Since 2005, Cbeyond has provided Kim & Scott's Gourmet Pretzels (www.kimandscotts.com) with an integrated business communication solution that includes Internet, landline and mobile phone services. The single-provider/many solutions approach has simplified voice and data services for Kim and Scott Holstein, the co-founders of the pretzel bakery located on Chicago’s Northwest side, enabling the entrepreneurs to focus on what counts for their business - delicious pretzels.
“Cbeyond’s voice and data services deliver unparalleled reliability which enables us to manage hundreds of calls a week and gives our small business all of the same communications and IT security advantages large businesses have,” said Kim Holstein. “The reliability of its mobile business applications is critical on our normal business days and is an extremely important component in helping us focus on the areas that generate business growth and expansion.”
Kim & Scott's Gourmet Pretzels has sold more than 42 million pretzels via grocery store chains like Albertsons, Safeway, Jewel, Wild Oats and Whole Foods. The company, founded in 1995, also sells its pretzels at Borders Books & Music, Barnes & Noble, through regular appearances on the QVC television shopping channel, and online at www.kimandscotts.com.
Several appearances on national television shows like the Food Network’s Road Tasted with the Deen Brothers (sons of Paula Deen) and Roker on the Road with Al Roker have generated major interest and spikes in call volume, e-mails and online orders that Cbeyond’s comprehensive voice and data services and mobile business applications handle without incident.
“Cbeyond’s bundled offering of voice and data services also eliminates the need for us to manage multiple vendor relationships for our communications needs,” Scott Holstein added. “As small business owners and parents, we need reliable mobile business applications that simplify our lives. We can count on Cbeyond for its reliability and applications like call forwarding and mobile e-mail, which give us extra flexibility in our business and personal lives.”
About Kim & Scott’s Gourmet Pretzels
Since 1995, Kim & Scott’s Gourmet Pretzels’ co-founders Kim and Scott Holstein have grown their business from the kitchen in Kim’s Chicago studio apartment to a national presence, selling millions of pretzels each week via grocery store chains like Albertsons, Safeway, Jewel, Wild Oats and Whole Foods. Their pretzels also can be found at Borders Books & Music, Barnes & Noble, and via regular appearances on QVC, where they sold more than 150,000 pretzels in just 12 minutes during their network debut. They have also been named “Entrepreneurs to Watch” by Entrepreneur Magazine, profiled by the Food Network’s Road Tasted with the Deen Brothers and Al Roker’s Roker on the Road, CNBC’s The Big Idea with Donny Deustch, USA Today and selected as one of 100 “Top Urban Entrepreneurs” by Inc. Magazine. Kim & Scott’s bakery is located in Chicago; the nation’s first Pretzel Bakery and Twisting Café is located at Kohl Children’s Museum outside of Chicago.
About Cbeyond
Cbeyond, Inc. (NASDAQ: CBEY) is a leading provider of IT and communications services to more than 46,000 small businesses throughout the United States. Recently named as the sixth fastest growing technology company by Forbes magazine, and added to Standard & Poor’s Small Cap S&P 600 Index, Cbeyond offers more than 30 productivity-enhancing applications including local and long-distance voice, broadband Internet, mobile, BlackBerry(R), broadband laptop access, voicemail, email, web hosting, fax-to-email, data backup, file-sharing and virtual private networking. Cbeyond delivers these services over a 100 percent private all IP network. For more information on Cbeyond, visit www.cbeyond.net/smb and follow Cbeyond on Twitter: www.Twitter.com/Cbeyondinc.