Immaculate Baking Wins NC Small Business of the Year Award

January 21, 2003
Hendersonville, NC

Immaculate Baking Company, the cookie company known for its imaginative flavors and colorful folk art packaging, was recently announced as the North Carolina Small Business of the Year 2002 at a luncheon sponsored by Business North Carolina Magazine.

Nominated by Michael Barefoot, CEO of A Southern Season based in Chapel Hill, Immaculate was selected as winner by judges Stan Mandel, director of the Angell Center for Entrepreneurship at Wake Forest University; Judy Tate, president of Benco Steel, last year's winner;  and David Kinney, Business North Carolina's editor-in-chief and publisher. To be considered for this award, the nominated company must be based in North Carolina, independently owned with at least one owner active in the company, in business for five years, must be profitable, and have less than 100 employees. 

Receiving the award for Immaculate was Scott Blackwell, founder and CEO, whose extraordinary career as a serial entrepreneur greatly impressed the judges. "We were so thrilled to receive this award," says Blackwell. "We've had a record-breaking year at Immaculate, and now it's great to see all of our hard work being recognized." As NC Small Business of the Year, Immaculate was the featured cover story in the December issue of Business North Carolina. The full story is available at their website, www.businessnc.com/features/hayes.html. 

In 1995, Scott Blackwell founded Immaculate Baking Company in his garage in Flat Rock, NC with two original cookie flavors. Since then, the company has rapidly expanded its line to ten award-winning, all-natural cookies some of which include Leapin' Lemon (Lemon White Chocolate Chip), Pumpkin Gingerlies (Pumpkin Ginger), Route 11 Potato Chip Cookies (Sweet and Salty Shortbread), Raspberry Brambles (Raspberry Brownie Chunk), and Sweet Georgia Brownies (Triple Chocolate Chunk) as well as Mojos (chocolate-covered, bite sized pieces of handmade biscotti) and various gift sets such as the Munch Box, Edible Art Box, and Munchie Medley. For more information about Immaculate, please visit www.immaculatebaking.com.