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From Delta Exec To Retail Entrepreneur
Belinda Stubblefield toasts her new life by opening a wine store and restaurant — and maybe other stores as well.
by Mary Welch
May 30, 2008
B
elinda Stubblefield had two goals after leaving her executive position at Delta Air
Lines. She wanted a business to call her own, and she wanted to be able to buy great wines near her
home on the south side of town.
Stubblefield, who served in a variety of positions at Delta including director of marketing
planning, director of customer care and vice president of global diversity, took one of the first
packages Delta offered and left in May 2006. Her husband, Ron Frieson, who was president of
BellSouth Georgia, also left the corporate world around the same time.
“We
were both ready to do new things, and I really wanted a business to call my own and grow,” she
says. “Being in customer relations – in various forms, internally and externally at Delta – I
wanted to do something that I enjoyed and would find a market. I love wines, and I love visiting
wineries, especially in Napa Valley. And, it was also interesting to me as a marketing person, that
the homes around Cascade Road, where we live, are very expensive, but there was no upscale place to
buy wine. Wine stores are all over Buckhead, but not near my house.”
And so an entrepreneur was born.
Stubblefield considered several options, including opening her own independent wine shop,
partnering with other stores, such as The Grape, or buying a franchise operation. She chose the
franchise option and opened WineStyles Cascade.
Founded in 2002, WineStyles is a franchise operation that is now in more than 20 states.
Instead of selling wine according to traditional categories, WineStyles labels wine by flavor or
taste. Using eight different taste categories, WineStyles defines each wine by the flavor profile:
bold, mellow and fruity (for red wines), crisp, silky and rich (for white wines), with nectar
describing the sweet dessert-style wines, and bubbly including champagnes and carbonated wines.
“It made so much sense to me to define wines that way,” she says. “And, I liked the idea of
being part of a franchise that was proven – that had all their systems in place, all the research
done. I particularly liked being able to introduce the concept into my neighborhood.”
As with any budding businesswoman, she worried about going off on her own, but once she made
her mind up, she wasted no time. Stubblefield left Delta in May 2006 and by November, she had
purchased the franchise, found the location, obtained the necessary permits, built the store, hired
the team and marketed it. The grand opening was Nov. 9.
Her greatest concern was finding employees who could provide the customer service necessary
to develop loyal customers. She knew she would be intimately involved in the day-to-day operations,
but she needed an assistant manager. That problem was solved on her last day at work at Delta when
Linda Leftridge, a former supervisor on Stubblefield’s reservation sales team, came by to wish her
luck. Next thing you know, she was hired.
George Gore, an award-winning sommelier, walked into the store and said he thought he could
be of assistance. Hired.
“Before we opened our doors, a great team found us,” she says.
Another challenge was figuring out how much to buy. She didn’t want to be out of stock, but
neither did she want her cash flow to be tied up in inventory. “We had no viable benchmarks. By
Christmas we were out of most of our gift items and couldn’t get more in fast enough,” she says. “
We lost sales before Christmas, and we had too much cash tied up in champagne in January. These are
things that you come to understand with experience – and data – over time.”
WineStyles quickly became a hit, especially its wine-tasting nights. By the end of the month,
the store had achieved its one-month goal of 100 wine club members and set franchise records for
the fastest store opening and the fastest to enroll 100 wine club members. Her experience in
customer satisfaction played a large role in making her store only one of a very few WineStyles
that received a perfect score in their first secret shopper survey. “It is so much fun,” she says. “
We have customers and friends who make our wine-tasting nights part of their weekly schedules."
WineStyles also suggests food pairings for the different types of wine, which may have
spurred Stubblefield’s second entrepreneurial urge – to open a restaurant.
“I just love food, wonderfully prepared, imaginative food,” she says. So, she opened Landon’s
Restaurant, a few doors down from her wine shop.
“It just made so much sense, and again, I love going there, having a great meal and seeing so
many wonderful friends,” she says. “Brunch is just the best.”
Now that she’s left the corporate world for that of entrepreneurship, Stubblefield is
building an empire. She is a joint venture partner in Paradies-Atlanta LLC, an affiliate company of
The Paradies Shops, an airport and specialty retailer doing business across the United States and
Canada.
Paradies-Atlanta LLC recently submitted a proposal, which must be approved by the mayor and
Atlanta City Council, for retail opportunities at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport.
Some of the store concepts proposed include the New York Times Books & News, Brighton
Collectibles, the Georgia Aquarium and Brooks Brothers.
“We are very proud and extremely excited to have been recommended for 13 stores, as a part of
the wonderful transformation that is on the horizon for this gateway to the world,” she says.
Stubblefield is happy with her decision to spread her own wings. “ Simply put, there is a lot
of do. Everyone knows that starting your business is a lot of work,” she says. “But in reality,
starting your business is a whole heck of a lot of never ending things to do. You just have to know
when to stop and breath and what things really have to be done today versus must sleep.”
For the woman who held several prestigious titles as Delta, she now holds several other
all-encompassing titles. As she says, she is the “chief of operations, marketing, customer service,
purchasing and inventory management, personnel, finance and accounting, community affairs and
anything else that needs to be done.”
