his business is little pepi s. the biggest challenge is letting people know what they are even the product has been around since 700 b.c. reporter: he bought the business in 2003 from the original owner who started baking the cookies in his own kitchen four decades ago. it had a small but loyal following but sales began to slow. when i bought the business there were two beg problems, two glaring problems i saw. number one, the building was being taken for eminent domain. the second was the equipment was 25 years old. it was all electric. it was a very labor intensive process. reporter: the solution, he moved the company to a larger suburban facility and made a big purchase, a giant waffle stick oven retrofitted specifically to make pizelle s. production quadrupled but energy bills also jumped. he went from baking four days a week for eight hours to three days a week for 10 hours. he was able to keep almost all
reporter: the solution, he moved the company to a larger suburban facility and made a big purchase. a giant waffle stick oven, retrofitted specifically to make pizzelles. production quadrupled. but so did its electricity bills. he was able to keep almost all of his employees, about one-quarter of them have special mental or physical needs. that s a corporate responsibility we ve taken on. that s the one unique thing about our business. it is a family-run business but we re like a family here. reporter: sales are up 15%. ingredient and packaging costs have jumped too. that s cut into the company s margins because he doesn t want to pass those price increases on to his loyal customers. we get e-mails all the time. your product is just like my grandmother s. we embrace those.
the biggest challenge is letting people know what they are even the product has been around since 700 b.c. reporter: he bought the business in 2003 from the original owner who started baking the cookies in his own kitchen four decades ago. it had a small but loyal following but sales began to slow. when i bought the business there were two beg problems, two glaring problems i saw. number one, the building was being taken for eminent domain. the second was the equipment was 25 years old. it was all electric. it was a very labor intensive process. reporter: the solution, he moved the company to a larger suburban facility and made a big purchase, a giant waffle stick oven retrofitted specifically to make pizelle s. production quadrupled but energy bills also jumped. he went from baking four days a week for eight hours to three days a week for 10 hours. he was able to keep almost all of his employees.
the second was the equipment was all 25 years. it was a very labor intensive process. reporter: the solution, he moved the company to a larger suburban facility and made a big purchase, a giant waffle stick oven retro fitted specifically to make pizzelles. production quadrupled, but his energy bills jumped. he was able to keep almost all of his employees, about one quarter of them have special mental or physical needs. that s a corporate responsibility we ve taken on. it is a family-run business, but we re like a family here. reporter: sales are up 15% this year, but ingredient and packaging costs have jumped, too, cutting into the company s margins because he doesn t want to pass those price increases onto his loyal customers. we get e-mails all the time.
his business little pepi s amaze pizelle s. the biggest challenge is letting people know what they are even the product has been around since 700 b.c. reporter: he bought the business from the original owner who started out baking the cookies in his own kitchen four decades owing. it had a small but loyal following but sales began to slow. when i bought the business there were two beg problems, two glaring problems i saw. number one, the building was being taken for eminent domain. the second was the equipment was 25 years old. it was all electric. it was a very labor intensive process. reporter: the solution, he moved the company to a larger suburban facility and made a big purchase, a giant waffle stick oven retrofitted specifically to make pizelle s.