Colorado gift startup branches out to California

LONGMONT — A Colorado startup that celebrates gifts made in Colorado has replicated its business in California.

Longmont-based Colorado Crafted LLC, which creates gift baskets full of products made in the Centennial State, has now created California Crafted, which performs the same function in the Golden State.

Former food bloggers Sarah Welle and Dulcie Wilcox created Colorado Crafted in 2012 when they were frustrated trying to find gift baskets containing quality Colorado products. 

“We found that so many of the state’s great artisanal products were not available online and couldn’t be found in one place,” Welle said. “We wanted to create a shop where customers could discover truly local products, hand-pick their favorites, and easily send them anywhere, anytime. The response has been incredible.”

Welle and Wilcox have family in California and have been traveling to California for decades, visiting cities and farmers markets and enjoying the products that are unique to California. The new division of the company, which is operated from the existing Longmont warehouse, offers gifts ranging from spa products and housewares to a wide array of edibles and gourmet foods. And while California Crafted’s selection offers mass appeal, every item is local and handmade.

“We appreciate that each state has its own unique character, and we wanted to create an easy way to showcase what is special about California in the form of a gift,” Welle said. 

The partners are following the same playbook that they used in creating Colorado Crafted.

“We started [Colorado Crafted] by emailing the makers of local products and asking if we could be a wholesaler for them,” Welle told BizWest in reviewing the history of the company. “We bought 24 units of chocolate bars and 24 jars of jam and thought, worst case, we can eat all this jam ourselves.”

Each of the founders invested about $500 of their own money. The idea took off, and the company has grown at least 50% each year and sometimes 100%. 

“We thought people would want to sample the best of Colorado for themselves but found out they were buying mostly for gifts. Then we started getting business clients who bought thank you gifts or real estate closing gifts,” Welle said.

Now, business gifts account for about half of the company’s revenue and the remainder from personal purchases.

Gifts can be customized for companies wanting to label the gifts in a certain way, can be selected from a curated menu of gift boxes or customers can choose the individual products to be included.

The company originally was operated part time with the owners handling fulfillment. Now, the company staffs the warehouse/distribution operation with two additional staff members who work part time all year augmented by temporary staff during peak seasons such as November and December.

Despite the pandemic, 2020 was the company’s best year ever.

“Luckily we did quite well because people couldn’t shop in brick and mortar stores but still wanted to support local businesses,” Welle said.

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