Business View Magazine - November 2016

36 Business View Magazine - November 2016 Cariloha Bamboo Softer than cotton, stronger than steel Sandy, Utah, a suburb of Salt Lake City, may be far away from the sun-drenched beaches of Hawaii, Mex- ico, and the Caribbean, yet the island lifestyle has al- ways been on the mind, and in the heart, of Jeff Peder- sen, President and CEO of two retail companies under the PW Companies banner: Del Sol and Cariloha. With more than 20 years of vacationing and working in and around the cruise ship ports of the Yucatan Peninsula, the Mexican Riviera, the Bahamas, and the Hawaiian Islands, Pedersen had become enamored with their cultures and steeped in their beachfront shopping ex- periences. For many years, he owned and operated Del Sol, a retail clothing and accessories company, which was originally established in 1994, and today has over 150 stores in 26 different countries. “In Del Sol, ev- erything changes color in the sun,” Pedersen explains. “You might have a T-shirt that says, St. Maarten, or St. Thomas, or Nassau, or the Bahamas on it, and when you go out in the sun, all the colors come out. It’s a type of organic, photochromic technology that we de-