Business Description
The Chow Brothers is a family owned and run food product business. Our revenue is derived from catering, private cheffing, and food sales in retail, wholesale, and farmer’s markets.
We are inspired by family and our central European heritage and driven by sustainability to create premium, distinctive food. We take pride in innovating classics and (re)introducing them to new audiences.
While sharing exceptional food is at our core, our goal is for our food to act as a catalyst to bring people together and have fun. Our tag line is “Better Together”, that speaks to us both as brothers and the community as a whole.
My brother and business partner, Mark Chowaniec, shares all of my food related passions while maintaining a strong foothold in the technology sector. When combining our backgrounds, The Chow Brothers has all of the guidance and dedication to provide quality products while delivering exceptional food. We strongly believe that stewardship within the food system is recognizing all the pillars of sustainability; respect of the food system, environment, health, social structures, and practical economics.
The Chow Brothers first started the business as a way to cook for others and host fund raising events in 2012, then in 2014, after I finished culinary school we rebranded and focused the business on our food products. Our biggest challenges to date have been state regulations including organic and canning certifications, reducing kitchen rental fees, and production costs.
We are very proud of the community of followers that we have built stemming from our events and Barnraiser (the crowdfunding platform we used for our rebranding and startup costs), our ability to pay homage to our parents and cultural history, and we look forward to a future where we can share our passion and food with an even greater community!
What is the purpose of this loan?
1. We will be investing $20,000 to cover the purchase of a pierogi (dumpling) machine that will produce our gourmet, sustainably sourced pierogi and cover equipment to prepare and sell pierogi at local markets. We need $10,000 from the Kiva community to help pay for additional food service equipment and market/festival operations and refinance debt from the purchase of this machine along with some of the rebranding costs (logos, labels, trademarks, website) we incurred last fall.
2. We cannot sufficiently supply our retail, food service, festival, and farmer’s market supply chains with our current manual processes and lack of equipment. Our commercial kitchen and labor rates are be cost prohibitive without the pierogi machine. We have throughly researched the machine that will best suit our needs and budget to increases our production rate twenty fold.
3. This loan would be a game changer for us! It would enable us to become profitable so we can reinvest in more pierogi opportunities as well as our other pickled and fermented product lines.
4. The plan for our projected revenue is to allow my business partner to work on the business full time within 6 months, expand in the greater Chicago area and find sustainable famers and suppliers. Lastly, we plan to put together an advisory and investor board to determine the best course for expanding our operations.
About The Chow Brothers LLC
Industry: Food
Years in operation: 1 year – 3 years
Website: thechowbrothers.com