Granny Ruth's Fudge
A local company for people with a sweet tooth for fudge.
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Granny Ruth's Fudge A local company for people with a sweet tooth for fudge.
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My first
contact with
Granny Ruth’s Fudge was to receive a sampler of their product
at one of the Tracy Chamber of Commerce meetings of the Tracy
Entrepreneurs in the Summer of 2003. The sample was good and I was
alerted to the existence of what I thought was yet another new product
from a small company starting up in Tracy.
I continued hearing about the company over
the next few months and was finally able to get some time to sit down with
Jim Ruth and learn more about the company that he and his wife Becky had
founded. I was not aware that Granny Ruth’s Fudge has been in business
here in Tracy for four years. It is always interesting to learn how various successful companies are started and Granny Ruth’s Fudge was no different. Jim Ruth had been a truck driver for Safeway for several years when he injured his neck and could no longer drive. The insurance company helped him with his rehabilitation and training for a new career.
Becky had been making fudge for much of
their forty-year marriage so it was natural for Jim to want to start a
business selling her fudge to consumers. With seed money and training
provided by the insurance company, Jim was off and running to promote their
new
fudge business. Like many small businesses, Jim and Ruth operate their fudge company out of their own home to keep the overhead under control. They do not, however, cook any of the fudge in their home. All preparation of fudge is done in a commercial kitchen they rent on a part-time basis.
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They attended the Tracy Dry Bean
festival, but not many people crave fudge on hot days. This has not
discouraged Jim from attending two shows each month to spread the word of
the product. These shows include Tracy, Fresno, Lodi, Modesto, Reno, and
Las Vegas. They were complimented by many chefs for their quality while
displaying a fancy food show in Fresno.
Granny Ruth’s Fudge made an appearance at
the Oakdale Chocolate Festival and were put in competition with Hershey’s,
Godiva, and Ghirardelli. Jim is proud to say they outsold Godiva at the
show that was attended by some very well-established companies.
Granny Ruth’s Fudge has regularly attended
the local Farmer’s Market in downtown Tracy. They have a generator and
refrigerator they take to the shows to keep the fudge cool. They tend to
have regular customers who also attend the shows and buy from them. Their most interesting trip was to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. They spent four days competing and training with twelve hundred to four thousand other people to appear on the QVC shopping network. They were not selected to be on television, but they learned a lot about how to work cooperatively with companies.
Jim is excited about using a web site to sell their fudge throughout the country. They accept PayPal as payment for orders and ship the fudge in special containers kept cool with ice. For people who do not use PayPal, they have shipped their fudge and allowed payment after the fudge arrives. Trusting people to pay has not been a disappointment for them. Summer shipping requires priority mail and they have shipped their fudge as far as Canada and Guam.
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Rocky Road is their biggest selling fudge followed by Chocolate Walnut. People who are on controlled carbohydrate diets can order either plain chocolate or Chocolate Walnut fudge made with Splenda, the new sugar substitute. Although there is natural sugar in chocolate, the use of Splenda brings the carbohydrate count down to six grams for the Chocolate and four grams for the Chocolate Walnut. I found the controlled carbohydrate fudge to be very good and will order more when my supply runs out.
Tracy residents can order Granny Ruth’s
Fudge by telephone and have it delivered right to their front door. They
prefer to only deliver full boxes of fudge, but will do a custom mix of
boxes to meet the customer request. They deliver with no delivery charges
and do not accept tips.
Some of their larger customers order boxes
of fudge to be delivered to their clients for special occasions or
holidays. One their success stories is that two dentists in the San
Francisco bay area ordered several hundred boxes of fudge to be delivered
to their fellow dentists. In another success story, they gave some of
their fudge to a law firm in San Francisco and are now getting orders from
the law firm’s home office in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Granny Ruth’s Fudge is off and running after four years of business in Tracy. They can be reached at (209) 839-1202 or you may visit their web site at: www.grannyruthsfudge.com
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