Consumer >> CEO Interviews >> March 1, 1998
DAVID MINTZ is CEO of Tofutti Brands Inc. Mr. Mintz sold his first order
of Tofutti to a shop called 'The Really Nut' in Manhattan. 'I delivered
it myself in my car, and I wound up getting a $45 ticket for double
parking when I dropped the order off, but I didn't care - my business
was on its way.' Initially, Mintz marketed Tofutti primarily to health
food stores in New York. His first big break occurred when
Bloomingdale's placed an order, giving Tofutti exposure to a large
number of shoppers.' Then we started getting orders from all over the
place,' said Mintz. 'To give you an idea of how fast we grew, I started
out alone with one phone and an answering machine; within a year or two,
my office had thirty-eight phones that were ringing like crazy.' In
December 1983, Mintz took his growing company public, its stock opened
at 5 1/4 a share; six months later the price had jumped to over $12 a
share. To keep up with the increasing national demand for his product,
Mintz began contracting Tofutti production out to independent dairies.
Then, in 1985, he moved the company from Brooklyn, New York, to a more
spacious, more modern facility in Rahway, New Jersey. Profile
today.
Mr. Mintz: What Tofutti Brands is doing today is a lot of new things.
We're making constant new breakthroughs.
