Popping often for profit

GOING HOME: Nettie's Kettle Corn co-owners Linda Rossi, left, and Joe Clemente started selling their products at farmers markets and festivals before moving operations in June 2015 to a retail store on Smith Street in North Providence, where the pair grew up. / PBN PHOTO/MICHAEL SALERNO
GOING HOME: Nettie's Kettle Corn co-owners Linda Rossi, left, and Joe Clemente started selling their products at farmers markets and festivals before moving operations in June 2015 to a retail store on Smith Street in North Providence, where the pair grew up. / PBN PHOTO/MICHAEL SALERNO

Linda Rossi, co-owner of Nettie’s Kettle Corn LLC, was at a festival in Florida with her parents the first time she tasted kettle corn.

“What’s kettle corn?” she remembers asking her father when he told her to buy him a bag.

After trying the sweet-and-salty variety of popcorn, however, she answered her own question.

“I ate the whole bag,” she said with a laugh.

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Wanting to share the newfound discovery with friends back in Rhode Island, she found some a couple months later while at an art festival in North Kingstown. She quickly convinced her future business partner, Joe Clemente, to try it and they haven’t looked back since.

“He’d never heard of it either,” she said. “Next thing I know, we’re making kettle corn.”

Rossi and Clemente started popping in Pawtucket, launching Nettie’s in 2009. Like many food startups in Rhode Island, Rossi and Clemente sold kettle corn at farmers markets and festivals. Customers’ responses were positive, Rossi said, but the model wasn’t sustainable, as winters got in the way.

“We started thinking about how we could survive the rest of the year, you know, when it was snowing, so we branched out into the markets,” Rossi said.

Nettie’s soon became available at some retail stores throughout the region. The duo cut back on the number of festivals they attended. Rossi, who declined to disclose annual sales, says revenue has increased each year since they started.

In June 2015, the owners decided to try their hand in retail. Nettie’s moved operations to Smith Street in North Providence, which is the town where the owners grew up.

“It’s really fun,” Rossi said, when asked how it was to open a business in her hometown. “You have people turn up to the store from school and say, ‘I didn’t know you owned this,’ ” she said.

Family members help out at the store. The plan moving forward is to augment sales at other retail locations.

Rossi would also like to see Nettie’s expand the sale of its cinnamon flavor and start introducing its chocolate kettle corn at more stores. The rest of the flavors, she added, will be sold exclusively on Smith Street.

“It takes time, but we’re doing it,” she said.

The holiday season has become especially busy for Nettie’s, as the specialty corn makes a unique gift.

“People want something different,” Rossi said. “They go to someone’s house for a holiday and bring a kettle-corn basket.”

The company also sells online through its website. Rossi admits, however, she’d like to see those sales grow.

But she’s optimistic because the Nettie’s flavor is unique due to ownership’s close attention to taste and unyielding approach to never skimp on the top line.

“We’re crazy. Everywhere we go, we have to try the popcorn,” she quipped. “A lot of people try to take the easy way out by using cheaper oil, which really makes a difference. Joe uses all-natural ingredients … it’s never preservatives or syrups.” •

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