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The road to tupelo honey(Savannah Morning News (GA) (KRT) Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) Mar. 23--Ted Dennard has served two religions in his life: the one he studied in college and the one that has become his livelihood -- honeybees. Dennard's business, The Savannah Bee Company, has had a remarkable trajectory in its six-plus years. It went from $6,000 in sales in 2000 to $1.5 million last year. That success helped make Dennard the Georgia Small Business Person of the Year and a finalist for the national award. And he is having the time of his life. When he speaks of "the poetry" of bees, Dennard is like a preacher at prayer. "The tree offers that little sugar to the bee, saying 'Come here, I'm going to feed you, but pollinate me, please.' And so the tree makes more seeds, more fruit, bigger fruit, which then helps to feed the birds and the animals, and helps feed the air with oxygen," he said. "Everything bees do benefits somebody." Dennard's business draws from his personal convictions -- nature uses everything and returns all things to the Earth. Dennard does the same with his products and gives back to the community as well, through presentations in public schools and summer youth programs. Dennard, 41, is proving that people can do what they love, make a living at it and be socially and environmentally responsible, all at the same time. His whole life, bees have fallen into Dennard's path. When he was 13, an old man kept his beehives on Dennard's family land just outside of Brunswick. Dennard became fascinated with extracting honey. In college, his landlord taught him the science of bees. The Peace Corps paired Dennard with bees again -- asking him to teach beekeeping in Jamaica. In the late 1990s, casting about for business ideas, Dennard made a list of things he loved, and there they were again: bees. He started in one room on Oatland Island. He paid his rent in honey. In 2001, Dean & DeLuca started carrying his products. In 2003, Williams-Sonoma. In 2004, he signed a deal with Limited Brands to develop and sell a beauty line in Bath & Body Works. Eighteen hundred stores now carry his products. They include honey -- mostly tupelo -- body care items and candles, and are sold in the United States and Canada. He has deals in the works for the United Kingdom, Australia, Japan and the Middle East. Dennard has been featured in Vogue Inc. magazine and O, The Oprah Magazine twice: "The stuff smells as if it were poured straight from the comb into the bottle," O said of the Blackberry Honey Hand Soap. Last week, Dennard was named 2007 Small Business Person of the Year in Georgia by the U.S. Small Business Administration. Dennard will find out on April 24 whether he has won the national award. "Mr. Dennard epitomizes the entrepreneurial spirit of small business owners in America," wrote Lynn Vos, Savannah Area Director of the University of Georgia Small Business Development Center in her nomination letter. "(He) has taken everyday agricultural commodities, honey and beeswax, and created an extraordinary business ..." Dennard has "no misconceptions" about winning the national award. For him, it's enough to be doing what he loves, to be a good ambassador for Savannah and a standard bearer for what he thinks businesses should be. "We want the company, the employees, the community and the buyer all to benefit. We want everything we do and touch to be healthy and beneficial just like the bees do," he said. "I think that would be a great way for all corporations to behave." To see more of the Savannah Morning News, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.savannahnow.com. Copyright (c) 2007, Savannah Morning News, Ga. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News. For reprints, email [email protected], call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA. |