Westchester Women Take Tasteful Treats & Treasures To The Top

The gift giving business is booming for this woman-owned, women-run Westchester company. Tasteful Treats & Treasures, a Best of Westchester 2015 winner, started out in Founder and Owner Rose Colonna’s kitchen in 2002. Thirteen years later, her team celebrated the newly bestowed honor at Westchester Magazine’s Best of Westchester 2015 Party this summer. “Most of what we do makes people happy,” Colonna, the company president, said. “I love looking for new products and working with our entire staff to produce unique, fun and highly creative baskets for our customers.”

The Banksville based gifting company won an Editor’s Picks award in the Gift Baskets category.

Featured in the magazine’s “Best Of” issue, Tasteful Treats & Treasures is officially a “Best of Westchester 2015 Shopping Editors’ Picks” in the Gift Baskets category. The woman owned-company, with a staff of 4 full-time employees and 4 to 8 part-timers, was one of the 135 businesses chosen by the magazine’s editors for the 2015 awards.

Colonna and her staff--including daughter Jennifer Colonna, the Director of Sales and Marketing, Sue Cecchetelli, Production Manager and Heidi Lewis, Visual Director--work together on finding the perfect products for their customers.

“We all shop the trade shows together,” Rose said. “You can see the creative juices and wheels spinning as we go from booth to booth thinking of how we will create a new gift basket – many times sparking even the vendors excitement for new ways to merchandise their product.”

When Colonna’s daughter left for college, she decided to pursue her passion and created the gifting company. She began running the business, with the help of many dedicated staffers, out of her home. In 2006 the business had grown large enough to move to her current Banksville location.

“I did not want to go back to working in the city. I had always been creative and family and friends encouraged me to start my own business.”

The founder worked in the intimate apparel industry for 10 years as an advertising and sales director for several major firms, worked for a brokerage firm for several years, and attended New York School of Interior Design.

“Heidi, Sue and myself have many years of experience in the garment center, creative advertising and sales promotion. Jennifer, who has a marketing background brings a new and young prospective to the team.”

“We all have the disease that we can no longer go shopping, even for ourselves, without seeing an item or thinking how it can work in a gift basket. Because of this we all shop the shows together because each of us has a different perspective on how items can be incorporated into gifts and baskets for our customers. In addition, as we have a major base of corporate clients, when we go to these trade shows we shop specifically for our clients. We have many clients in finance, health, logistics and we shop for industry specific products.”

Colonna believes in a personal touch and never ending commitment to quality, offering her customers a personal shopping experience. Her attention to detail and focus on personalization makes her a trusted confidante to her clients.

Tasteful Treats & Treasures is a force in the industry, being named one of the “Fastest Growing Gift Companies in America” as well as voted one of the Top 100 Gift Companies in the United States by Gift Basket Review in 2002.

In 2010, Rose along with Jamie Imperati was a founding member of Professional Women of Westchester. The 450 member networking group for women of Westchester County provides its members with a broad array of opportunities for networking, information sharing, and professional development.

The organization was created out of the need for local businesswomen to have a place where they could focus on their business, networking, issues and challenges they face. It offers educational workshops, networking and business opportunities for its members. The goal is to make each member a more effective businessperson.

Established in 2002, Tasteful Treats & Treasures is a premiere gifting company located in Westchester County, NY. As a full service gift provider we specialize in a wide range of custom creations for any & every occasion working with you and within your budget. A sampling of gift selections includes Gourmet Food & Wine Gift Baskets; Corporate Gifts & Promotional Products; Holiday Gift Baskets; Birthday, Thank You, Get Well, & special occasion baskets; Balloons, Gift Wrapping, Banners & Ribbon Imprinting; and Bereavement & Shiva Gift Baskets

Tasteful Treats & Treasures

16 Banksville Avenue, Bedford, NY 10506

Phone: 800-425-9226 ~ www.tastefultreats.com ~ Info@TastefulTreats.com

Photo:

The Tasteful Treats & Treasures Gift Baskets’ team. Left to right: Heidi Lewis, Visual Director; Susan Cecchetelli, Production Manager; Rose Colonna, President and Jennifer Colonna, Director Sales & Marketing.