1. Name of Business, Owner, official website address, and the year you opened:
Rowena’s, Inc.—–Opened 1983. Rowena Fullinwider. www.rowenas.com
2. How would you describe your business?
Rowena‘s is a creator and producer of Wonderful and acclaimed Pound cakes of different flavors and delicious Curd Sauces, plus special Jams, Sauces, and Mixes. We also produce LOGO and Picture cookies to customer’s specifications. We provide a Recipe sheet with suggestions to get customers started on simplified “Pour on Gourmet” cooking. We are a Wholesale and Retail Manufacturer and we ship to most of the country. Our Retail Website produces a very positive part of the business and we ship our beautifully packaged gifts world wide including to the Military stationed abroad with a Fleet or Army Post Office address. To the APO/FPO military we offer a 15% discount in honor of our Men and Women who serve. We also have a very popular Corporate Gift program with defined discounts, The Wonderful Jam and Jelly Factory is hidden in the historic Ghent area of Norfolk, at W 22nd Street and Colley Avenue. In the factory, we have a lovely retail Gift store where you can taste our great products everyday, and a special Tea Room for Lunch, open (11 am to 4 pm) Friday and Saturday. Most recently we have added a line of great Box Lunches for companies to order for their employees or gatherings. We market our products through wholesale and retail Gift and Food shows around the country. We are a Virginia Finest product and the State has also been helpful in market exposure over the years.
3. Briefly describe your typical client/customer base.
A cross section of the Southside population enjoys Rowena’s, with walk-ins from far and near. Cruise ship and Bus tours are also scheduled at Rowena’s as a part of their tour of Norfolk, Virginia Beach, and the region. Actually, all ages taste in our retail store and lunch in our tea room. We have parties from one to more than fifty for birthdays, business, anniversaries, engagement parties, and people or families with or without children who just wish to have fun.
4. What is one thing most people do not know about your business that would surprise him/her?
That there is a thriving 13,000 sq. ft. factory hidden behind the front walls and between the other retail businesses.. Our quaintly painted outside has a five foot wide Red ribbon at the roof like a gift box, a Mermaid and a Six foot Rabbit who welcome visitors. While we seem much like the other stores, we quietly house the gift shop, tearoom, administrative spaces, the bakery, a commercial kitchen, and two warehouses for operating, storage and shipping. Our tours get an eye and earful. Another surprise would be that a small business in Norfolk, Rowena‘s Inc., along with Blue Crab Bay Co. from the Eastern Shore, and supported by the Virginia Department of Agriculture were the first small businesses from the United States to exhibit at the The 5th Annual World Food Exposition held in Moscow in 2005.
5. What do you enjoy most about doing business in your district/community.
We enjoy the very close knit and supportive people and merchants that live and work in Ghent and the surrounding areas.. The Ghent Business Association embodies these attributes and provides a coordinated approach to improving business.
6. What do you enjoy most about doing business in Hampton Roads?
The sense of Community of the people that live and work here, cultural opportunities and the general living atmosphere of Norfolk and Hampton Roads. It is a splendid Community! This is the real reason that I moved here thirty three years ago after a lifetime in the Navy family.
7. What challenges do you face as a business owner?
The constant challenge today is our depressed economy.
8. What is in store for your business in the future?
We are very creative and I see growth and more new products coming in the near future.
9. What could local government do to help small business owners in your business district (besides lower taxes)?
Keeping taxes as low as possible and slowly reducing the BPOL tax.
10. What is one thing your business district needs?
I personally would like to have the Net Bus Line swing through the Ghent Business District which is one of the top business districts in the city. The more people the better!
11. Is there anything else you’d like to add?
In the almost 28 years we have been in business, we have been featured on the Food Network periodically, exhibited on QVC several times, and been featured in articles in magazines such as Southern Living, Bon Appetit, Gourmet Magazine and Redbook among others. A year ago, a California Company published a book titled “Retail Super Stars, The Top Twenty Five,” and Rowena‘s, Inc was included. Among others so honored were ”A Southern Seasons” in Chapel Hill, NC, and Gumps, Inc. in San Francisco, so it seems we are in good company.
