Intestinal Fortitude

Peg Boxold knows what it’s like to maneuver one’s way through a recession.

She and partner Mike Martel, both veterans of the Marriott Hotel in downtown Springfield, started their catering business, Elegant Affairs, in early 1989, about the same time as the start of a severe economic downturn that would last, by some estimates, for four years.

The company was launched almost exclusively on corporate functions, and many of the companies that headed up the early client list — Monarch Capital, Bank of New England West, and Heritage Bancorp — would soon disappear from the landscape. Meanwhile, most all of those left were thinking about survival, not lavishing clients and employees with smoked salmon and shrimp cocktail.

Boxold told BusinessWest that she and Martel survived those lean years by being, in a word, creative. As an example, she said the company would work with businesses of all shapes and sizes to stage events that were fun and cost-effective, if not exactly elaborate.

“We were creative … we did whatever we had to do to make it through those times,” she explained. “We picked up a lot of business with people who couldn’t afford a big hurrah, but still wanted to do something.”

Today, entrepreneurial creativity is still the watchword, but Boxold, who would become sole proprietor of this venture after Martel left to pursue other business opportunities in 2001, is being challenged by much more than the economy these days.

Indeed, the landscape for caterers, especially in this market, has changed dramatically over the years, she said, so much so that many of the traditional caterers doing business in the Pioneer Valley years ago are no longer doing so. There are many more banquet halls now vying for corporate and personal events such as weddings and showers, and many of these establishments, as well as a number of area restaurants, are catering events off their own sites, she said, citing a few of the additional challenges facing her nearly two decades after she started out.

Meanwhile, downtown Springfield, where she has always based her business, is far less vibrant than it was years ago, with many banks and other corporate clients and potential clients now gone or relocated to the suburbs. Very recently, the soaring prices of food and gasoline have brought additional burdens in the form of expenses she can’t easily pass on to clients.

And then, there’s the Basketball Hall of Fame and the exclusive catering contract awarded to Max’s Tavern, located in the Hall complex, for all events staged at the shrine.

Boxold handled hundreds of events at the old Hall, and a few at the new one, before Max’s arrived, and she’s still quite bitter about that deal and how it went down.

“No one told us anything,” she explained, adding quickly that, amid swirling rumors, she sought and was granted a meeting with Hall officials, who gave her the news. “We did a number of events for free or at cost to help them raise the money to build the new Hall, and then they turn around and give the contract to a Connecticut-based restaurant chain…”

She didn’t actually finish that thought before moving on to another one — the fact that the loss of the Hall of Fame business nearly doomed her venture.

But she has persevered, through determination and diversification, which, in this case, means everything from handling the food service at Springfield’s Franconia Golf Course to successfully managing a vegan wedding a few years ago.

“That’s tougher than kosher catering — you have to read a lot of labels,” she said with a laugh, adding that every additional event or contract helps with the all-important task of keeping the calendar full, which is the ultimate recipe for success for any catering venture.

In this issue, BusinessWest looks at how Boxold has managed to find the right ingredients for continued success in a field where entrepreneurs have to think outside the box lunch.

Food for Thought

As she talked about the very early days of Elegant Affairs and the years that preceded them, Boxold eased back in her chair, smiled, and shook her head slightly, as if to indicate a degree of disbelief as to just how good things were, at least when compared to today.

“The money was flowing in those days,” she recalled of the mid-’80s, when the economy, downtown Springfield, and most of the major corporations doing business there were booming. Monarch Capital, then based in the office tower that bears its name, hosted a number of lavish affairs, she said, and the 28th floor of Baystate West (later renamed Tower Square), home to Baybank, was also hopping with events that kept several catering companies busy. “Downtown Springfield was the place to be,” she said.

It all came to a crashing halt not long after Elegant Affairs was launched, she recalled, adding that it was a weekly, or seemingly daily, struggle to keep the fledgling operation going, an experience that steeled her for subsequent downturns in the economy and a host of other challenges.

Boxold says she gained the necessary experience — and intestinal fortitude — for her chosen entrepreneurial venture through years of hard, disciplined work at the Springfield Marriott.

She started there in 1976 as housekeeping manager, later moved on to human-resources functions, and eventually shifted gears and went into the catering side of the operation — working her way up to director of on-site operations at the downtown hotel. Martel, meanwhile, ascended to supervisor of outside catering. In early 1989, the two decided to go into business for themselves, and set up shop in the Marketplace building, where they operated an on-site deli (mostly to provide cash flow) and an off-site catering business that soon became the main focus, especially as the recession took its toll on the deli.

Success with the catering venture, both before and especially after the recession hit, came through relationships and thus cultivation of a client list that included a number of major corporations, such as MassMutual and Baystate Health, but also business and civic groups ranging from chambers of commerce to the Spirit of Springfield to the Springfield Civic Center. And the Basketball Hall of Fame.

In 1991, the business was moved across the road, to 1380 Main St. and space that includes what has come to be known as the Glass House — there are windows on three sides — that seats about 80 and has hosted everything from bridal and baby showers to events for a host of Springfield mayors.

Over the years, there have been some memorable events, on-site but especially off-site — such as a small dinner arranged for relatives of a coma patient who came out of that coma as the meal was being consumed — as well as some catering for celebrities; that list includes Tony Bennett, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Pearl Jam, and several past NBA greats.

As the landscape in the region has changed, literally and figuratively, Boxold and her venture have had to adjust accordingly. There are fewer major corporate players than there were 20 years ago, she explained, and as for those that remain, the extravagance of the past has been replaced by a general cost-consciousness that places a premium on value, but also the necessary elegance and, increasingly, creativity.

Meanwhile, there are a number of new players in the field, making it that much more difficult to fill the slate, which Boxold says she still manages to do through imagination and cultivating opportunities when and where she can.

Just Desserts

As she talked with BusinessWest, Boxold stopped for a minute to get some water for Sophie, her cairn terrier, who was rather loud in her requests for something to drink, and then louder still as she sought — and was granted — a game of ‘fetch the empty water bottle.’

“She’s here (at work) a lot,” said Boxold. “When mommy’s working 15-hour days, there’s no one at home to be with her, so she comes here.”

Long hours are part of the equation in this business, and have been since the beginning, said Boxold, noting that she, like others in this field, must rely on volume — in whatever ways it can be amassed.

Indeed, on a recent Thursday, Boxold was prepping for a busy but typical weekend, one that would feature several events, including a wedding, on Friday evening, two more weddings and several smaller get-togethers on Saturday, and another 14 or 15 hours worth of catering jobs on Sunday, including two bridal showers.

Pulling off such weekends requires logistical skills as well as some imagination, especially when it comes to staffing, she explained, adding that she has a cell phone full of numbers for employees past and present, as well as family members — and she isn’t shy about using it.

“Sometimes, you wind up calling people you haven’t seen in two years,” she said of staffing demands. “You just do what’s necessary — you have to be creative, and you’ve got to make it happen; these days, there are some times when you can’t really say ‘no’ to someone — you’ve got to stay alive.

“On Monday mornings, I’m dead,” she continued. “It takes me until nearly noon to clear my head and get on with planning out another week.”

But packed calendars in June, July, August, September, and especially December are needed to get the company through what have become painfully slow winters and early springs, said Boxold, who shook her head as she talked about the many challenges involved with keeping a staff of 60 working and her company in the black.

A big part of that challenge has come in the form of increased competition, she said, noting that the field still has traditional caterers, although fewer of them, and a host of restaurants and banquet facilities now doing work on- and off-site. Couple this with a weakened economy, a desire among many business owners to cut back on entertainment, fuel surcharges that come with every delivery, and $4-per-gallon gasoline for her own fleet, and it makes for some rough going.

In this environment, players in the catering field have to be flexible and imaginative, she said, adding that the addition of the work at Franconia provides a steady, helpful addition to the cash flow.

A few years ago, Boxold formed a relationship with the owners of Wyckoff Country Club in Holyoke, giving her a steady supply of weddings that put her volume well above what it was before that arrangement. Wyckoff has since been sold, and that relationship has ended, but she still handles dozens of weddings a year at venues such as the Carriage House at the Barney Estate, Look Park in Northampton, Stanley Park in Westfield, Worthington Pond Farm & Gardens in Somers, Conn., and many others.

The best source of business remains word-of-mouth referrals, she said, and they are amassed by doing more than putting together a good menu, said Boxold, adding that her company has to go a step, or many steps, beyond what might be expected.

With regard to weddings, this means being more like a wedding coordinator than a company that simply handles the food and the bar, she explained.

“You have to take the bride and the groom and make them think about the details and how their day is going to unfold,” she explained.

“And the timing is key. At most venues, people have five hours for a wedding, and that goes by like that,” she said, snapping her fingers. “It’s a blur, and that’s why I tell people I have to give them great food, great service, and also help them maximize their time.”

Success also comes from being able to handle just about anything a potential client might throw at you, she said, adding that this means everything from an exotic venue for a wedding — like the New England Air Museum in Windsor Locks, in one case — to different or exotic menu offerings, such as that vegan wedding.

“You have to keep your food items updated and trendy — and healthy,” she explained, adding that she must stay atop everything from the latest attitudes on carbs to the growing problem with peanut allergies to finding gluten-free ingredients. “It’s all part of paying attention to details, which clients want and appreciate.”

Taste of Success

Boxold’s office, one of the unique workspaces carved out of the old Haynes Hotel, which was once one of Springfield’s finest, is cluttered with some items reflecting her fondness for the Red Sox — a framed photo of Ted Williams and Babe Ruth, a calendar with photos of players, and one of those pink hats, among others. There are also a few gifts from clients (bottles of wine and rum, for example), and a sampling of the small tokens given to guests at weddings.

And on the far wall is a framed copy of a Republican article from Oct. 10, 1993. The newspaper did a series of stories on recession survivors under the banner “Beating the Odds,” and Elegant Affairs was that Sunday’s profile.

Boxold actually has the piece framed in a few places in her headquarters space downtown. She told BusinessWest that it reminds her of the hardships she’s overcome and how business is a persistent struggle.

And given the many new challenges facing her today, she’s still beating the odds.

George O’Brien can be reached at[email protected]