LA Business Journal - February 2003 - Sunfare
Press > LA Business Journal - February 2003 - Sunfare
Special Delivery
Partners John Stewart and Carl Ferro have turned the particular requirements of the ‘Zone’ diet in a business catering to health conscious Angelenos.
Like many who came to Los Angeles seeking opportunity, college buddies John Stewart and Carl Ferro instead found themselves far from their chosen fields – real estate and modeling. But in making ends meet as counselors at The Zone Center in West Hollywood, they cooked up an idea that generated $4.5 million in revenues last year.
Their business, Delivery Zone LLC, was founded in 1997 with the idea of delivering meals to adherents of the Zone Diet, a program popularized in the 1995 book “The Zone” by Dr. Barry Sears.
Starting with two customers, the business (now operating as Sunfare) today claims between 3,500 to 4,000 in Southern California.
The principle of the Zone Diet is to lose weight by regulating hormonal activity to maintaining levels of sugar and insulin, which turns carbohydrates into fat. The diet calls for 40 percent carbohydrates, 30 percent fat and 30 percent protein.
As counselors, Ferro and Stewart realized many customers had trouble staying on the diet because they didn’t have the time or capability to make or find specified meals. “The Zone is what the body needs – protein, carbs and fat,” Stewart said, noting that to take in the desired amounts, meals must be measured and weighed and include particular ingredients.
Sunfare is endorsed by Sears, who says he receives a “minimal” royalty. Other delivery companies deliver food for the Zone Diet, so Ferro and Stewart switched the name to Sunfare to avoid confusion with those using the “Zone” name.
Bulking up
Sunfare prepares 2,000 meals Monday through Saturday from its 11,000-square-foot downtown industrial facility. Fresh food arrives each morning from a local produce company and Sunfare’s cooks prepare the food in a small kitchen while other workers assemble the meals in plastic containers and label them for delivery by van route numbers and customers names.
From 10 p.m. to 7 a.m., drivers in 11 vans deliver meals in coolers to customers’ front doors, picking up used coolers as they drop off meals.
Among the meals offered are Breakfast Quesadillas or an Omelet for breakfast, Chinese Chicken Salad or Baked Chicken for lunch, and Ahi Tuna or Merlot Filet for dinener. Sunfare also has snacks including Omega Zone bars, raspberries and walnuts.
“The cost isn’t a big deal for me,” said 30-year-old Rebecca Waits, who works for an Internet consulting company in Santa Monica. “I figure if you’ll pay for groceries and you go out to eat for lunch and dinner, you’re right at the same cost as Sunfare. I very rarely have a grocery bill. And I never get a bad piece of fruit.”
At first, Ferro and Stewart had little to back their venture.
“We took money out on our credit cards,” Stewart said. “We lived on a salary of $400 a week up until last year. We didn’t have the ability to go out and buy 15 staplers, so we’d buy two instead.”
Besides credit card debt, the two cashed in savings and investments worth $17,000 to get the business going. They built out the first kitchen themselves, buying stoves, tables, knives, pots and pans at auctions.
During the first year they used a caterer to make the meals, but in 1998 they hired a chef. Until 2000, when they bought their first van for deliveries, they delivered the meals in their own cars.
Today, 60 employees work on a rotating basis 20 hours a day. At any given time, 10 are cooking, eight are doing prep work and dishwashing and five or six are cleaning the kitchen. Ten work in the office and another 13 handle deliveries.
Sunfare changes its menu daily, and customers can fill out a meal plan on the Internet or by phone. A software program sorts customer preferences – whether they want their meal well done or whether they prefer strawberries to blackberries. It also determines the proportions of food each customer needs based on his or her height and weight.
Although the primary focus is on the Zone Diet, a vegetarian meal plan is offered, as well as a nutrition program that provides healthy meals without a specific dietary plan.
Expansion is next on the pair’s agenda, and this time they’ll be looking for outside assistance to help fund locations in San Francisco or Seattle next year.
“I never saw nutrition in my future, but we came into a business that can change people’s lives,” Stewart said.