits: I went to art school to study sculpture, but I had to start making jam to make a living. I was barely making money and I did all the work. I'd pour six jars and cap them and pour another six jars and cap them. We fi nally hired a cook, Patty Heanssler, and I got back to sculpture. e sculptures are outside, so people would come and look at them and they'd stay longer and buy more jam. It became clear to me that having all these visuals and things you experi- enced was really helping business. MB: Why the name? PB: As a child I read comic books and watched cartoons, and the characters had funny names. So Nervous Nellie's Jams & Jellies was a funny name. For years everybody tried to talk me out of that name when I went to SCORE and CEI. ey said you should have a name that sounds like you've been in business for 100 years. MB: Originally you targeted the specialty foods market. What happened? PB: I was doing trade shows and trav- eling. We sold in Macy's and Dean & DeLuca in New York. Unfortunately that's not a business model on which you can survive. As an afterthought, I put it in stores around here. Because people were just driving around Deer Isle looking for something to do, they would drop in to see the jelly being made. We were barely surviving in the early 1990s. e people showing up pulled us out of that lean period. If you sell almost every jar retail, you get to keep all the money. We make 40,000 to 50,000 jars per year of jams, chutneys and a hot pepper jelly. MB: You also sell through inns and the Christmas catalog? Anne Beerits: We'd be in trouble without the inn and the Christmas business. In October I send out a paper catalog to about 22,000 people. Christmas sales are about one-third of our business. MB: So everything is handmade? PB: We have a tapered jar which doesn't work well on a labeling machine. We do everything by hand. We're in an odd niche where people who make their own jams and jel- lies are either a farm stand or a huge company. e people in between go to a co-packer. I tried that. I brought my own ingredients and supervised things, but there was a huge kettle and it took hours to make the jam. e strawberry jam was brown. e co-packer was making other things like spiced mayonnaise and the fl avors would creep in. It didn't work at all. MB: What makes a good jam? PB: Making it quickly and in small batches. e cooking time should be kept to a minimum. e longer you cook it, the fl avor, nutrients and color all start to go. Donations as of June 22, 2015. Campaign runs through December 2015. B E N E FA C T O R S ($500,000 and above) Anonymous F O U N D E R S ' C I R C L E ($50,000–$99,999) Drummond Woodsum D I R E C T O R S ' C I R C L E ($25,000–$49,999) Bernstein Shur Carol & David Hancock Charitable Trust Citizens Bank Daniel W. Emery Ellie and Charlie Miller Pierce Atwood Preti Flaherty Roger Putnam Verrill Dana, LLP V I S I O NA R I E S ($10,000–$24,999) William B. Devoe Harold Friedman and Mary Mitchell Friedman Hancock Lumber Nan Heald and Frank D'Alessandro Bill Knowles Jim McKenna Norman, Hanson, & DeTroy Patricia A. Peard and Alice C. Brock Perkins ompson Wein-Hirshon Charitable Foundation L E A D E R S ($5,000–$9,999) Anonymous (2) William C. Black and Jackie Potter Deborah L. Bornstein, Joseph L. Bornstein and e Law Offices of Joe Bornstein Seth Brewster Conan Deady and Cynthia Berliner Gene R. Cohen Charitable Foundation Wendy J. Harlan Leo & Rhea Fay Fruhman Foundation Linda McGill Mittel Asen Molleur Law Office Petrucelli Martin and Haddow Blaine and Jennifer Riggle Stone Coast Fund Services Sidney St. F. axter F R I E N D S ($1,000–$4,999) Anonymous CBRE | e Boulos Company Elizabeth Butler Hon. William S. Cohen Hon. John David Kennedy and Kathryn Dion Marcus & Rebecca Jaynes Ralph Lancaster LeBlanc & Young David Polsky and Sandi Bartel Cliff & Patty Ruprecht David Warren Join us! You can help us provide fairness and justice for all Mainers! Contact Helen Meyer to discuss your gift to Pine Tree Legal's endowment campaign: 774-4753 or hmeyer@ptla.org AU G U STA • BA N G O R • L E W I STO N • M AC H IAS PORTL AND • PRESQUE ISLE • WWW.PTL A.ORG More Fairness. Less Poverty. B Y L O R I V A L I G R A P H O T O / DAV E C L O U G H Anne and Peter Beerits, owners of Nervous Nellie's Jams & Jellies, produce as many as 50,000 jars a year from Deer Isle. But you won't fi nd their products in Dean & DeLuca. Anne and Peter Beerits, co-owners of Nervous Nellie's Jams & Jellies in Deer Isle, sell into a niche industry that keeps their business small, and they like it that way.

• Cover