'Auntie Nalani' a chip off family cookie block

By Dan Nakaso
Advertiser Staff Writer

Nalani McLaughlin fired up the kitchen to her fledgling cookie business for the first time in 1998 and the smell of cookie dough suddenly propelled her back in time.

Nalani McLaughlin grew up around her father's cookie business on Guam. Now, she's finding success with her cookies, which she markets under four separate brands. Rebecca Breyer • The Honolulu Advertiser

"The first time I baked the cookies here," Nalani said, "it was like I was a fish back in my old pond."

Nalani, the only child of Bob and Francine McLaughlin, got an easier start in business than most.

Her father flew from Guam to Honolulu to license her business. He also bankrolled the company — Nalani still doesn't know how much it cost to start up — gave her the recipe to his cookies and even flew to her Kalihi factory last month to assemble a new $100,000 packaging machine he paid for.

McLaughlin acknowledges her good fortune. But she's also had to ride out scary times by herself.

In the early years, McLaughlin sold her cookies primarily through DFS-Hawai'i and was 90 percent dependent on Japanese tourists. After Sept. 11, 2001, McLaughlin begged vendors for extensions on her bills and scrambled to find other ways to sell her cookies.

"We almost lost it," McLaughlin said. "We had so many eggs in the tourist basket that it wasn't even funny."

Within a month, McLaughlin made bold moves and has since balanced sales evenly between tourists and local customers.

McLaughlin also moved to Kalihi to save $1,800 per month. "Eighteen hundred dollars is a lot for a product that sells for $2 a bag," she said.

She also found a market for a new product by accident.

In 2000, McLaughlin put bags of cookies into lauhala baskets — topped with ribbons and seashells — as centerpieces for a friend's wedding at the Halekulani Hotel. Elegant Bride Magazine, which photographed and wrote about the wedding, included photos of the gift baskets and brides tracked McLaughlin down in Hawai'i.

She has since sold $20,000 worth of the baskets and will be advertising them in two national wedding magazines.

McLaughlin's new $100,000 packaging machine also means she can churn out 40, 1-ounce bags per minute. It's already given her new business with Continental Airlines and potential with more airlines, cruise lines and conventions.

McLaughlin calls the gleaming, stainless steel, 1,800-pound machine "my new love" and has even given it a name, Big Bill.

McLaughlin was born in Boston but moved to Hawai'i at age 6 so her mother could be closer to home.

The family then moved to Guam where Bob McLaughlin started selling cookies. Nalani grew up packing thousands of them by hand before going back to Massachusetts to attend Boston College.

Her parents' graduation present was a business back in Guam selling her father's cookies. It did well until McLaughlin followed her boyfriend to Thailand and Tokyo for the next four years.

In 1999 McLaughlin returned to Hawai'i for a Japanese-language class but her father offered to bankroll another cookie business.

"He said, 'Just give it six months,' " McLaughlin said. "He knew what was going to happen. He just never bothered to tell me."

Some people are taken aback when they meet McLaughlin for the first time.

Tiffany Kim, the buyer for Macy's island home and jewelry department, called McLaughlin to talk about selling her Auntie Nalani's brand cookies and was surprised when McLaughlin showed up.

"We said, 'Auntie Nalani, we want to see your line,' " Kim said. "I expected an auntie, a local older lady. She shows up this cute, tall, gorgeous-looking lady and I said, 'You're Auntie?' "

Each month, McLaughlin passes out free samples on the fourth floor of the Ala Moana Macy's but felt constricted standing at a display table. So she built a tray to hang around her neck and now strolls throughout the floor.

"She's real cheerful and outgoing," Kim said. "It was a huge success. We're going to be doing that going forward."

While McLaughlin's personality may account for some of the sales, Kim said the cookies do the rest.

"They just melt in your mouth," Kim said. "It's quite easy to eat 10 in one sitting."

With such endorsements, McLaughlin's company has grown from $225,000 after 2001 to a potential of $500,000 this year.