In this week's Tampa Bay Business Journal segment, editor Alexis Muellner discusses how Brandon-based Bourbon & Boweties is seeing accelerated growth, the Tampa tech company expanding, and the new grocery chain entering the Tampa Bay market.
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Carley Ochs started Bourbon & Boweties as a one person operation in 2012.
Ochs started making the bracelets out of stones she collected on trips overseas. Her mother suggested she should sell them.
Four years later, the Brandon-based company is has revenues in the millions of dollars. She now sells between 50,000 and 100,000 bracelets each month. The bracelets sell for between $24 and $50 per piece.
Ochs' company has a major retail presence in all fifty states through Nordstorm.
She is now seeking a CEO to help run the company because the growth of the company did not occur through traditional advertising.
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SunView Software announced a $1 million expansion to its Tampa headquarters on Highland Manor Drive. The company says it add 45 jobs.
SunView Software provides information technology service management software.
The company received help from the Tampa Hillsborough Economic Development Corporation to make its plans a reality.
Alexis says while the expansion is "not a gigantic amount of growth" he believes it is a good sign for the local tech industry that a company like SunView feels there is enough local talent remain and thrive in Tampa.
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A new grocer is coming to the Tampa Bay market. But it is not one you would expect.
The last remaining local Albertsons store on Ulmerton Road in Largo is be converted into a Safeway store. The California-based grocery chain is transforming three Albertsons stores in Florida into Safeways.
Safeway merged with Albertsons early last year.
Alexis says the margins grocery chains make is very slim makes the industry very competitive. With Publix, Whole Foods, Trader Joe's, the Fresh Market and Winn-Dixie already in the Tampa Bay area, Safeway could find it difficult to compete.
The Business Journal has a Business Pulse poll on its website where they ask their readers which national grocery chain do they like best.
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For more information on these stories, click on the video player, go to youtu.be/dGd4Nc_h_3U or pick up this week's Tampa Bay Business Journal available on newsstands and online.
