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Native Sun expanding to 2nd location
Originally created Wednesday, October 20, 2004
By Karen Brune Mathis
The Times-Union
Pick up a bag of orange-colored chips
and read the ingredients. You might find artificial
colors like "Yellow 6" and "Red 40."
Those are among the many additives that
natural foods grocer Aaron Gottlieb bans from the store
he started seven years ago. It pays off.
The natural products industry has mushroomed
into sales of almost $43 billion, including $21 billion
among specialized stores like Gottlieb's. Nationwide
sales of natural products grew 10 percent last year.
Gottlieb declines to divulge sales at
his Native Sun Natural Foods Market at 10000 San Jose Blvd.
in Mandarin but says its growth last year was stronger
than the national average. Sales are apparently strong
enough to support a second location.
"We have high confidence in our ability
to run two," Gottlieb says. He and his wife, Erica,
own Native Sun and spent years deciding on a second
location. If zoning is approved, they want to buy almost
2 acres at southwest Baymeadows Road and Florida 9A,
near a Publix supermarket, to build a prototype 16,500-square-foot
Native Sun.
Gottlieb, 30, estimates the project could
cost up to $4 million and be completed by early 2006.
The Baymeadows location was the "X" on the map after
a customer zip-code survey and would serve customers
from Southside, Arlington and the Beaches.
Native Sun illustrates how a young entrepreneur
decides to open and expand a business in an emerging
industry.
A 1995 Emory University graduate with
a bachelor's degree in anthropology, the Jacksonville
native worked at a vegetarian restaurant and then a
health foods store during college. At 220 pounds, he
faced health issues and became a vegetarian, dropping
75 pounds. He read labels and absorbed facts.
He realized his college major required
travel. Instead, he found a restaurant building for
sale and turned it into a 4,000-square-foot natural
foods store. It opened in 1997.
Cultural anthropology does come into play.
"I didn't realize retail was the study of people," he
says.
Gottlieb more than doubled the size of
Native Sun to 10,000 square feet and employs almost
50 people. Recognizing the growing demand for take-out
foods, he added a deli, juice bar and baked goods. He
hired three chefs and a baker.
He also hired a programmer to streamline
the business, cutting one function, for example, from
eight hours to 30 seconds. Gottlieb also seeks and shares
counsel with his father, businessman Mel Gottlieb.
Gottlieb says he and his staff focus on
customer service and education and that he would expand
only if he was sure he could maintain a high level of
both.
The store stocks organic produce; bulk
foods; breads; organic and natural dairy products; supplements
and personal care products; cleaning supplies; pet foods;
and aisles of goods from cereals to spaghetti sauce
to frozen foods, meats and fish. (See nativesunjax.com)
What he says you won't find are artificial
flavors, colors and chemical preservatives. In fact,
Native Sun was inspected last week by a Quality Assurance
International certifier to qualify as a U.S. Department
of Agriculture "Certified Organic" grocer. Gottlieb
now awaits the certification.
Gottlieb is well aware that chain grocers,
including his potential new neighbor, are expanding
their lines of natural products, and that every time
a large store adds them, "our sales go up."
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