Supply = Demand

I was never a fan of college economics class. There's the supply and demand models, something about elasticity and price, and yada, yada, yada. The concepts are vaguely familiar, but if you asked me to teach a class on the subject, my poor pupil would very likely receive an F. (For the record, my final grade was something like a B+ or A-, but unfortunately, grades are neither an indication of understanding nor future success.)

Not that I understand the exact terminology of what Created Whole is experiencing, but it's somewhere between a slow, but steady increasing demand, paired with an inconsistent and flat lined production level. Even I know that doesn't equal.

Sometimes I think people get the idea that we are a big company, manufacture a lot of tortillas, have a great distribution network, and increasing vendor agreements. To put the record straight: We make tortillas at a SMALL tortilleria in Wasco, CA at about 55 dozen each production run. How much we can produce is limited to the schedule at the tortilleria, and we only make tortillas when inventory is low to gone. Our cost per dozen tortillas is what I term, "Pretty astronomical," and we, those directly involved, are not making an income yet. We can be thankful that the business is not in debt up to this point.

Created Whole Tortillas are in a store (as in one), in Bakersfield, CA, one store store in Culver City, available online at TheBestTortilla.com, and the tasty round goodness shows up weekly at the Redondo Beach Farmer's Market where 12-26 dozen "fly" off the shelves (I say "fly" with an edge of sarcasm). If we only focused on our overall sales, we would pack our wheat, throw out the other 3 ingredients, and say "there's no point to this." But, we see the potential in the market and the potential of our product thanks to our customers. The "good jobs" and "keep making these tortillas" and "I hope you guys do really well" reminds us of what we have and why we are in business. (Seriously, thank you guys for the encouragement). We are also reminded everytime we bite into a Created Whole Tortilla. Just this morning for breakfast I was eating a tortilla straight up, and said, "Wow Dad! How did you make such a GREAT tortilla?"

Tortillas are beginning to fly with Allegiant flight crews. Everyday of work last week I toted tortillas in my rollerboard. 15 dozen tortillas went to various airline employees this week. Tortillas are now a favorite for "Crew Breakfast". Crew Breakfast consists of peanut-buttering up a tortilla, add a sprinkle of chocolate chips, pop it in the aircraft oven, and add banana slices after heated. The smell of hot and fresh tortillas wafts through the galley and flight deck, taunting the passengers while poor-thems crunch through cardboard box snackpacks. (Oh the benefits of being a stew.)

Another Crew Breakfast

As demand increases, our big question is, "Are we going to have enough tortillas?" Currently, we are exploring new options for production. Once we have a consistent production level, we will be able to approach establishments like Whole Foods and Chipotle. From consumer comments, we see that demand is there. One diehard fan wanted to take his Created Whole Tortillas into the restaurant and eat them instead of the tortillas that came with his fish taco dinner. That's what we love to hear:) Keep eating!

Turning A Dream Into A Tortilla

By Kara Mulder

Today was a huge milestone for our budding tortilla company, now named Created Whole. May 1, 2009 marks the first day of production; 35 dozen tortillas!

This is the bakery where we produce our whole wheat tortillas.

This is Moses, the tortilla master, operating the machine.

We went in at 8 am this morning, and it took about two hours from starting with just the ingredients, to having the finished product in bags. This morning we went into the bakery wondering if this batch was actually going to work, because yesterday, we tried a test run of 2 dozen, and that batch wasn't sellable. Tim and I talked through where we thought the problems were and went in today, hoping we could come out with an amazing tortilla. And we did!!!

Created Whole 100% Whole Wheat Tortillas

We are so blessed and ecstatic to finally be holding what we have been dreaming about for quite awhile. What's even more exciting is that people love it! We sold 10 dozen today! What's even more rewarding is that people are interested in the story, the process, and give us suggestions on where to go and who to market to. We got great ideas and positive feedback!

Tim and Dave S., our first customer! Dave just had lunch, but we got him to try a sample. He said, "Mmm! These are really good!"

Currently, Elaine's Cafe in Bakersfield, California is using our tortillas for wraps and burritos. We have our promotional work cut out for us in getting into other outlets. If you are interested in getting your own dozen or have some great marketing ideas, email us at createdwhole@gmail.com.