We recently connected with Lagusta Yearwood and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Lagusta, thanks for joining us today. Let’s start with what makes profitability in your industry a challenge – what would you say is the biggest challenge?

The food industry has notoriously low profit margins because of so many factors: labor costs, endlessly rising food costs, supply chain problems, packaging costs, it’s endless. We charge a real and fair price for what our products are made of, but we don’t want to be a luxury brand. So our challenge is for our customers to understand that while they’re paying double or even more for a piece of candy they would buy in a supermarket, that’s because we’re working hard to ensure that everyone all along our labor chain is getting paid fair wages, that we’re using packaging that isn’t terrible on the environment, and that we’re using really high quality ingredients. Our biggest challenge to profitability is that it’s written into our mission that we can’t ignore any of these elements of our business, we have to find a balance where we feel that we’re fulfilling both our ethical mission while making enough profit to stay in business.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

We’ve been making artisan vegan chocolates since 2003. Everything we make is vegan, uses ethical chocolate, and is minimally packaged in environmentally-safe packaging. We’re a small business that has several arms: our chocolate manufacturing business, a cafe in our town of New Paltz, NY, and a sweets shop in NYC that we co-own with our friend who has a vegan bakery, as well as wholesale and shipping aspects of the business. We also launched a cannabis brand last year so we make CBD caramels (which we ship across the country) and THC caramels (that we sell in dispensaries in New York State).

Are there any books, videos or other content that you feel have meaningfully impacted your thinking?

I really love the Zingerman’s business books, by Ari Weinzweig. They talk about how to run a business without losing your heart, and how to make a profit while subscribing to lefty principles of cooperation, equality, and fairness. I’ve learned so much from them and we use elements of them when training new employees and managers.

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

We work really hard to consistently put out the message that we work with ethics first, and we work on our transparency with customers constantly. We’re honest about our challenges and our successes, and that really resonates with customers.

Contact Info:

• Website: lagustasluscious.com
• Instagram: @lagustasluscious
• Facebook: Lagusta’s Luscious
• Twitter: @lagustasluscious