BUSINESSWEEK ONLINE : FEBRUARY 5, 2001 ISSUE
FRONTIER -- FEATURES ONLINE EXTRA: For a Candymaker, Success Is Sweet Carmen Hauessler Badillo admits she's a perfectionist -- everything has to be just so. That's not a bad way to be, considering her line of work: producing sweets with a distinctively homemade taste for 300 cafes and food stores throughout Puerto Rico. Judging by Carla's Sweets Corp.'s skyrocketing annual sales -- they've soared from $650,000 to $2 million since frontier first met Badillo in March, 1999 -- her attention to detail seems to be paying off. For 16 hours a day, Badillo's factory outside San Juan cooks up batches of airy meringue kisses, gourmet brownies, guava-laced napoleons, and other caloric confections -- all to her exacting specifications. That means no shortcuts, no preservatives, and no ersatz ingredients. "People can't believe we use real egg whites and separate them by hand," says the 29-year-old CEO. "But we do, and it makes all the difference." Badillo is convinced the reason sales are so strong is that she's still delivering the same quality as nine years ago, when she started whipping up mini-meringues in her kitchen. GUARANTEEING QUALITY. Today, the challenge is to keep growing without compromising -- or yielding control. "Every week, we get calls and e-mails requesting us to distribute our products in the U.S." She'd love to get a toehold in the lucrative urban Hispanic market on the mainland, but not if it means opening a plant in the U.S. Ideally, she'd like to come up with packaging that prolongs shelf life but doesn't involve preservatives. Or perhaps, she muses, an outside distributor might be the answer. Whatever happens, her philosophy remains unchanged. Says Badillo: "If I'm in charge, then I'm able to guarantee quality." With three sons between the ages of two and seven, this CEO has many demands on her time. Being organized helps a lot, she says, as does a spouse who shares child-rearing responsibilities. "He's my right hand and my left hand," she says of husband Carlos Perez, an investment banker who is the vice-president of Carla's Sweets Corp. It's a sweet deal for all concerned: When the couple's children were born, the proud Perez passed out his wife's meringues. By Stephanie B. Goldberg _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ BACK TO TOP					RELATED ITEMS Where Are They Now? Spin Master Plays to Win Even Cowgirls Pay Their Dues The Art of the Startup A Seat on the Roller Coaster Broken Headbone He's Got Ink in His Veins An Emu in Every Pot? Now He's Talking California Dreaming It Wasn't About the Money The Crunch at Emergency Solutions ONLINE EXTRA: For a Candymaker, Success Is Sweet ONLINE EXTRA: Questing for Profit in Child Care ONLINE EXTRA: A Bicycle Builder Peddles Her Own Wares ONLINE EXTRA: A Web Designer's Minimalist Approach INTERACT E-Mail to Business Week Online

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