Latest / The Inspired Stories Podcast / Candid Leadership: How Kourtney Corcoran Speaks Truth to Power | Manufacturing Series

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Candid Leadership: How Kourtney Corcoran Speaks Truth to Power | Manufacturing Series · The Inspired Stories Podcast

0:04
Welcome to another edition of the Inspired Stories podcast,
0:08
where leaders share their experiences so we can learn from
0:11
their successes and be inspired by how they've overcome
0:14
adversity. My name is Anthony Kotaspodi and
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today's guest is Courtney Corcoran, Chief Financial
0:20
Officer at Signature Brands, a manufacturer and distributor of
0:24
dessert decorating products. With a focus on seasonal
0:27
celebrations for leading brands including Betty Crocker Pass,
0:31
Easter Egg decorating Kits, Pumpkin Masters Cake, Mate
0:36
Popcorn Expressions and Gift Pop.
0:39
They have received praise for their inventive designs, helping
0:42
home cooks and professionals alike add flair to their
0:45
culinary creations. Their mission is to bring joy
0:49
and creativity to everyday cooking experiences, offering
0:52
items that simplify meal prep while adding a touch of fun.
0:56
Courtney joined Signature Brands in September 2023 following a
1:00
successful career at companies like Highliner Foods and Legal
1:04
Seafoods. She began her professional
1:07
journey at Bradley's and has honed her expertise in strategic
1:11
finance and leadership through several senior roles.
1:15
Under her financial guidance, previous organizations have
1:18
achieved consistent growth and operational excellence.
1:22
Courtney's proven track record of supporting business
1:24
development aligns perfectly with Signature Brands commitment
1:28
to constant innovation. Her story is a testament to hard
1:31
work, passion and perseverance in the competitive consumer
1:35
products industry. Now before we get into all that
1:38
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To find out if your company qualifies, contact us today at
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AD back benefitsagency.com. All right, back to our guest
2:09
today, the CFO of Signature Brands, Courtney Corcoran.
2:13
I appreciate you making the time to Share your story today.
2:16
Happy to be here. OK.
2:19
So Courtney, you've been in the food industry for a number of
2:21
years, but that's not where you got your start.
2:24
Why don't we go back to the 11 years that you spent at
2:27
Bradley's and tell us about what that was like and what you
2:30
learned? Yeah, so Bradley's was just a
2:34
great experience. I joined Bradley's after I got
2:39
out of college. I, I actually worked their
2:42
summers when I was in college as well.
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But my first role there full time was a budget analyst and
2:51
Bradley's was just going through a lot of different things while
2:56
I was there. So when I first joined Bradley's
2:59
was actually owned by Stop and Shop and we did a spin off from
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Stop and Shop in the first year that I was there.
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And from there we were in a tremendous growth phase.
3:12
We went from having 103 stores to about 100 and 35137 stores.
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So there was a lot of growth and, and in my role as a budget
3:25
analyst, I did a lot of the analysis regarding the different
3:31
stores and you know what, what would a store look like?
3:35
You know, would there be cannibalization with our own
3:38
stores? Was there competition in the
3:41
market that we were looking at a store?
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So you know the landscape at the time, if folks remember we had
3:49
Caldor, we had Ames, we had Kmart, a lot of those locations
3:54
like Bradley's are not around anymore.
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But so those were some of the things that I would do.
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I would model out what expenses would look like in that area.
4:03
So again, a lot of growth and shortly thereafter we ended up
4:10
running into some trouble because we had a new CEO come in
4:14
and there was a new vision as to what the Bradley shopper might
4:19
enjoy. And so we changed the strategy
4:23
and went to more of a premium price product and that was not
4:28
what the the Bradley shopper liked.
4:30
They liked Missus B and Missus B always added value.
4:36
I was always a value buy for the Bradley shopper.
4:38
And so shortly after this strategy was implemented, we
4:43
actually went into Chapter 13 bankruptcy.
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And so, you know, in that role, while it was, you know, really
4:53
difficult and really challenging, I experienced so
4:58
much and so much learning because we had creditors
5:01
committees coming in and I also was able to, you know, work with
5:05
the Board of directors. I didn't mention at this time
5:08
that I had got promoted to be the manager of financial
5:12
planning and analysis. And so again, I was able to work
5:16
with the teams within the organization as well.
5:21
We came out of Chapter 11. We had another CEO who was
5:25
really driving efficiencies. We drove over $100 million out
5:31
of the company. So wait, the the Chapter 11
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happened previously? Yes.
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Before the 13 that we're talking, OK.
5:39
Exactly. Sorry I I meant Chapter 11 not
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the chapter 13, because the Chapter 11 happened before the
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chapter 13. So we came out of Chapter 11
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restructuring, new CEO, implemented all sorts of expense
5:55
reduction, had a new strategy, brought Missus B back and then
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as we all know, we had the Walmarts and the targets and the
6:07
Kohl's come into the Northeast. And so again, big challenges and
6:16
you know, we just couldn't cut our way out of this.
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And so at that point in time, we went into restructuring again.
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And at this point in time, I had been promoted to director of
6:33
FPNA, which for me at this time was, you know, a really great
6:41
accomplishment on my end. You know, I, it was only at this
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point in time, like probably six years out of college, Bradley's
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was a $1.6 billion company. And so again, you know, just a
6:57
great experience to be able to spearhead a lot of these
7:02
initiatives, work with the board of directors, work with the
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creditors committee. We did a lot in partnering with
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Caldor. Caldor was always in.
7:13
It was also in a restructuring mode.
7:17
We looked at different ways, might Bradley's merge with
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Caldor, maybe we could sell some of our locations to Kohl's.
7:28
And do you know, you know, a partial restructuring with
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Kohl's and, and at the end of the day, none of those panned
7:38
out. And so unfortunately, we ended
7:41
up going into Chapter 7 liquidation.
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I had the opportunity to be on the stay on team throughout the
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liquidation. So spent another call it 18
7:55
months there just liquidating the company.
7:58
And so for me, Bradley's was just just an amazing experience
8:06
because when I looked at what I did there, I was able to see an
8:11
IPO from Stop and Shop. I saw an amazing growth period
8:16
again from 130 to sorry, 103 to maybe 100.
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I think it was around 137 stores.
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I saw a Chapter 11, I saw her Chapter 13 and I saw her Chapter
8:31
7 liquidation. Ultimately not a great turn out
8:34
for Bradley's, but it was an amazing experience working
8:39
there, the people I met. I had an amazing mentor there,
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Judy Dunning, who taught me a lot about leadership and she was
8:50
a great again mentor to me and it was just a fabulous
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experience without a great turn out, but fabulous.
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Talk about cutting your teeth on a lot of different things.
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I mean, yeah, you got to join this huge brand, a $1.6 billion
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brand. Got to see, you know, this
9:06
incredible growth curve, an IPO while you're there.
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And then, yeah, the the landscape sort of shifted.
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The competitors were coming in, there were, you know, different
9:16
forms of bankruptcy restructuring to try to, you
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know, OK, can we kind of find our way again?
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New CEO comes in with a, a new approach.
9:24
Can we, you know, maybe try a little bit higher scale, maybe
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that'll carve out a space for US against the Walmarts and and
9:31
other competitors of the world. Ultimately didn't work, but you
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got to ride the ultimate way up and then crashing down and being
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in the finance roles that you were got to, you know, front row
9:43
seat of like, here's how we handle things when like the poop
9:47
really hits the fan. Yeah.
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And, and again, like the learnings with, you know, as I
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mentioned and I didn't get into detail on, but we had $100
9:57
million savings initiative where I was working with, you know,
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all of the store managers in these 100 and 37.
10:07
And it started to whittle down, right.
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But you know, call it like at least over 120 stores going in
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and talking about, OK, let's look at your staffing.
10:18
Let's look at this matrix. So I built a matrix and again,
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this is all new to me, but built a matrix to say, you know, where
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can we staff differently? Let's look at the hours that
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you're open. Do we need to staff the fitting
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room, you know, the entire time you're open?
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Or let's look at hours where we're busy, you know, the most
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busy. And maybe for the first two
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hours of the time that we're open, maybe the person at the
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jewelry counter can, you know, also stop the fitting room.
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Let's look at, you know, the back of the store where we're
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receiving, maybe on the receiving dock, we don't need X
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amount of people for the full time the store is open.
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Maybe we have, you know a shift where we only need one person at
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6:00 AM, etcetera, etcetera. So all those types of things.
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And through all of those initiatives, again we
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successfully cut $100 million out of our organization.
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And so it again, it was not just the stores, but looking at the
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the buyers and the the merchandising allocators and can
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we combine some of these roles and create efficiencies
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throughout the organization? And some of this you were
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spearheading yourself and I'm, am I correct in assuming that
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some of this, you know, you had some peers or, or some, you
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know, folks above you that were kind of leading you and guiding
11:53
you and sort of teaching you some of these tools?
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Absolutely. So it's a little bit of both.
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You know, when I look at some of the things, you know, we, we
12:01
think about SG and a right, so thinking about all of the
12:04
different departments within Bradley.
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So you think about OK, the finance team, supply chain, IT,
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you know, HR and benefits and all of those things.
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And as you roll them up and you look at, OK, what are we
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spending on travel and supplies and consulting and outside
12:25
services and legal fees and accounting fees and all those
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things, how do we get skinnier on those?
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So I was absolutely spearheading that myself.
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Some of these other initiatives like the one I just articulated
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to you on the stores, certainly the SVP of store Operations was
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helping me on that. But I was really trying to lead
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the effort as far as rolling things up and and building a
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matrix that essentially he could use to pull his store managers
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together and, you know, initiate the conversations and direct
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them that this is what we need them to do.
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You mentioned the some of the promotions that you were getting
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along the way and you know, you mentioned the one point you're
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just six years out of college and I forget the exact role that
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you had, but pretty impressive for somebody your age just out
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of school at a company this size to be promoted like that.
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What do you attribute that to? Why were you sort of
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experiencing this meteoric rise? So, you know, first, I would say
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that, you know, I'm, I'm definitely a workhorse and I,
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you know, very passionate about what I do, put in the time that
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it takes, you know, to get things done.
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And I would say that at that budget analyst role and, and
13:52
even maybe first, like in that manager of FB and a role, you
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know, definitely tactically make sure that, you know, my work is
14:03
polished, etcetera. But I think that the, the
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biggest thing is my ability to be candid, to be transparent, to
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put the elephant in the room on the table.
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So regardless of, you know, the number of SVPS in the room or
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board members in the room, I will speak up and say, listen,
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have we thought about this? And also I will put something
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that's unpopular on the table and and say it like it is not.
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Something that everybody wants to do.
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When you're, you know, there with all of these big wigs in
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the room, it's kind of a little bit easier just to be quiet and
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go with the flow. Huh, exactly.
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And I, and I, and I do think that I do think it, it's, it's a
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rare trait. And depending on how, how bad
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the either the news is or if, if it's a really uncomfortable
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topic, people don't, don't want to say it.
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And so that's just something I really believe has has gotten me
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to where I am today. I mean, obviously on top of the
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hard work, but I think that differentiates me as a leader.
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Why are you so much more comfortable at having the hard
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conversation? You know, part of it I think is
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something that my dad instilled in me since I was a little girl.
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He just, he was the type of person that said it like it was.
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And I think that he anytime that I did that, which was all the
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time, he was just always so proud of me.
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And I think that I always wanted to make him proud.
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And so I think that I just never, I never felt that I was
16:04
doing anything wrong by saying it like it was.
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And so it, it just again, it, it was instilled in me and, and,
16:15
and you know what? I don't even always have to be
16:17
right when I say what I feel needs to be put on the table.
16:21
I I just always have the courage to do that.
16:25
If you were to look objectively at your delivery of the heart,
16:30
the heart information, is it just in your face sort of like
16:34
just throwing it down? Have you kind of developed a, a
16:38
way to say the hard things but deliver it in a in a little bit
16:41
of a softer way? So I will say that it can be
16:46
like bam in your face. This is what needs to get said.
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I will say that over time. So listen, 20 years ago, it was
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absolutely, definitely bam in your face.
17:00
This is how it's going to be, said it it could even the the
17:05
delivery could definitely not be delivered in the right way.
17:09
As time has gone on, yes, I have learned that there's probably a
17:15
better way to deliver things, and I've worked very hard on
17:19
that. But I can't tell you that there
17:22
isn't an occasion here and there that that delivery can sometimes
17:30
still be banned. Yeah.
17:33
So you worked at Woodworkers Warehouse for about a year after
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Bradley's, and then you found your way to Highliner Foods in
17:41
2005, and you stayed in the food industry ever since.
17:45
What? What is it about the food
17:46
industry that has drawn you to it?
17:49
So I, I love it and I, I, first of all, I love food.
17:53
So I, I mean, it's something that I can understand.
17:58
I don't think that I so just to go back for a minute, when I,
18:03
when I took the job at Bradley's, I had two offers.
18:06
I had the offer to go to Bradley's or I had the offer to
18:10
go to State Street Bank. And it, it, it was just a no
18:13
brainer because I can relate to, you know, the retail and the
18:17
product and all that stuff. So as far as the food
18:22
manufacturing like CPG industry goes, it's the same thing.
18:27
Like I, I can relate to it. I love the fact that I can see
18:33
our merchandise in the store. I can, I can get the data on,
18:39
you know, what our product is doing in the market, compare it
18:45
and, and again, I love that I can like, see it, touch it like
18:48
I can. I have all our stuff in my
18:51
office and I love the innovation around it.
18:54
So, so I just love it. The other thing I like about
19:00
manufacturing, and I would say now that I know manufacturing
19:04
versus retail, I like manufacturing better is because
19:08
we're actually making the product.
19:11
And the one thing that I loved about when I first joined
19:15
Highliner, which was fishery products at 1st and then
19:19
Highliner bought fishery products was just learning about
19:25
like how we make the product and how we cost the product and the
19:29
bills and materials and just really getting into all that
19:33
stuff around like how the business works.
19:38
I love getting into all the trade programs and, and how
19:43
that's so different than retail, like we're now selling to the
19:48
retailers. And I just love all the learning
19:53
and really digging in and, and understanding how how food and
20:00
and beverage get sold because before this I was at Concord
20:05
Foods and again, that was a food product and beverage product
20:10
too. So anyway, I just love seeing
20:12
it. You just, you really enjoyed
20:14
that process of seeing, OK, here's the raw product.
20:17
How does it get processed? Where are all the cost inputs?
20:21
And how can we sort of turn the dials to, you know, maybe knock
20:24
off a cent or two, you know, here or there and, and make
20:27
ourselves more efficient. And then and then this product
20:30
ultimately ends up on the shelf. And hey, we were, we, we made
20:33
that happen. Yeah.
20:35
Now, now you got a, you got a bird's bird's eye view of that
20:38
whole process. Yeah, and I love seeing, too,
20:41
the the pride of folks in the plants when, you know, we make
20:47
product and let's just say we we got a new account, right?
20:51
Like, you know, we get Krispy Kreme and wow, you know, you can
20:56
show it in the boards in the plant and say, hey, you're a
21:00
part of making this. And it's just really exciting.
21:03
I love it. Yeah.
21:05
OK. So tell us, how did the
21:06
opportunity at Signature Brands specifically come about?
21:10
So I worked at Concord Foods before this.
21:13
I was there for four years, and I got a call from a recruiter
21:20
asking if I would be interested in, you know, this potential
21:24
opportunity. And initially, I would not have
21:29
even thought that I would have moved to the Ocala area, you
21:35
know, Central Florida. But my daughter lives in Tampa.
21:39
She went to University of Tampa for her undergrad and then she
21:43
went for her graduate at USF. And so it's an hour and a half
21:49
from her. I lived in Boston before that,
21:52
so it was a, you know, 3 hour flight.
21:55
And so, you know, now I get to see her every every weekend or
22:00
every other weekend. And so, you know, I heard about
22:05
the opportunity and it was, it was an exciting opportunity to
22:10
me. Concord, you know, we had gone
22:13
through a sale process and for the first two years we kind of
22:20
thought it was going to sell in two years.
22:22
And the first sell process didn't, didn't go through for
22:28
different reasons. And so wasn't sure if we're
22:33
going to be gearing up kind of quick enough.
22:36
And I, I just, you know, Boston, the Boston traffic, I had a 2
22:41
hour commute to work and a two hour commute home from work.
22:45
So you know what, when I got the call from the recurator, I said,
22:48
listen, I'm interested in the opportunity and it all came
22:52
together. Right, because you had kind of,
22:56
you know, as we're talking about sort of the escalation of your
22:58
career here, you had had held CFL roles at multiple stops
23:03
along the way and so you were in a pretty good place.
23:06
But yeah, new opportunity comes about.
23:09
And so you start at Signature Brands in September of 2023.
23:16
What was the first thing you notice when you walk in the
23:17
door? What's the first thing that
23:19
need? Let's do this first.
23:21
What was the first thing that you saw that needed fixed?
23:25
The projections so yes, so absolutely came in and we had
23:34
projections for 2023 that were rolling up to the, the sales
23:42
projections had been reset significantly lower than what
23:49
the budget was, but the EBITDA projections were pretty flat to
23:54
what the budget was. And very quickly I, I'm, I'm
23:59
talking within like less than a week and a half, I dug in and
24:06
it, it was crystal clear to me that there was no way that we
24:10
were going to hit our EBITDA targets.
24:13
And so again, as I described to you, I'm very, very candid,
24:22
transparent, and, you know, not afraid to put out there what
24:27
needs to get put out there. There's just no way that we're,
24:33
we're going to make these numbers.
24:35
And so, you know, the first thing that I needed to do
24:38
clearly was get the CEO on board with this.
24:43
So, you know, it's not like I'm going to go directly to the PE
24:48
team and say, Hey, you know, like time out that we're not
24:53
going to make these numbers that the CEO at the time and and he,
24:57
you know, would self profess himself to be a huge optimist.
25:05
You know, I needed to go to him and say, listen, I mean, there's
25:09
just no way that that these numbers are tracking.
25:12
And one of the things that he, he would do is and, and I'm sure
25:19
he thought that these things would happen, but he would kind
25:23
of talk to, to the other leaders in the organization and give
25:27
them, you know, targets that OK. Well, yes, you can still save,
25:33
you know, $2,000,000 in supply chain savings or you can still
25:37
save 2 million in this procurement target or whatever
25:41
it is. And it was like we're running
25:43
out of time that those things are not going to happen in Q4,
25:48
that it's just like, where are the action plans?
25:51
Where are they coming from? And so I, I finally got him on
25:56
board that OK, here's the projections I came up with and
26:01
got him on board and, and then kind of convinced him that it's
26:06
time to like set this straight with the PE firm that these
26:13
numbers are changing significantly.
26:15
And so again within. So I think I started September
26:19
26th and there was a board meeting on October the 15th.
26:24
And so. You guys were ready to deliver
26:27
that news then. I mean, this goes back to your,
26:30
your skill, your history of being able to have that hard
26:32
conversation. Right, right.
26:35
And, and so you got the CEO on board.
26:38
Actually, let's back up for a second, because it's something
26:40
I've always been curious about, especially, you know, big
26:42
organizations like this, as you, if you try to do projections and
26:45
forecasts of what your sales are going to look like.
26:48
I, I get the sense that it's part art, part science, right?
26:52
I mean, you've got relationships with retailers and you can kind
26:56
of see, you know, like the orders that they're placing.
26:58
But ultimately you do you really have a sense of, you know, what
27:02
you can expect to sell in in the coming, you know, call it 12
27:05
months. So I think from, from my
27:11
perspective, I think that we should I, I think that and I
27:19
listen, I'm not going to give you a percent of, you know,
27:23
sales leaders and do most of them like scale on the side of
27:31
over committing or under committing.
27:33
I would say that most are probably more optimistic than
27:38
than pessimistic. But I think that there is that
27:43
we should know, I mean we should know pretty well where we're
27:48
going to commit. And I think that that with that,
27:54
however, anything can happen in the year, right?
27:58
I mean, we can, we can get a customer that says, OK, you
28:03
know, I gave you a commitment for this and I'm, I'm, I'm not.
28:09
I'm pulling back. Yeah, yeah, something happened.
28:11
I I I don't need as much. But it's important to have like
28:17
lists of risks and opportunities so that you can kind of foresee.
28:23
Here's my budget and but I've got a list of I have like 20
28:30
million in opportunities and I have 15,000,000 in risk so that
28:33
you know you've got 5 million there in the bank that you can
28:40
play with so that you. Can it's kind of your buffer,
28:43
yeah. Exactly.
28:44
Yeah. So to me, that's the important
28:49
part. The other, the other thing that
28:51
is super important is to make sure that that everybody is
28:56
accountable to the numbers that they've committed.
29:00
So you have different conversations.
29:03
There's a conversation where somebody can explain away, OK, I
29:08
missed this number because like Target decided to change the
29:16
number. OK, great.
29:19
But then it's like I'm that's the end of the conversation.
29:23
That's not the end of the conversation in my mind, the end
29:26
of the conversation is OK, well, So what are you doing now?
29:32
Look at your opportunities and if we're in February and and.
29:37
Try to fill in that gap somehow. What are you doing?
29:39
Like you're still accountable to this number because we still
29:44
have to hit our sales number and more importantly our EBITDA
29:47
number, so. Can you right?
29:50
Can you sell that same inventory to somebody else?
29:52
Can you exactly and so and I and I'm not going to dismiss here I
29:57
mean I'm talking generally, but I'm not going to dismiss that
30:00
here. We are a seasonal business and
30:03
it is there is a longer lead time because we do get certain
30:08
of our businesses, our direct import.
30:11
So like our paws and our pumpkin master, most of that stuff comes
30:17
from overseas. So there's long lead times right
30:20
now we're even talking forecasts for 2026.
30:26
However, again, I mean, we need to be communicating with our
30:31
customers so that they understand like you need to get
30:35
your orders in now. And so there should be fewer
30:38
surprises. And I think that it's super
30:42
important for any company to make sure that their forecasts
30:46
are as close as possible and that they have that R&O list so
30:51
that you you have a buffer and that you're all the end of the
30:55
conversation isn't OK, well, this happened.
31:00
OK, great. We need to understand the
31:03
reasons, but OK, So what are you going to do to fill the hole?
31:08
Yeah. And like you said, it's
31:09
challenging with a seasonal business because, yeah, maybe
31:12
we're banking on selling so many pumpkin carving knives in this
31:17
season. And when you get the notice at
31:19
the last minute that, hey, we don't need as many of them, it's
31:22
not so easy to go and, you know, find somebody to take the rest
31:25
of that order. So it, it can be a little bit
31:28
more challenging when you've got seasonal products like that.
31:31
So you go back to this, this early board meeting, you know
31:35
that it's just a few weeks after you started, you've got some
31:38
hard news to deliver. How's that go?
31:40
How's it received? So it did, you know, I will say
31:44
that the, that our PE firm here is, they're very, they're,
31:50
they're very supportive in the sense that they know things
31:54
change, right? I mean, they know things change
31:57
in the market. They know that budgets are put
31:59
together, you know, however long ago.
32:03
However, we are still accountable, right, Because
32:06
we've got, we've got this structure of our debt and, and
32:10
everything else that doesn't change.
32:12
So it's not like they're not holding us accountable.
32:15
However, if we have the conversation and explain why
32:18
things changed, I, I think, I think for them though, it was,
32:24
it was just a little bit like, OK, we're in October and like
32:31
now we're finding this out. So they, you know what, they did
32:35
have some, some tough conversations and they, yeah,
32:42
they had some. They had some.
32:43
But but probably from it, Courtney, you guys came up with
32:46
better processes going forward. It's like, OK, we're going to
32:49
learn from this and we're going to make sure that we don't find
32:52
ourselves in a similar spot going forward.
32:54
Yeah. And and I think that at the end
32:56
of the day, I mean that has, excuse me, that has been their
33:03
overall commentary is just tell us.
33:09
So whatever, whatever comes up, they're they're very receptive
33:14
to whatever it is like. They just want somebody to shoot
33:18
it to them straight, which is what your specialty is, yeah.
33:22
Exactly. So it sounds like a good match,
33:24
yes. So what is it about Signature
33:26
Brands that has allowed it to be so successful in the spaces that
33:31
it operates? I mean, you're the the premier
33:33
brand in this space. What?
33:36
What are you guys doing that's that's so much better?
33:38
So I think it's, I think it is. So first it's our brands, you
33:44
know, our all of our brands are the number one brands in the
33:49
spaces that. I mean, that's just unheard of.
33:51
Yeah, Yep. And so I, I really think it's
33:55
first of all, I think it's our, our knowledge of the space that
34:01
we are in and it, it's also the, the quality of our products.
34:09
And we're always, you know, staying ahead of innovation.
34:15
So like, let's just take our sprinkles for example.
34:20
You know, we, we make all different kinds of sprinkles.
34:24
And it, it might sound like, OK, how are you innovative with
34:28
sprinkles? But we are and we have different
34:33
like fusion mixes or we just came out with this tackle box
34:38
that is just flying off the shelf.
34:41
We did these little eyeballs that are in a tackle box.
34:46
I mean we can't even stay in stock on those.
34:48
So it's, I mean it's, it's the innovation.
34:52
We have a really, really strong, you know, R&D and product
34:56
development team even on like the Paws and the Pumpkin
35:02
Masters. Again, like staying ahead of,
35:07
you know what's coming out and you know, trying to stay
35:11
competitive on a pricing standpoint.
35:15
I also think private label is also, you know, we, we, we
35:20
partner with our customers on, you know, private label if they,
35:25
if they want private label. I mean, of course we, we
35:31
definitely want to push our brands, but we also want to
35:33
partner on folks that need private label.
35:37
The last thing I would say that's a very successful are our
35:42
licenses. So we've got a Disney license
35:48
you'll see on our popcorn tins. We've got a lot of different
35:51
Disney licenses that are very successful.
35:54
And Betty Crocker is a license for our icings and our our
36:03
sprinkles and you. Know and those names those names
36:06
carry weight you know people are seeking them out you know
36:09
they've got lots of choices that they're going down the aisles
36:12
right they they see the brand that they like that they're
36:14
familiar with they're comfortable with it that's the
36:16
one they're. Going to and it is and I'll say
36:18
again, it is our product quality.
36:19
So we have, we have recently there's a, one of our biggest
36:23
competitors or, or else I'm going to say was is Wilton and
36:29
we have, we have taken them out of a lot of sets and a lot of
36:33
retailers and, and it, it, it truly is the quality of our
36:38
product, the taste of our product, you know, we, we, we're
36:42
just superior. What's what's baked into the,
36:46
the culture there that allows you guys to be to, to continue
36:51
to stay ahead of the curve, to be coming out with the, the new
36:54
thing, the the innovation. We're just, I mean, people here
36:59
just, and, and it's a, you know, when you say they're just really
37:03
passionate about, you know, what they do.
37:06
They, there's a strong sense here of family.
37:11
You know, we, we talk, I mean, our, our mission really is all
37:15
around like bringing, bringing happiness and, and joy and, you
37:24
know, celebrating, celebrating family moments.
37:29
And, you know, recently we took out the, the Word family just to
37:33
like celebrating moments and memories because it's not just
37:38
about family. It's, you know, if I want to do
37:41
something with my friends around, like having a baking
37:46
night or something like that, or, you know, we're, we're,
37:50
we're going to be getting into like using these sprinkles as
37:55
drink rimmers and things like that or, you know.
37:58
Taking a a a kids thing, making it an adult.
38:01
Thing I like that yeah or if you know if you know like pumpkin
38:06
carving if like what about if you know a bunch of men want to
38:13
like have a have a bear night and carve pumpkins and like like
38:19
have a guys night you. Know how can we make it a little
38:22
bit more masculine? Yeah.
38:23
I mean, and it doesn't, you know, we can be a couples night
38:26
or, or you can do it and have kids.
38:28
You can, you know, when people are when people are we, we jet,
38:32
we're we're coming out now with these flavored sugars and
38:37
there's like pumpkin, there's lemon, there's cinnamon sugar.
38:41
I mean, what about, you know, that when in the in the fall
38:46
when you come out with the those pumpkin beers and you know, you
38:51
can do a cinnamon sugar rim and you can hang outside while
38:54
you're handing out Halloween candy.
38:57
So there's just so many things that I'm sorry about this.
39:01
There's so many parents that are listening right now that are are
39:06
getting very excited about what they usually they previously
39:09
thought were were kids activities.
39:10
Yeah, I mean there's just so many things, you know, we've got
39:14
light up stuff. It's just there's, there's just
39:19
so much that you can do so. And I would guess that it, it's
39:23
got to be hard to some degree to, to balance sort of financial
39:28
discipline with, you know, you still got to invest in the
39:33
innovation in the R&D because, you know, coming up with
39:36
innovative products, you're going to have a lot of dogs that
39:39
never make it off the bench. You know, maybe you've got 10
39:43
dogs for everyone that you actually, you know, take to
39:45
market. And so I don't know, it is it
39:49
like is there a part of you inside that's sort of like like
39:52
stop spending so much on that? Well, we actually have a a very
39:58
thorough stage gate process where the different items will
40:03
go through the different stages and at every stage there's a
40:08
different step that can take place.
40:10
And so it's all about asking for resources, resources which.
40:16
Obviously you know time is money and so it will approve resources
40:22
based on you know ultimately what we believe the costs to be.
40:29
And then we obviously get to not too far down the road AP and L.
40:34
And so based on what those costs are that are going to go into
40:39
it, I mean, it essentially becomes a cost of the project,
40:43
right? And then it's like, does this
40:46
make sense or not? And and so to the point we were
40:49
talking about those sugars, there are different things that
40:54
we have to consider even in the production side of things on
40:58
those that that we need to look at 'cause there's there's on
41:03
some items, there's different things that go into the
41:05
production that that we need to look at production safety too.
41:13
And so it's a collaborative group of people so that we don't
41:16
miss anything in the step. And so if there's something that
41:20
would need to put into that product, it's from from my
41:24
standpoint, it's that has to go on the P&L.
41:26
So does that end up making those sugars like from a cost
41:30
standpoint, like a penny or two more?
41:33
If it if that's the case, then a penny or two more has to go into
41:37
the cost. And then you know, we talk about
41:40
pricing and then you know, let's just say and this wasn't the
41:44
case on this, but let's just say that it gets to a cost that will
41:50
result in a sell price that just doesn't make sense for the
41:53
market, then we won't do that product.
41:58
So you kind of touched on some of the the fun products that you
42:02
guys are working on, some new ideas that are coming.
42:05
And I think you, you probably wetted the whistle of a lot of
42:08
the listeners. Is there something maybe a
42:10
little bit more behind the scenes, maybe a little bit more
42:12
nerdy from a financial perspective that you're excited
42:16
to be working on and and putting in place there?
42:21
So not on the product side, yeah, yeah.
42:25
So, so one of the things that that is that is really true to
42:33
my heart is this product that I used when I was at Highliner
42:38
Foods and it was called Q for Biz.
42:42
And I don't think many people have even heard of that.
42:44
I don't know. And, and actually it became, I
42:48
think Q for Biz became this product called Prism.
42:51
And it was amazing. It, it was, I could open up my
42:54
computer every day and I could, it would, it's a, it's, you open
43:01
it up. It's four different quadrants.
43:02
So there was a finance cube, there was a sales cube, there
43:07
was an inventory cube. And so I could go in and I could
43:10
see, OK, what did sales look like?
43:13
But what are sales looking like yesterday?
43:16
What are they month to date? What are they year to date?
43:18
I could click and I could see it by skew.
43:22
I could see it by customer. I could look.
43:23
At it. Great reporting platform, it
43:25
sounds like. Yeah, I mean.
43:26
Just amazing. I can look at like the
43:28
financials, I could go in and look at inventory.
43:31
I could see is inventory aged like what's in the 12 month
43:35
bucket, what's in the 15 month bucket?
43:37
So this was just. As a CFO, you've died and gone
43:40
to hell. I.
43:41
Mean it was, yeah. I mean, it was like my world.
43:45
It was just great. And then and then and probably
43:49
most people didn't like this, but I could like call a
43:54
salesperson and say, hey, I, I'm looking at your sales month to
43:59
date and you're down versus planning last year by X.
44:04
What's going on? So we have, we've got a couple
44:09
of different systems here. We have TPM, we have a forecast.
44:12
We have all these systems that are kind of, you know, SAP feeds
44:17
into them, but they're, they're just like stand alone solutions
44:23
and they're not, they're, they're just not working that
44:26
great. Like we're not using TPM for
44:28
promotion planning. The forecasting isn't really
44:32
what the, what the sales team is using for forecasting.
44:36
It's used for something else. So we recently had someone come
44:41
in and help us with the forecasting piece and it's
44:46
feeding this other system called De facto.
44:48
And what I'm told is that within the next few months I'm going to
44:54
have something like that other environment that I use.
45:00
It's it's not going to be all the bells and whistles yet, but
45:05
it's a lot more than I have right now and I'm super excited
45:09
about it. That could be Christmas in July
45:11
for you. I hope so, Anthony.
45:15
I hope. So your your face lit up even
45:18
more than talking about the sprinkles for the adult rim
45:21
glasses there. So yes, it did.
45:25
So tell tell me about SB Gives Back.
45:28
It's an initiative central to the company's culture.
45:31
Yeah, it is. So we, we partner with the
45:39
United Way, we partner with several schools, we partner with
45:45
the Boys and Girls Club, we partner with a place there
45:49
called the Kimberly Center. We, we do a lot to give back to
45:54
the community. Marion County is, is interesting
46:00
in the sense that 90% of the people here live like almost
46:08
like at the poverty level and 10% of the people are well above
46:14
the, you know, I don't know the word I'm looking for, but
46:19
they're they. Very comfortable.
46:21
They're very comfortable yes, thank you for filling in that
46:23
blank. And so when, if, if Signature
46:28
brands been doing that for a long time and I was involved in,
46:33
in a lot of community efforts when I lived in Massachusetts.
46:38
And like one of them is involved in helping as a volunteer at DC
46:46
Department of Children's and Children and Families.
46:49
And because a lot of that is virtual, I'm I'm able to still
46:53
be part of that. But I have also now been able to
47:00
be on the board here of United Way.
47:02
And again Signature Brands, I mean again we do a lot with
47:07
United Way and one of the big programs that we sponsor here is
47:13
a program called Strong Families.
47:16
And what Strong Families does is it takes folks that are at that,
47:23
you know, 90%, you know of the community and it doesn't.
47:30
We do a program with them every year and it the folks who are
47:36
really struggling to, to get that financial stability or, you
47:43
know, they're maybe just getting off of a like rehabilitation
47:49
program or they found themselves where potentially, you know,
47:55
they're their partner has passed away and they're older and they
47:59
can't afford their home anymore. They go into this program and
48:02
it's a year program, but the first 15 weeks they actually
48:07
take classes, They have a coach and they they basically learn,
48:14
you know, resume writing skills, how to be more involved in their
48:19
children's education, you know, how to build a budget.
48:26
How do you know qualify for a mortgage?
48:31
How do you find permanent? Great life skills that really
48:35
aren't part of any school curriculum but as you, as you
48:38
rattle them off, really should be.
48:40
That that is exactly the umbrella Anthony is, is life
48:44
skills. And it is just, I, I mean, I, I,
48:49
it's so uplifting and inspirational that, that these
48:54
folks go from like self-reliance to independence like in this 15
49:00
week period. And then after they graduate,
49:03
they still go through the program for, for the next X
49:07
amount of weeks until they finish like the 52 week program.
49:11
And it's just, it's just incredible.
49:14
And when you hear their stories and you see the gratitude that
49:19
they have for the program after their lives have changed, I
49:23
mean, again, that's why we at Signature Brands, again, we
49:28
want, we want these folks to be building memories and just, you
49:33
know, be be safe and, you know, be able to live more comfortably
49:40
and get jobs and, you know, feel like they're contributing and
49:44
feel like they're, you know, giving back to their children.
49:50
That's really great. Yeah.
49:51
The the description of that really warms my heart, helping
49:54
people through difficult times and, you know, learn these
49:56
better life skills. Courtney, tell us about a
50:00
serious challenge that you've overcome.
50:02
What? What was that?
50:04
How did you get through it? Yeah.
50:05
So I, you know, while I was I, I, I actually it was when I
50:11
first started at Highliner. So I, I went through a, a pretty
50:19
challenging, difficult divorce. You know, they, they, they say
50:26
you should always, you know, make like put the children 1st.
50:33
And, you know, unfortunately that wasn't what happened.
50:38
And so it was, it was tough. I mean, it was, you know, I, I
50:45
was working at, at Highliner and as I told you, I, I, I was, I
50:52
had left Bradley's. I've been the director of FBNAI
50:55
was like rocking it in my career.
50:57
I, I, but you know, you, I'm now a single mom.
51:04
You know, I have three children and I, I, you know, it was, it
51:11
was a tough financial situation for me.
51:14
I was, I was working my ass off because I, I, I continued to
51:21
want to, you know, climb the, climb the ladder.
51:24
And, you know, there was just this like awful nonsense that I
51:30
was dealing with. And it was, it was, it was tough
51:36
and it was it, it, it went on for, for years And and listen,
51:44
I, I, it, it, it just, it was awful.
51:49
And you know, the, the way I got through it was really faith.
51:57
I have a very, very strong faith and just, I, I would say like
52:04
work as well because it, like, I knew I was good at that.
52:10
I, I always doubted like, am I being a good mother right now?
52:15
Am I, I just, but I knew I was good at work and I also knew
52:25
that I had to, I mean, I, I had to like get up everyday and,
52:29
and, and be strong and try to be like, like, as inspirational as
52:34
I could, though at the time I didn't really know I was doing
52:37
that. But I, you know, I set the
52:40
example that you know what, even like, as much as you might be
52:44
getting like beat down, like the nonsense, like you're, you're
52:51
doing good at something. And so you know what?
52:55
I, I just continued to grow in my career and I, I did the best
53:01
I could trying to like get through the financial struggles.
53:06
And again, just all the, I'll just continue to call it
53:11
nonsense. And, and I, I survived and I, I
53:18
did amazing in my career and I got through that struggle.
53:27
When you're going through tough emotional challenges like that,
53:29
yeah, having things that can not only serve as a distraction,
53:34
like work, right, but also help to prop up your sense of
53:40
confidence and yourself worth while you're dealing with, you
53:43
know, just a, a cyclone of other things over here that may have
53:47
you questioning everything that you're doing and are you being
53:50
effective? And, and, and you also mentioned
53:53
faith being a big part of that. How, how were you able to lean
53:57
on your faith during this time? How was that helpful to you?
53:59
Yeah, and, and I, and during that time, like, but my, my
54:03
father, who I mentioned was, I would like, he was my, I mean,
54:08
I'm his daddy's girl and the whole thing, he passed away
54:12
suddenly like. And so, but again, my faith, I
54:18
just, I, I have a very, very strong faith.
54:22
I, when it comes right down to it, I can talk about work.
54:27
Yeah, I can talk about, you know, trying to be like
54:30
inspiration for my children. I can talk about all that.
54:33
But at the end of the day, like my faith is what got me through
54:38
it because I, I, I knew every day that like God was there for
54:47
me and like, he was going to like watch over me and whatever
54:53
I was going through was like his path.
54:57
And that there was a reason why this was happening and that
55:01
someday I would know what that reason was and that he would
55:06
help me get through it. And He did.
55:09
Looking back now, do you see any bits of purpose to what you went
55:13
through? I do.
55:15
I really do. I, I mean, I, I, my daughter
55:21
especially she, I mean, tells me all the time what an inspiration
55:27
I am to her. And she wrote me when she was in
55:32
maybe 10th grade, the most beautiful, beautiful poem that I
55:39
could, could have ever received. And I see, I see me in her and
55:50
there there's so many other things that I that I, I.
55:53
Mean you were a living role model for your kids during that
55:56
time of how to be tough and resilient when life is just
56:01
coming down at your heart. Yeah, yeah.
56:05
Whether from that experience or just something that maybe you've
56:09
done before or since, are there any daily habits that help keep
56:15
you on track, help keep you centered?
56:17
Yes. So the I mean it's it's
56:21
definitely working out I and so I work out, I try to work out
56:30
every day and not every day. Let me back up every work day.
56:37
And so I recently got a new puppy and so that gives brings
56:44
me to three dogs, which is absolutely ridiculous.
56:46
I never thought in a million years that I'd have three dogs,
56:50
But so typically I go and I jump on the treadmill for like 45
56:55
minutes and then I take this class called GT3.
57:00
But now that I have the new puppy, because I'm at work all
57:03
day, I'd like to make sure that, you know, she gets a chance to
57:07
like run around in the morning and the whole thing.
57:09
So I'm now getting up at like 3:00 in the morning so that she
57:16
can run around for an hour. And then I head to the gym and
57:21
do the, you know, 45 to an hour on the treadmill and then I do
57:25
the class and then I go back home to get ready, so.
57:29
What time do you go to bed? I So that's a fair question.
57:34
Literally typically asleep by 7/30 8:00 at night.
57:38
OK, Yeah, well, you live down in Florida now.
57:43
You're you're, you're certainly not retired, but you're at least
57:46
you're, you're awake and sleep schedule, you're getting a
57:48
little bit more on track with that.
57:50
When, when you eventually get there, probably probably going
57:52
to start doing dinner at, you know, 3:00 or 4:00 PM, huh?
57:56
Yes, and I I mean different from my commute in the Boston area
58:02
it, it takes me 15 minutes to get home, 15 minutes to get to
58:07
work, so. So you still feel like you got a
58:09
bunch of extra time on your hands.
58:10
It's just a complete, it's a, it's a life changer.
58:14
It, it really, really is. Yeah.
58:19
Courtney, every successful team has a A you know a successful
58:22
company has a great team behind them.
58:25
Finding good folks holding on to good folks can be a challenge.
58:29
What have you tried and found success with when it comes to
58:33
retaining and recruiting good people?
58:35
So first I will say my team here is phenomenal.
58:42
They, they, I mean, you need something done and, and done
58:48
accurately and thorough. They're, they're tremendous.
58:52
But I think that that the way to motivate people and, you know,
58:59
keep them happy is really number one, good communication.
59:06
So making sure that they understand what the expectations
59:10
are and, and just keeping them informed, not just at a level of
59:17
knowing what's needed in, in their area, but also what's
59:25
going on, you know, at the company as a whole, but also
59:30
empowering people to do their job.
59:33
So not micromanaging, but but giving them the responsibility
59:40
that that they deserve, you know, at whatever level they're
59:45
at in the company. No, Courtney, if you had to
59:50
recommend a book or a podcast, a course, something that's been
59:55
really helpful or instructive for you that might be beneficial
59:59
to our listeners, what would that be?
1:00:00
Yeah. And this, this sounds really, I,
1:00:04
I feel like it sounds a little bit outdated and, but I would
1:00:10
say the five dysfunctions of a team, I, I think that has been
1:00:15
for me, very powerful in my career.
1:00:20
One of the things that it's, it's super important is high
1:00:28
performing teams. And if, if you don't have one, I
1:00:33
mean at the senior level and then as you trickle down, you
1:00:38
need to have one because it makes, it just makes a night and
1:00:43
day difference as to how the company operates, how successful
1:00:47
you can be as a company. We, we rolled that out when I
1:00:52
was at Highliner, best team that I ever best team that I ever
1:00:58
worked on the, the COO, there was Peter Brown, best leader
1:01:05
that I've ever worked with. And we did a lot of work around
1:01:10
that book and, and ultimately, once we got the senior level to
1:01:18
that high performing team standard, we rolled it down
1:01:22
throughout the organization. I changed the entire culture.
1:01:26
It was it, it was fascinating. And I became really passionate
1:01:31
about high performing teams. And so it, it really, I think
1:01:35
changed me as a leader as well. One little nugget from that book
1:01:39
that you can share. It's it's trust.
1:01:42
It's really building trust with the, it's the, it's the first,
1:01:48
it's, it's the first notch on the pyramid.
1:01:53
It's making sure that you build trust with the organization
1:01:57
because without trust, you can't even get to the next level.
1:02:01
You can't have candid conversations.
1:02:04
You can't, you can't provide feedback necessarily to your
1:02:10
other like members of a leadership team or the team that
1:02:14
you're on because then people get defensive, you hurt their
1:02:18
feelings, different things like that.
1:02:20
So. Courtney, I just have one more
1:02:24
question for you. But before I ask it, I want to
1:02:26
do 2 things. First of all, I'm going to
1:02:27
invite all of our listeners to hit the follow or subscribe
1:02:30
button on their favorite podcast app so you can continue to get
1:02:32
great shows like today, Courtney.
1:02:35
I also want to let people know the best way either to get in
1:02:38
touch with you personally or to continue following your story or
1:02:41
that of Signature Brands. Would that be?
1:02:44
Yep. So to get in touch with me would
1:02:47
be on LinkedIn. That's where I am, that's where
1:02:51
I post things, etcetera, etcetera.
1:02:54
And signature brands, you can go to signaturebrands.com.
1:03:00
That's where all of our information is.
1:03:04
You can also, we also have a pause and Pumpkin master.
1:03:10
You can find those on Instagram and also our we have a
1:03:18
decorating channel too on TikTok.
1:03:24
OK. I'll see if my producer can find
1:03:26
all of those social media handles and include them in the
1:03:29
show notes. So last question for you,
1:03:31
Courtney, as you're looking to the future, what is the thing
1:03:35
that you're most excited about there at Signature Brands?
1:03:38
So we've got some innovation going on on the in our popcorn
1:03:45
world. So we are looking to expand
1:03:49
beyond just our 21 and 18 oz tins that you see right now on
1:03:59
around the holidays. We're looking to get into
1:04:04
potentially some bagged popcorn and some of the little boxes.
1:04:12
So you I think that that will help us to expand greatly on our
1:04:20
popcorn side of things. So look for those at the holiday
1:04:26
time. OK, this holiday we're, we're
1:04:28
recording this at the end of February 2025 S maybe October,
1:04:32
November this year, huh? Yep.
1:04:34
OK, fun stuff. Well, Courtney, I want to be the
1:04:36
first one to thank you for sharing both your time and your
1:04:38
story with us today. I really appreciate it.
1:04:41
I had a great time. Thanks for having me on the
1:04:43
podcast, Anthony. Folks, that's a wrap on another
1:04:46
episode of the Inspired Stories podcast.
1:04:48
Thanks for learning with us today.