Fondant may not be an item on your shopping list yet, but Kevin O”™Reilly”™s Satin Ice Foods product may be on your grocer”™s shelves and in your pantry sooner than later.
Though fondant has been used in Europe for over a decade, the U.S. is starting to ride the Satin Ice wave. The smooth as silk “frosting” is quickly becoming a hit with bakers around the nation, with O”™Reilly turning fondant into an household word, thanks to TV shows such as TLC”™s “The Cake Boss,” where bakers display tubs of Satin Ice Food”™s fondant on kitchen shelves and show viewers how they create those decorator cakes with trimmings that look too good to eat.
What really differentiates Satin Ice is its texture and taste, says the company”™s founder. “Our fondant is easy to work with, isn”™t sticky and doesn”™t crack when it hardens. It also tastes delicious,” said O”™Reilly, who has trademarked his secret recipe. “It also gives cakes and cookies a longer shelf life because it holds the moisture in.”
O”™Reilly, who grew up in his grandparents”™ bakery shop, graduated with a food science degree from Dublin”™s College of Technology and soon came stateside, working with bakers in New York City where fondant was not a popular item because it was declared too difficult and too tasteless to invest time and money into, he said.
“Fondant was created for warm climates; it doesn”™t melt like traditional frosting. Though bakers used it, companies that made it also made several other products,” O”™Reilly said. “No one focused solely on fondant to improve it ”“ so I decided to make it my niche.”
With his wife, Debbie, they opened a small factory in 2001 in Chester”™s Industrial Park. “It was a year none of us will likely ever forget,” O”™Reilly said. “Between the terrible loss of lives on September 11 and the aftermath of the attacks, business just stopped. People were afraid to go far from home or to work.”
O”™Reilly didn”™t give up hope on his newfound venture, working to perfect his product and eventually starting to take on a little bit more space as Satin Ice started finding its way to bakers”™ shelves and the need for preparation and inventory space grew. “It was three years before we broke even ”“ and another two before we actually turned a profit. By 2009, we were up to 10,000 square feet of space and had no more room to grow where we are now.”
The O”™Reillys started shopping for another spot, going as far south as Florida, but Orange County”™s economic leaders got wind of relocation plans and acted quickly. “I don”™t know who to start thanking,” O”™Reilly said. “Everyone was wonderful: Bill Trimble (former director of Orange County”™s Industrial Development Agency) and Jimmy O”™Donnell (deputy county director) worked side by side with us. Marge LaPerle at Orange County Partnership worked so hard to keep us here; and Jim Martin from McBride Real Estate and RJ Smith teamed up and found the right location and right price for us, which ended up being right here in Chester”™s Industrial Park.
“Everyone has been incredibly helpful, from the county to the town supervisor and village mayor,” he said. The business was one of the last companies to be accepted into the state Empire Zone before it ended in June. The business recently received a 10-year payment in lieu of taxes package (PILOT) from the IDA that will help the company as it grows.
Satin Ice Fondant will relocate to 92,000 square feet in Amscan”™s former distribution center, buying one-third of the building. O”™Reilly estimates the cost of the property and interior improvements will be close to $6.5 million when completed.
Verticon Ltd. and Liscum McCormack & VanVoorhis will be working together on the new space”™s interior design and renovation. O”™Reilly is aiming for a May 2011 opening. He expects to hire at least 50 more full-time employees over the next three years in addition to the 20 already on staff. And he”™s hoping to exceed that number.
“Right now, we are grossing around $4.5 million in sales with 16 percent going to overseas markets as European bakeries are discovering our fondant. With our new space and plans to create a retail product so we”™ll have Satin Ice available to home bakers, we”™re expecting business to continue growing and to keep hiring,” O”™Reilly said.
“Everything we produce is made in this country,” said O”™Reilly, who became a naturalized citizen more than a decade ago. “When I started this business, I put a Made in USA sticker on every pallet, and we”™re still doing it ”“ we want everyone to know where our fondant is coming from ”“ it”™s our way of letting the world know America is very much a country of innovation and opportunity, where dreams can come true if you are willing to work for them.”
