July 7, 2023 • 42 mins
Cheryl Krueger knows cookies. Starting from scratch in 1981 with a single cookie store, Cheryl grew her company into a $50 million corporation. But she also knows compassion and leadership. Cheryl has always divided her time between running her company and giving back. Serving on countless non-profits, Cheryl raises money and has started initiatives for the military, public schools, food banks and Appalachian families in need. She still serves on dozens of boards, chairs numerous committees and leads discussions and lectures on women-focused leadership across the U.S. today.
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Columbus and Central Ohio have a richhistory of companies being headquartered here, everything
from technology, manufacturing, retail,insurance, and more. But what about
the leaders behind these companies? Whatmakes them tick? How did they get
their start? This is where youget to meet the captain of the ship.
Welcome does CEOs You Should Know,an iHeartMedia Columbus podcast. Welcome back
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to another episode of CEOs You ShouldKnow. This is an iHeartMedia Columbus podcast.
I'm your host, Brandon Boxer,and today we've got a couple of
very special guests. One I'm justgoing to call her out right now and
say she's pretty iconic. I haveto say, very very iconic. It's
interesting to see how she started.And you're going to hear more on this
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story and just a little bit.But you know the name Cheryl Krueger,
she knows cookies. She of coursefounded and started Cheryl's Cookies back in nineteen
eighty one with a single cookie store. She grew her first company to a
fifty million dollar corporation, then soldit, then reinvented herself and started a
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whole new line called c. Kruger'sFinest Bake Goods. And we have with
us not only the Cheryl Krueger welcome, by the way to the podcast.
Thank you, thank you for havingme. Of course this is a real
treat, a real pleasure. Butwe also have the CEO and Chairman of
the board, Mark Foltman, who'swith us of the new company's c k
R C Kruger's Finest bake Goods.Good morning, Mark, good morning,
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Good to have you with us.Well, look, I know you're both
going to jump in. You bothhave some incredible things obviously you're doing at
your current company. But Cheryl,if we could, could we go back,
because people love to hear this story, and if you don't know it,
you're gonna love to hear it.How the original company started? What
was why Cookies? First of all, well, I was going to raising
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a farm in northern Ohio and mygrandmother came in to live with us when
I was about six years old,because my grandfather had passed away, and
so she came in and we'd mesays, she'd meet me at the end
of the driveway with my sister andget off the school bus and we'd always
get to go back to the kitchenand have a cookie and one cookie and
glass of milk after school and nothingelse to spoil our supper as he called
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it, and h So then whathappened was she said, well she I've
struck that and peeling potatoes or helpingher get the meal ready for fall or
for dinner for supper, I guessis what we used to call it.
Um. She said, okay,you can make some cookies now. And
of course I ate half the batterafter I wanted to the detail because the
batter as the best part, Ithought. But I just started making it.
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And as we grew as a communityout there, we made more and
more platters of cookies for people forChristmas, and and I just started and
I just it was kind of kindof relief for me, almost to bake.
I came home from college and bakesome cookies up and I could get
away, like an escape a therapist. It's just taken it. It's fun
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to put things together and make somethingnew and it tastes good. That's even
better, but absolutely, And soit did a lot of baking. And
then went down to Florida after Igraduated from college and went to work for
for Dynes as a buyer down there, and everybody said, uh, I
would started making cookies and uh forpeople. I brought up a cooies or
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plate a cooies for someone's birthday andum, and people said, she,
you should start selling these. He'sreally good. And I never thought about
it, but I thought, Idon't know, we'll see and uh.
So the meantime, I got recruitedto tribe the Limited to come back to
Columbus. So I was born andraised in northern Ohio, but it came
back to Columbus and uh and soI thought that would be interesting. It
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was great to see my family again. And and because when I lived in
Florida and I just didn't have,you know, a new college kid paying
my student loan off yet so UMdidn't have didn't have the ability to um,
you know, to see my parentsvery often. So it was nice
to see them. And then uh, then I was watching with Mississippi.
In the back of my head keptthinking about selling the cookies. But there
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was david s Coookies on the eastcoast and miss Fields on the west coast,
right, and those were the twomajor brands at the time. And
um, I thought, well,there's somebody in the Midwest doing it,
and I went to so I thought, well, let me check this out
and exporting to see for the heckof it. Because I was traveling.
I was traveling all over the worldwhere I was with it Limited, and
I couldn't keep that up forever.Because I lived in Columbus at that point
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in time for about six years andnever been in downtown Columbus. I knew
how to get to from my apartmentto the airport and to back to the
headquarters of the Limited. And thatwas the sounds about right, I hear.
So then, um, so Istarted paying attention what. I went
to meet David Leederman, who hasDavid Schookies, and nobody ever heard of
David Leederman in Columbus, Ohio.I mean, it was just it was
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more of a very East Coast brand. And we end up going to um
end up going to talk to him, and he wanted to This is nineteen
eighty nineteen eighty now I remember itwas he wanted his fascinating He wanted a
quarter million dollars for the use ofhis name. I thought, what would
I paid quarter million dollars if Ididn't have to begin with? So it
was yeah, that would I paidquarter million dollars, a name that no
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one knows. It's crazy. Andplus he's gonna sell it as the dough,
but it was gonna be cookie.Had to retail a much higher price
because I've cover his fees. Yea. So said, well, if he
could do it, I could doit. And that's how it started.
I started out, and then mycollege roommate I brought her on board,
and then UM surely there afterwards,my brother about four months into it,
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the guy that we had to helpme make our dough, we do it.
We're gonna egg shells and the cookies. It just he it wasn't It
was just not good. So mybrother is really mechanically minded and very gifted
when it comes to um doing runningan operation like that. Yeah. Yeah,
And so we brought him on andso he and I were still together
to this day. And then anotherventure. So UM our first store was
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at French Market and and if weand this was interesting because we two to
make the recipe from a store respeech to a big recipe, make a
big batter to mix fix to gointo art into our mixers. I found
oubt that it didn't didn't convert,and I thought, oh my gosh,
this is terrible. And we madeit probably like eight or nine batches,
and nothing was. It wasn't spreadout the way they should have spread out.
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I could not get a bank tofinance the start up with the business,
so I took it out of mylimited stock and it just to use
the money to start company out ofmy bank account. I was working my
job, full time job with thelimited and I went to mister Rexter and
I said, do you mind ifI do this on the side. He
said, what you do in yourown time is your own business. So
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I said, okay, So aslong as it doesn't affect your performance here,
he said that's fine. So Isaid, okay, I'm gonna go
for it. And it was twentynine at the time, and started at
with a store at the French Market. But now we had the store,
we're ready to go, We're readyto have a grand opening, and we
had a celebration and when you knowit, all of a sudden and um,
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they made the first batch kies cameout of the oven. And I
wasn't there. I was it wasa New York and a buying trip for
the limit at the time. Ohmy goodness. And so they Carol kept
saying it. I said, howdo we do today because I was anxious
to hear how we did, andshe said we did nothing. To me
doing nothing, and she said thecookies aren't converting. And I thought we'd
worked that problem out. But Icame home. I was a buying trip,
came home and talked to the doctor, talked to um or. It
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was a doctor as a cookie.We come a cookie doctor, a chef
here in town. He said,there's a problem and it was a scale.
The scale that we were using wasnot um appropriate to may bake bakers
with. It was more for fruitsand vegetables and bulky things. So we
got a digital scale and and workedon how to convert it and they came
out great, but that was afterwe had made like ten batches. So
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Middle How Food Bank loved the mistake. Unfortunately, you know, I wasn't
happy about it. But so wewere supposed to open up on and September
first. We opened up on thisSeptember twenty third, and it was our
first star. I had planned atthe planned to sales plan by day,
bye week, by month, byyear. First day was to do four
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hundred. We did four d twodollars. So um, so that was
it was exciting and it's really there. Yeah, and the rest is history.
I'm curious that conversation with Wexter itdid when you told him about what
you wanted to do, that youwanted to basically open a cookie store.
What was his reaction to that part? I think surprising if he said,
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well, I said, he saidwhy cookies? And I told me,
I farment and I like to doit. I still love to bake cookies,
so I mean I bake him nowwhen I came him to my neighbors,
just because this is it's the therapyof it all. Yeah. I
think he recognized the entrepreneur entrepreneurial spiritthat either you have it or you don't,
and and I had it, andI said, I'm not competing against
the brand, and if I doanything to hurt the business, I will
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stop the business immediately. But Ifelt I could do it. So for
the next three years eighty one througheighty four, I worked at My schedule
was I'd go get up at sevenand then get a catch a seven o'clock
flight to New York on Monday morningand work all weekend as in a show
them called chouse sportswear that sold blousesand we're ready to wear products two women
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all over the country. And thenI would work there till Friday. I
get playing home, remember the fightT tw A one flight one fifty one
at Lagarti to Columbus. It wasusually about seven eight o'clock on Friday night,
get home, get to bed,get up next morning, and I'd
relieve Carol, who was working atstort during the week, so she gets
to two days off. So Fridayand say Sarady and Sunday I worked at
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the store, and then and workedwith my brother Brian raw materials and that
type of thing. Yeah, andthen went back to work Monday morning.
Sure, how many hours a weekbetween both jobs were you working just out
of curiosity? Well, I wasgoing about four to six hours sleep at
night. The rest time was work, So it was it was a lot
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bet. But it's if you're gonnaif you're gonna work at something, you've
got to work at it as muchas what it demands, what it takes,
until you get it right or andpeople kind of like, well,
if if it's it's close enough andit's no, yeah, it's gonna be
right. Cheryl Krueger is with us, the original founder she started up Chryls
Cookies eventually would sell that and nowon to see Krueger's Findest Baked Goods.
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And along with Mark Voltman, who'sthe CEO and chairman of the board for
CEA Krueger's Finest Baked Goods there withus on CEOs you should know and I
Hurt Media Columbus podcast. Uh andMark, I'm gonna get you in just
a sec here because somewhere somewhere alongthe road you realize this is a big
hit. How long from start,you know, launching, did you realize,
(10:48):
well this, I've got something here, this is gonna be a hit
with my original company. Um,it was interesting. We were the first
Creek Company and United States to briefyou online for the Internet. That was
in nineteen ninety five. Wow,and we had uh there are people were
charging ridiculous amount of money to doa web on internet website and it was
um and I said, we can'tafford it. I mean, we just
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couldn't afford It. Just happens thatmy assistant had a daughter was going to
Harvard and she met she majored inin uh computer sciences. There you go.
So she and uh so, hername is Natalie. Natalie came in
and said, I can fix second, give you a website to release some
of your calls. We had peoplewe were that those days. We just
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had a catalog. Yeah, thefirst cookie company had a catalog, and
then we had the Internet, andso we had sometimes sometimes like seventy to
eighty calls on hold, and wejust had the people with phone equipment anything.
They just caught us soft guard.That was the early days of e
commerce, the very birth, thebeginning too exactly right. But the one
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we really thought I hit it bigwas when that our company hit it big
was when we went to an airlineshow and we got we've got five million
dollars with an airline business with andthat show and that's what we knew we
had it was it was, itwas it more more than just out of
in Ohio and added more to acrossthe United States. One of my favorite
stories about the business is that wehad this company and we made these cookies
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and they were, um, youknow, they thought they were were great.
And so a lady walks into thestore at our store in Cleveland at
the time and said she wanted tocookie to Tinna Cookies and so we said
great, and uh we asked soI alway asked our customers, did you
want to write the message and putit in a continuer and you want us
to write a message for you?And she said she was in a hurry.
Her name was Cheryl, and soshe ended up getting um. She
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ended up getting Tina Cookies put toher name on the card and U we
re wrote it out for her message, and her message was thank you for
saving my ass, Cheryl. Sowhat happened was and and our job is
not to edit what the customer says, This is to do what they say.
Okay, we did and it turnedout that it turned out that she'd
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ran to ten order a guy namedTim, and she worked with this project.
And Tim decided to open the cleysin front of the whole office because
she thought it was share with everybody. It's like half a dozen people.
I guess. He opened it upand he read it out loud, and
instead of thank you for saving myass, she investage, thank you for
shaving my ass. Wow. Iwas not expecting that. And so Tim's
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looked at her like, am Imissing something here? But she was so
mad. Oh my god, shewas so she was she was really bad.
And she had riked to me.Yeah, she had spent you know,
money on a gift to that around. And we made it a laughing
fool out of her almost and soand so after I put my phone on
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mute for a while. To mypoint, and I one thing I've learned
in over the years in the business, one of the best things I learned
is that the customers not his fora second or thirty You've got to take
care of your custom and so,yeah, and no one wants likes the
compromtation, but I said, we'vegot to do the right thing here.
So and I and I and IMichael always keep it. May convert a
customer to keep a customer, becauseyou know, if you if you're just
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on a treadmill and taking bring newcustomers in, but losing as many as
you're taken in, you you're nowhere. You're like a rat in a wheel.
You just go on the same spot. So you got it. So
I didn't want to lose her asa customer, So I called her up
and I said, sure, Itook her call. I I'm so sorry
for our mistake. I just comeright out of the gate and admitted it.
I wasn't going to try to justifyWell, our you know, you
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were in a hurry. Our stabwas in a hurry to serve you.
That's enough. So we ended upgetting getting her to um to and she
to talk. She's first, shewas in here to talk to me,
and I said, I would likethe time opportunity to earn your business back
again and our credibility back again.She said, well, I'll never do
that. She said, I willnever use your brand again. And she
was very mean and very not means. She was upset, Yeah, and
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rightfully so. Yeah, So wetook in UM So. I told a
team, I said, this wasa twenty dollar transaction. I knew.
We sent on a hundred dollar giftstotificate to her and how do I guess
her to Tim, so you cansee what we were doing. Did a
letter in writing to our customer immediatelyfollowing UM the phone call, and sent
a feder X so you got nextday here so that the gifts atificate and
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and UM my letter the next dayand so so to Tim. So it
gave me me a big gear gourmetbasket full of our goods or ten and
brownies and all the things that we'vemade made then and put that in the
basket and showed it next day orboth of them. So it was probably
about four hundred dollars and our costsfor a twenty dollars or ten. And
I see if I wanted to killme, but I said no, just
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watch this. Watched the track itand so we tracked that customers what she
purchased were and sent to Tim andsent one to her Tim or Tim had
called the next day and called himand talking me and he said, are
you the one that's Cheryl's the nameof the cookies And I said yeah.
He said, I want to tellyou something. He said, your trust
man short was the best I've everseen. He said, any when it
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comes around at Christmas time, wewant to use you as as our vendor.
Excuse me. And I said that'dbe great. We'd love to be
We'd love to show you what wecould capable of doing. And he said,
I can't believe how you handle thisservice. He said, this is
the best I've ever had. Andwhen someone makes a mistake, this is
impressive. But the better, thebest. The news of all was Cheryl
call me or um and Cheryl,who bought the cookies, called me and
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she apologized for behavior and I said, no, no apologies necessary. I
said, what you did was absolutelyyou know when we embarrassed you, and
that's not what our goal is.Our goal is to help make sure that
you get you know, that youwalk out of here feeling really good about
the purchase you made, and it'sgoing to end its reflection of you to
your recipient. And she said,well, I'll be a customer forever.
She said, this is great turnedout. And that was back in the
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summer, in the fall. Thenat Christmas time we started. We do
a lot of business, are alot most of our businesses done in the
fourth quarter. I've always wondered thatokay, yeah, it's not even closed.
And what happened was is that umit's Tim called Jim called in his
company places a fifty five hundred dollarsorder. So for five thy five hundred
dollars was it worth for for threefifty four hundred dollars to get to get
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it right? Absolutely? Absolutely so. And I said a customers would call
us, they're disappointing our behavior,disappointed in a performance if you know the
UPS truck runs over it, Itdoesn't matter. They make the check out
to us, they pay us,they don't make it out to anybody else.
So we have to own it,even though it may not be our
issue. So um, so it'sit was. It was apropically learning lesson
for our team and UM and Idid the customers as long as you give
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it in the mind of the customersa priority. Yeah, Cheryl, we
do tons of these podcasts and Ialways try to take something away from everyone,
every leader that we have in here. But right there, that is
an incredible story about how you canfix something, you can own it and
turn it around and then get theirbusiness back. That's something you could teach
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somewhere at a business school. That'san incredible I appreciate you sharing that.
Yeah, customer service is critical andas one as those departments that so very
I was overlooked in many companies.Yeah, no, I would agree.
And I was um talking to aprofessor here a while back, and he
said, you can ays tell thediscrete accord of a business, the soul
of the business by walking around andthe employees, so they have their plaques
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that they are there. Um.Any type of swag that they have may
have gotten hanging around on their wallor in their office or on their desk,
or their awards probably displayed. Saidif if there's if they're in sight,
then people are proud to work withthe business. If they're not in
sight, then people are reluctant.I've never it's like a job about that
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before, never thought about that.When did you walk through offices and look
at the situations, look at lookat what they have. Any company awards
that they may have won, theydisplayed in the on the walls. So,
Sheryl, there was a point wheresuccess was good. You did an
amazing job at building up this thiscookie empire, but you were eventually approached
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to sell the company. Yeah,how that came about is that Hallmark UM
was an owner of a part itwas a sharehold of our company. Um.
They got it. They saw aship at birthday tend to somebody that
worked in the Hallmark organization and oneof the vice president of Marcized didn't happened
to work past the ten is said, where you get that from? And
so they loved it so much theyflew out to check our operation out.
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And they've been looking for an operationto like us to do gifts for their
stores for the holidays, Like we'dship a bunch of cookies to the Hallmark
store, Mayde some just for hardheart cutouts, and they'd sell them for
dis Valentine's Day. Then Easter eggswere Easter and red white blue for summer,
and then of course pumpkins were fallingChristmas shapes for Christmas. So um
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and and so they've got you gotthat to consider. Then what happened was
UM this was they were shareholds forabout three years, and then it happened
is that UM franchise ease if ourowners there's a parent company that there's franchises
after beneath the ranks. Anyway,they had UM they decided that they were
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going to buy from other companies besidesHallmark. The Hallmark stories that were going
to happy about it. So weended up we had to buy cell agreement
and so we bought our percentage back. Well, then that got out in
the marketplace. So then one eighthund of Flowers called us up. That's
worth so and so they thought itwas a good preemptive move to get us
(20:33):
off the markets for the they wantedus, and we did we're really interested
in selling. We had thought aboutit. I guess at some point you
know you're going to but we didn'treally thought about it. We just processed
the building and m one thing ledto another, and we got a com
phone call from one eight hundred Flowersthat said that they wanted to come out
and look at our operation. AndI said, how did you hear about
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us? And they said, youknow, their direct competitors with Hallmark,
and so Hallmark Um. Hallmark couldn'thandle it, couldn't. They were trying
to shore up their own franchises becausethey had lost some of them, some
of the volume out of the stores, so that and so they wanted to
regroup and look at their strategic plan. My hunter came in and they made
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us an offer was a low ball, and over the next six months then
we finally agreed that we agreed upouta price and sold the company to them.
And we really were in the movie. We really really didn't want to,
but we thought it was a goodtime. The timing was right,
and the comedy was in a goodshape, and the offer was a fair
offer. So you had had thecompany at this point for well over what
(21:44):
two decades, yeah, two thousandand five from two five okay, yeah,
two thousand and five, yeah,so almost twenty five years. Yeah,
yeah, was it was? Itsad to see it go. I
mean, I've always wondered this whenwhen you say goodbye, just something that
you started, literally from scratch,how did it feel inside of you?
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Wouldn't well, it's it's melancholie.You know, your part of me is
really happy, but the other partyis really sad. And um, and
it was it was a dream ofmine to have this cookie company and started
out it was just just going tobe a way to get me not to
travel as much, did a jobwhere I could just be more in the
Columbus and um, as it turnedout, it turned it out i'd be
(22:26):
a lot more than that. That'swhen I sold the company, I felt
like I felt like there was alarge sum of money. So UM,
I said, why don't this isn'tright for I me to have all this
because without the people I worked withme, we wouldn't have had anything.
When when we came to sell thecompany and divide everything up, people have
been there five years or more gotmy year's worth. They got paid generously.
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Wow and um, because five years, which show they were dedicated to
the company and helped me the companygo. And so we had it.
Took over a million dollars of mymoney to divie it up amongst the few
people that got it, and theywere so excited. Some people when someone
comes up to you and says,thank you for letting me have this.
You know, if or give methis gift, because I know I can
put it down payment of my house, or I can I can buy a
(23:11):
car, or I can send mykids of college. And so it made
me feel that that was a goodpart of it. It was really I
felt really great about that well.And and if you're listening to this conversation
with Cheryl Krueger, who you knowstarted Cheryl's Cookies, eventually as we're talking
about sold it, would you know, reinvent herself a few years later and
(23:32):
start see Krueger's Finest baked goods.Cheryl, you truly are one of the
most generous people I've ever met.You don't know this, but I'm going
to tell you now. I havedone charitable functions like Boxer Boo Bash that
benefit it's you know, the JamesCancer a Hospital, and and you have
donated product time and time again tothat. I mean, You've done lots
(23:55):
of things for me. I've alwayscome by and want to see you,
but you're you're not there, butthey probably think, who's this stalker guy?
You know? But but I can'tthank you enough. This city,
this area, that dare I say, this entire state, we are really
lucky to have you. So thankyou. Thank you. That's very kind
(24:15):
of you to say to who muchhas given, much is expected. So
and I live by that. Soit's important that that I'm glad that you
picked up on that because absolutely,And now that I find out you grew
up on a farm, I grewup on a farm, I get it.
Now the connection it's there, Yeah, I get it. That's a
special sauce of people right there.That's right. Well look, let of
(24:38):
course, well let's let's jump forwardhere to so you sell the company and
eventually and this is where I'm curiouswhere Mark Voltman comes in. Who's the
CEO and chairman of the board forSea Krueger's Find a Spake Goods. How
did you guys connect? How didthat happen? I called there's a gentleman
in a church. Um always agood place, always a good place start.
(25:00):
And I knew him through another personintroduced us and um and Sam Coons
is this guy's name, And Isaid, I needed a really good person
in finance because that's my weak area. And I said, to really help
us put complex deals together. Andhe said, I've got just a guy
for you. So we had breakfastand one thing lent to another. And
(25:22):
Mark's been a godsend to the company, help us grow and get through to
the COVID was a tough time toget through and uh so, but Mark
helped us from maneuver through that andso he gets a lot of the credit
for for that. And he's beenUm he had golf courses on beforehand,
and I think now it's uh he'sproud, a proud leader of our company
(25:44):
and we're excited to have him onboard. So Mark, were you there
from the very beginning then of ofc Krugers. Um. Sam is the
guy who introduced us, is abusiness partner and friend of mine. UM
and Um he thought, um,we'd be good together. As it turns
out we are. UM. I'mhonored to have her as a partner.
(26:07):
Um And and I came on thescene February of twenty. The Sea Kregers
brand was launched at the in thethird quarter of eighteen, so it had
it had already um gone through itsinitial um formation and bringing the management team
(26:29):
together and and and its initial youknow, facing all the initial startup issues,
um and and um and so Ididn't have to do any of that.
So Mark, how difficult was it? Was it difficult at all to
go from well, you owned golfcourses? Is that right before? Okay?
So what was it like to gofrom that and the other things you
(26:52):
did to overseeing bake goods. Um. My background first career was was banking
in private equity. Um uh.When I when I left that, I
started an investment company and we uh, you know, we've done things that
because of you know, things likebin Laden dropping the trade towers. Um.
(27:14):
We found ourselves in distressed businesses andwe found out that we were pretty
good at it. So that youknow, the c. Kruger's brand had
the usual startup issues and a coupleof hiccups and whatnot, and then COVID
hit and and there were some thingsto fix. Yeah. Um. So
UM, I found myself because ofa friend who I will probably you know,
(27:38):
blame this on for life. Ifound myself at the helm of a
company that needed some of the skillsthat I had learned in the golf industry
and in other industries. Yeah,and the rest is history. Mark Voltman
is with us, who's the CEOand chairman of the board for CEA.
Krueger's Finest Baked Goods. And ofcourse we have the founder of the company,
(28:00):
Cheryl Kruger's with us too. Cheryl. If I could go back to
you for sec you you sell yourold company and did you just get bored?
What what made you decide to goback into it again? Um?
Well, I still did. It'snot only because um it's a fair offer,
but also because my dad had cancer. I had lost to friends to
cancer, so and I wanted togive I really wanted to work on trying
(28:23):
to help raise my for cancer researchbecause thinking, you know who won't help
my father who died of cancer orother family members, but it will help
hopefully there are children. So Igot a couple of generations of researched in
there. So, um so weI decided to, um, you know,
take a sabbatical and and go tohelp fundraising, which is great because
(28:47):
I got to meet a lot ofpeople in the community that I would have
otherwise had a chance to meet,and had a lot of good conversations about
it and learned a lot about thiscommunity and the people here who're they're so
giving. I mean, you canhave successful fundraisers only your audience is going
to give. And this audience hasbeen very generous here in Columbus, Ohio
to us. So. UM,that's how I'm started. So see Krueger's
(29:07):
at this point here we are twentytwenty three. How is how is the
business doing? Oh, I'm excitedfor its future. UM. We've the
management team. I will tell youwe have one of the finest management teams
I've ever seen. They are terrificfolk and really UM. Starting from our
(29:29):
chief operating officer, UM, who'sthe former president of Cheryl's. UM,
We're we We've got just cascading downfrom him. We have a terrific team
in every area of the company.And our salesforce has been trained to give
fabulous customer service that that measures upto the quality of the product. UM.
(29:49):
And you know the whole packaging thingthat started with your first company,
and you've you've brought that to theyour your new company as well, that
that seems to be very iconic forwhatever the reason, people just remember that
packaging. Yeah, it's interesting.I think it's um because you know,
you have to be you have tounderstand your customer and we talked to our
(30:11):
customers a lot and we engaged themso UM. But I think that um,
it's coming from the merchandising background thatit came from. That was that
was seemed like people would buy thesecookies in a bag and put them in
a bag, and so we cando with them, is that we're going
to go find a box to putthem in now or a tend to put
them in and ship them off.So well, we could do that and
(30:32):
so the only tricky part of thatis sometimes the minimums are really high for
a pattern you want to get startedwith. But um, so we would
buy some stock patterns and then seehow they worked, and that worked really
well. So they kind of weremorphed our way into that. We're getting
me the first first and so manyfirst cookie company in America to go through
and start putting contents and get differentor cookies and different tents and different raps
(30:56):
that were seasonal and we decided tokeep the focus on season now the person
and the events in people's lives likebirthday, baby and so on. I
like a second but um, yeah, then since he says the customers,
and we approached the customer, there'sso she's so time poor right now.
Customers about eighty five percent female,and and they're working to usually two jobs
and being a mom and then tryingto just like dads are trying to be
(31:18):
a dad, and so it's it'shard. And so if we can make
it easy for him and and they'rehappy with it, then so be it.
Point time time poor. There's there'sa word our phrase I haven't heard
in a while. That's so true. Though, I wanted to encourage all
the men that are listening. Yeah, hey, just because it's eighty five
percent, when the guys step up, come on, I've been there.
I've been there, and your storyis on where I live at northeast side
(31:41):
of town, reynolds Burg No AlbanyRoad. So you can go right in
there and buy goodies there or onlinetoo. Yeah, absolutely absolutely, And
you don't have to wait and orfind a parking lot or probably a parking
spot and just pulling in yeah,come on in. I like that,
Cheryl, if I could get morepersonal with you. It wasn't too long
ago that you went public with yourbattle with Parkinson's. Yes, Um,
(32:06):
before that happened, though, howdid how does one know? Like?
How did what? What tipped youoff that you should start going to the
doctor? How long ago? Oh? Gosh, I was diagnosed with it
almost ten years ago? Okay?But um, but I didn't believe the
diagnosis. I thought, that's that'scrazy. I don't have Parkinsons. And
(32:27):
so the doctor at this so Ohiostate he said, yeah, I think
you do. And I I said, well, what what? Why do
you think that? And I noticedthat I was signing customer service letters,
that my handwriting was not as goodas it was before. Okay, that
was going on with my muscles hereabout that. Maybe I just carpal tunnel
and it didn't hurt, but nonethelessit was still um frustrating and um.
(32:50):
So I were continuing to work,and my aunt had I started. My
aunt started a tremoringe when she wassixty years old, and my dad's oldest
sister and my grandmother. She wasshe liked to be almost a hundred and
she had, but I noticed herhand right handed head tremors as well,
So I thought, well, there'sinteresting. It's just hand tremors. And
so that's I thought, that's whatI thought I had. So it wasn't
(33:14):
a chill. About five years agothat I really realized that I saw other
parts of I was falling down ortripping out my own feet and that's not
picking up my feet. Um,and so I thought, what's what's happening
here? I went back and itwas definitely Parkinson's at that point in time.
And uh, now I've learned thatthere's different types of Parkinsons, there
(33:34):
are different grades of it, Ishould say. So, um, you
know I threw that I'm blessed I'vegot a mild case of it, but
nonetheless I do have it. Andum, the partist thing is walking without
some kind of man mechanical device tohang on to keep my balance. But
um, I'm being treated really wellby the hospital here in town now and
(33:55):
the with with Parkinson's. I'm learningfrom my point of view, I'm learning
that it affects everybody differently. Soand so he really need to get a
good doctor who understands that so theycan tweak your the combination of medicines that
they give you cure to cure thedisease. I never thought about that.
Sure, sure, may I askwhere where you're being treated? For those
(34:17):
that might be listening that have aloved one. Yeah, Actually Jenny Reagan
gets credit for this. She recommendedthat I go. I'd gone to doctors
in Cleveland Clinic and um, Boston, but I just didn't feel comfortable.
Boston would have been great. Thedoctors were great there, but with Partison's
you've got to go to see thedoctor a regular basis, and being in
(34:38):
Boss's she didn't work. And Iwas really frustrated as far as what to
do next. And Jenny as afriend, and she said she wanted me
to try a doctor or Riverside inthe Newer area. So I went to
Riverside and met doctor Hinkle, DavidHinkle, and he's he's terrific. He's
doing a great job of helping meto um my head. My hand isn't
(35:01):
really trem very much. Might nowum, which is good? Um,
so how long it lasts? Andbecause some days you have to wake up
we have a great day, andthe other days to wake up and you're
just terrible. You're a key allover and and I call the doctors when
it happened. I said, what, I didn't do anything differently, and
they said, that's just the disease. It's a nature of the disease.
Sure, I know you've also partneredwith the Michael J. Fox Foundation.
(35:23):
Yes, that's huge, that ishuge, and um it's it's it's a
really wonderful partnership effect um um markup is get involved with that. And
it's been a very really good it'sbeen a good, good arrangement all the
way around. And I think wecan help raise money for Parkinson's. It's
Parkinson's. It's not as it's I. It's a disease, but about it
(35:45):
and it affects about a million peoplein the United States. It's six million
people worldwide. And they made alot of progress on it, and there's
there's there's some hope. Its onthe horizon. But so every day I
lived to be longer, it liveslonger, there's day get closer. Good
maybe a cure before or before mytime is up. Absolutely, But yeah,
(36:05):
it's been it's been a really goodknowledge. It's a good experience it
because I'll tell you you don't.You don't think you look around and you
say it'll happen to them, Itdoesn't. It's not going to happen to
me, and it does. Andthe reality of it is is that you've
got to you've got to think aboutUM. In my case, I was
concerned about the leadership of the company, and so that's the way Mark came
in because he could he has astrategic point of view but also a tactical
(36:29):
point of view. Yeah. Yeah, so so Mark, you were you
were instrumental with getting this partnership togetherwith a Michael J. Fox Foundation.
You help kind of we decided,um that you know, every corporations that
exist only to make a profit,UM, I mean job one is to
obviously make a return for your shahoulders, but you've got to have a cause.
(36:50):
I mean, you've got to havesomething other than just making cookies.
UM. As the reason for gettingup in the morning, and and our
our matriarch, um, you know, is fighting this this awful disease.
UM. And we we looked atthe Michael J. Fox, We looked
at a bunch of Parkinson's foundations,UM, and the Michael J. Fox
(37:10):
Foundation Head and Shoulders is the creamof that crop UM and and they're they're
they're so innovative in how they approachit. For example, they're the only
to my knowledge, not they're speaking, but my knowledge, they're the only
UM mental health research foundation that tooktheir their database, all of their research
(37:37):
data, and they made it anopen platform so that every other mental disease
research facility in the world could tapinto their pool of data to augment their
own because the bigger the sample size, the more information you have, the
faster you get to clarity. Andand they were we were invited to their
(37:59):
MVP weekend in New York. AndI'm I'm rambling a little bit here,
but we were invited to the MVPweekend in New York and got to hear
some of the other research entities thatwere benefiting from this open platform setup that
the Michael J. Fox Foundation hasso long way around the barn. Yeah,
fabulous group of people, really energized. No, I have not met
(38:22):
Michael yet, but he came outwith a documentary that is playing on Apple
TV right now that you will spendhalf the movie crying and half the movie
laughing your head off because it's it'sjust him talking about his journey through Parkinson's,
(38:44):
which is very similar to Chryl's.Yeah, well, Mark and Cheryl
especially hearing you know your story,your story of success, you know the
American dream. You've given so muchto so many other people for those listening,
and as actually more myself because Ialso have family members through my ancestry
(39:05):
who have had parkinson So, uh, it's it's in my family as as
well. How can how can wehelp you? How can we help you
with this? What? What canwhat can I do? Well? We
UM as part of our partnership withthe Michael J. Fox Foundation, we
we and if our website, whichif there are any web makers out there
(39:27):
that want to work for free,UM we needed we're upgrading website UM.
If our website could handle it,our entire product line would be UM on
a portion of proceeds campaign for theFoundation. UM. It can't, so
we had to create a specific productline UM to that that we could run
the portion of proceeds campaign through UM. And so if you go to our
(39:52):
website see Krugers dot com UM,and you UM go to the Michael J.
Fox found Tion tab UM and I'msure my folks back in the office
are going. No, that's nothow you navigate to it, but you'll
find it. We'll find um,there will be a list of there'll be
a whole group of products there andUM fifteen percent of the proceeds of every
(40:15):
sale go to the Foundation for FutureResearch in UH to kill this disease.
I like that. Oh, Sekruegersdot com. That's where it starts.
That's where it starts. All right, Hey, before we wrap up,
Cheryl and Mark, what's what's thefuture look like for Sea Kruegers as far
as products go? Is there anythingyou can wet our appetite or things that
(40:38):
might be rolling out new products downthe road? Well, we try to
roll out new products seasonally. Um. Last Christmas we had some really great
hits with with new cookie flavors.We are a cookie and brownie company right
now, Well, we're a giftingcompany that does cookies and brownings, um
and and we've won twelve of nationalawards for the packaging that you referenced earlier.
(41:02):
And I would be remiss if Ididn't give a shout out to Jason
Kraus at the House of Krause,who's a partner of ours, that is,
and he's our head of creative sookay, that packaging is for him.
So in terms of what's coming inthe future, UM, we're going
to grow out our cookie and browniebusiness, our gifting business, and then
hopefully we'll add new product types tothat as we grow. Well, guys,
(41:29):
as we wrap up. First ofall, I want to say thank
you for your time, Cheryl.Pleasure to finally have a sit down with
you and do this interview. AndMark, nice to meet you as well.
Hey, let's um, if youthink of an event down the road
where that you know benefits Parkinson's ofthe Michael J. Fox Foundation. Uh,
let's swap contact info and I'd loveto be part of it in some
(41:50):
way. Seriously, away, I'dbe awesome. Well, look, Cheryl
Krueger and Mark Foltman, thank youso much for your time. We'd be
in this week's guest on CEOs youShould Know. Thank you for having us
better, pleasure to meet you.CEOs You Should Know is hosted and produced
by Brandon Boxer, a production ofiHeartMedia Columbus
Columbus and Central Ohio have a richhistory of companies being headquartered here, everything
from technology, manufacturing, retail,insurance, and more. But what about
the leaders behind these companies? Whatmakes them tick? How did they get
their start? This is where youget to meet the captain of the ship.
Welcome does CEOs You Should Know,an iHeartMedia Columbus podcast. Welcome back
(00:20):
to another episode of CEOs You ShouldKnow. This is an iHeartMedia Columbus podcast.
I'm your host, Brandon Boxer,and today we've got a couple of
very special guests. One I'm justgoing to call her out right now and
say she's pretty iconic. I haveto say, very very iconic. It's
interesting to see how she started.And you're going to hear more on this
(00:42):
story and just a little bit.But you know the name Cheryl Krueger,
she knows cookies. She of coursefounded and started Cheryl's Cookies back in nineteen
eighty one with a single cookie store. She grew her first company to a
fifty million dollar corporation, then soldit, then reinvented herself and started a
(01:03):
whole new line called c. Kruger'sFinest Bake Goods. And we have with
us not only the Cheryl Krueger welcome, by the way to the podcast.
Thank you, thank you for havingme. Of course this is a real
treat, a real pleasure. Butwe also have the CEO and Chairman of
the board, Mark Foltman, who'swith us of the new company's c k
R C Kruger's Finest bake Goods.Good morning, Mark, good morning,
(01:25):
Good to have you with us.Well, look, I know you're both
going to jump in. You bothhave some incredible things obviously you're doing at
your current company. But Cheryl,if we could, could we go back,
because people love to hear this story, and if you don't know it,
you're gonna love to hear it.How the original company started? What
was why Cookies? First of all, well, I was going to raising
(01:48):
a farm in northern Ohio and mygrandmother came in to live with us when
I was about six years old,because my grandfather had passed away, and
so she came in and we'd mesays, she'd meet me at the end
of the driveway with my sister andget off the school bus and we'd always
get to go back to the kitchenand have a cookie and one cookie and
glass of milk after school and nothingelse to spoil our supper as he called
(02:12):
it, and h So then whathappened was she said, well she I've
struck that and peeling potatoes or helpingher get the meal ready for fall or
for dinner for supper, I guessis what we used to call it.
Um. She said, okay,you can make some cookies now. And
of course I ate half the batterafter I wanted to the detail because the
batter as the best part, Ithought. But I just started making it.
(02:34):
And as we grew as a communityout there, we made more and
more platters of cookies for people forChristmas, and and I just started and
I just it was kind of kindof relief for me, almost to bake.
I came home from college and bakesome cookies up and I could get
away, like an escape a therapist. It's just taken it. It's fun
(02:55):
to put things together and make somethingnew and it tastes good. That's even
better, but absolutely, And soit did a lot of baking. And
then went down to Florida after Igraduated from college and went to work for
for Dynes as a buyer down there, and everybody said, uh, I
would started making cookies and uh forpeople. I brought up a cooies or
(03:15):
plate a cooies for someone's birthday andum, and people said, she,
you should start selling these. He'sreally good. And I never thought about
it, but I thought, Idon't know, we'll see and uh.
So the meantime, I got recruitedto tribe the Limited to come back to
Columbus. So I was born andraised in northern Ohio, but it came
back to Columbus and uh and soI thought that would be interesting. It
(03:37):
was great to see my family again. And and because when I lived in
Florida and I just didn't have,you know, a new college kid paying
my student loan off yet so UMdidn't have didn't have the ability to um,
you know, to see my parentsvery often. So it was nice
to see them. And then uh, then I was watching with Mississippi.
In the back of my head keptthinking about selling the cookies. But there
(04:00):
was david s Coookies on the eastcoast and miss Fields on the west coast,
right, and those were the twomajor brands at the time. And
um, I thought, well,there's somebody in the Midwest doing it,
and I went to so I thought, well, let me check this out
and exporting to see for the heckof it. Because I was traveling.
I was traveling all over the worldwhere I was with it Limited, and
I couldn't keep that up forever.Because I lived in Columbus at that point
(04:21):
in time for about six years andnever been in downtown Columbus. I knew
how to get to from my apartmentto the airport and to back to the
headquarters of the Limited. And thatwas the sounds about right, I hear.
So then, um, so Istarted paying attention what. I went
to meet David Leederman, who hasDavid Schookies, and nobody ever heard of
David Leederman in Columbus, Ohio.I mean, it was just it was
(04:43):
more of a very East Coast brand. And we end up going to um
end up going to talk to him, and he wanted to This is nineteen
eighty nineteen eighty now I remember itwas he wanted his fascinating He wanted a
quarter million dollars for the use ofhis name. I thought, what would
I paid quarter million dollars if Ididn't have to begin with? So it
was yeah, that would I paidquarter million dollars, a name that no
(05:06):
one knows. It's crazy. Andplus he's gonna sell it as the dough,
but it was gonna be cookie.Had to retail a much higher price
because I've cover his fees. Yea. So said, well, if he
could do it, I could doit. And that's how it started.
I started out, and then mycollege roommate I brought her on board,
and then UM surely there afterwards,my brother about four months into it,
(05:30):
the guy that we had to helpme make our dough, we do it.
We're gonna egg shells and the cookies. It just he it wasn't It
was just not good. So mybrother is really mechanically minded and very gifted
when it comes to um doing runningan operation like that. Yeah. Yeah,
And so we brought him on andso he and I were still together
to this day. And then anotherventure. So UM our first store was
(05:56):
at French Market and and if weand this was interesting because we two to
make the recipe from a store respeech to a big recipe, make a
big batter to mix fix to gointo art into our mixers. I found
oubt that it didn't didn't convert,and I thought, oh my gosh,
this is terrible. And we madeit probably like eight or nine batches,
and nothing was. It wasn't spreadout the way they should have spread out.
(06:18):
I could not get a bank tofinance the start up with the business,
so I took it out of mylimited stock and it just to use
the money to start company out ofmy bank account. I was working my
job, full time job with thelimited and I went to mister Rexter and
I said, do you mind ifI do this on the side. He
said, what you do in yourown time is your own business. So
(06:39):
I said, okay, So aslong as it doesn't affect your performance here,
he said that's fine. So Isaid, okay, I'm gonna go
for it. And it was twentynine at the time, and started at
with a store at the French Market. But now we had the store,
we're ready to go, We're readyto have a grand opening, and we
had a celebration and when you knowit, all of a sudden and um,
(07:00):
they made the first batch kies cameout of the oven. And I
wasn't there. I was it wasa New York and a buying trip for
the limit at the time. Ohmy goodness. And so they Carol kept
saying it. I said, howdo we do today because I was anxious
to hear how we did, andshe said we did nothing. To me
doing nothing, and she said thecookies aren't converting. And I thought we'd
worked that problem out. But Icame home. I was a buying trip,
came home and talked to the doctor, talked to um or. It
(07:25):
was a doctor as a cookie.We come a cookie doctor, a chef
here in town. He said,there's a problem and it was a scale.
The scale that we were using wasnot um appropriate to may bake bakers
with. It was more for fruitsand vegetables and bulky things. So we
got a digital scale and and workedon how to convert it and they came
out great, but that was afterwe had made like ten batches. So
(07:46):
Middle How Food Bank loved the mistake. Unfortunately, you know, I wasn't
happy about it. But so wewere supposed to open up on and September
first. We opened up on thisSeptember twenty third, and it was our
first star. I had planned atthe planned to sales plan by day,
bye week, by month, byyear. First day was to do four
(08:07):
hundred. We did four d twodollars. So um, so that was
it was exciting and it's really there. Yeah, and the rest is history.
I'm curious that conversation with Wexter itdid when you told him about what
you wanted to do, that youwanted to basically open a cookie store.
What was his reaction to that part? I think surprising if he said,
(08:33):
well, I said, he saidwhy cookies? And I told me,
I farment and I like to doit. I still love to bake cookies,
so I mean I bake him nowwhen I came him to my neighbors,
just because this is it's the therapyof it all. Yeah. I
think he recognized the entrepreneur entrepreneurial spiritthat either you have it or you don't,
and and I had it, andI said, I'm not competing against
the brand, and if I doanything to hurt the business, I will
(08:56):
stop the business immediately. But Ifelt I could do it. So for
the next three years eighty one througheighty four, I worked at My schedule
was I'd go get up at sevenand then get a catch a seven o'clock
flight to New York on Monday morningand work all weekend as in a show
them called chouse sportswear that sold blousesand we're ready to wear products two women
(09:18):
all over the country. And thenI would work there till Friday. I
get playing home, remember the fightT tw A one flight one fifty one
at Lagarti to Columbus. It wasusually about seven eight o'clock on Friday night,
get home, get to bed,get up next morning, and I'd
relieve Carol, who was working atstort during the week, so she gets
to two days off. So Fridayand say Sarady and Sunday I worked at
(09:39):
the store, and then and workedwith my brother Brian raw materials and that
type of thing. Yeah, andthen went back to work Monday morning.
Sure, how many hours a weekbetween both jobs were you working just out
of curiosity? Well, I wasgoing about four to six hours sleep at
night. The rest time was work, So it was it was a lot
(10:01):
bet. But it's if you're gonnaif you're gonna work at something, you've
got to work at it as muchas what it demands, what it takes,
until you get it right or andpeople kind of like, well,
if if it's it's close enough andit's no, yeah, it's gonna be
right. Cheryl Krueger is with us, the original founder she started up Chryls
Cookies eventually would sell that and nowon to see Krueger's Findest Baked Goods.
(10:24):
And along with Mark Voltman, who'sthe CEO and chairman of the board for
CEA Krueger's Finest Baked Goods there withus on CEOs you should know and I
Hurt Media Columbus podcast. Uh andMark, I'm gonna get you in just
a sec here because somewhere somewhere alongthe road you realize this is a big
hit. How long from start,you know, launching, did you realize,
(10:48):
well this, I've got something here, this is gonna be a hit
with my original company. Um,it was interesting. We were the first
Creek Company and United States to briefyou online for the Internet. That was
in nineteen ninety five. Wow,and we had uh there are people were
charging ridiculous amount of money to doa web on internet website and it was
um and I said, we can'tafford it. I mean, we just
(11:09):
couldn't afford It. Just happens thatmy assistant had a daughter was going to
Harvard and she met she majored inin uh computer sciences. There you go.
So she and uh so, hername is Natalie. Natalie came in
and said, I can fix second, give you a website to release some
of your calls. We had peoplewe were that those days. We just
(11:30):
had a catalog. Yeah, thefirst cookie company had a catalog, and
then we had the Internet, andso we had sometimes sometimes like seventy to
eighty calls on hold, and wejust had the people with phone equipment anything.
They just caught us soft guard.That was the early days of e
commerce, the very birth, thebeginning too exactly right. But the one
(11:50):
we really thought I hit it bigwas when that our company hit it big
was when we went to an airlineshow and we got we've got five million
dollars with an airline business with andthat show and that's what we knew we
had it was it was, itwas it more more than just out of
in Ohio and added more to acrossthe United States. One of my favorite
stories about the business is that wehad this company and we made these cookies
(12:13):
and they were, um, youknow, they thought they were were great.
And so a lady walks into thestore at our store in Cleveland at
the time and said she wanted tocookie to Tinna Cookies and so we said
great, and uh we asked soI alway asked our customers, did you
want to write the message and putit in a continuer and you want us
to write a message for you?And she said she was in a hurry.
Her name was Cheryl, and soshe ended up getting um. She
(12:35):
ended up getting Tina Cookies put toher name on the card and U we
re wrote it out for her message, and her message was thank you for
saving my ass, Cheryl. Sowhat happened was and and our job is
not to edit what the customer says, This is to do what they say.
Okay, we did and it turnedout that it turned out that she'd
(12:58):
ran to ten order a guy namedTim, and she worked with this project.
And Tim decided to open the cleysin front of the whole office because
she thought it was share with everybody. It's like half a dozen people.
I guess. He opened it upand he read it out loud, and
instead of thank you for saving myass, she investage, thank you for
shaving my ass. Wow. Iwas not expecting that. And so Tim's
(13:26):
looked at her like, am Imissing something here? But she was so
mad. Oh my god, shewas so she was she was really bad.
And she had riked to me.Yeah, she had spent you know,
money on a gift to that around. And we made it a laughing
fool out of her almost and soand so after I put my phone on
(13:48):
mute for a while. To mypoint, and I one thing I've learned
in over the years in the business, one of the best things I learned
is that the customers not his fora second or thirty You've got to take
care of your custom and so,yeah, and no one wants likes the
compromtation, but I said, we'vegot to do the right thing here.
So and I and I and IMichael always keep it. May convert a
customer to keep a customer, becauseyou know, if you if you're just
(14:11):
on a treadmill and taking bring newcustomers in, but losing as many as
you're taken in, you you're nowhere. You're like a rat in a wheel.
You just go on the same spot. So you got it. So
I didn't want to lose her asa customer, So I called her up
and I said, sure, Itook her call. I I'm so sorry
for our mistake. I just comeright out of the gate and admitted it.
I wasn't going to try to justifyWell, our you know, you
(14:31):
were in a hurry. Our stabwas in a hurry to serve you.
That's enough. So we ended upgetting getting her to um to and she
to talk. She's first, shewas in here to talk to me,
and I said, I would likethe time opportunity to earn your business back
again and our credibility back again.She said, well, I'll never do
that. She said, I willnever use your brand again. And she
was very mean and very not means. She was upset, Yeah, and
(14:54):
rightfully so. Yeah, So wetook in UM So. I told a
team, I said, this wasa twenty dollar transaction. I knew.
We sent on a hundred dollar giftstotificate to her and how do I guess
her to Tim, so you cansee what we were doing. Did a
letter in writing to our customer immediatelyfollowing UM the phone call, and sent
a feder X so you got nextday here so that the gifts atificate and
(15:18):
and UM my letter the next dayand so so to Tim. So it
gave me me a big gear gourmetbasket full of our goods or ten and
brownies and all the things that we'vemade made then and put that in the
basket and showed it next day orboth of them. So it was probably
about four hundred dollars and our costsfor a twenty dollars or ten. And
I see if I wanted to killme, but I said no, just
(15:39):
watch this. Watched the track itand so we tracked that customers what she
purchased were and sent to Tim andsent one to her Tim or Tim had
called the next day and called himand talking me and he said, are
you the one that's Cheryl's the nameof the cookies And I said yeah.
He said, I want to tellyou something. He said, your trust
man short was the best I've everseen. He said, any when it
(16:02):
comes around at Christmas time, wewant to use you as as our vendor.
Excuse me. And I said that'dbe great. We'd love to be
We'd love to show you what wecould capable of doing. And he said,
I can't believe how you handle thisservice. He said, this is
the best I've ever had. Andwhen someone makes a mistake, this is
impressive. But the better, thebest. The news of all was Cheryl
call me or um and Cheryl,who bought the cookies, called me and
(16:25):
she apologized for behavior and I said, no, no apologies necessary. I
said, what you did was absolutelyyou know when we embarrassed you, and
that's not what our goal is.Our goal is to help make sure that
you get you know, that youwalk out of here feeling really good about
the purchase you made, and it'sgoing to end its reflection of you to
your recipient. And she said,well, I'll be a customer forever.
She said, this is great turnedout. And that was back in the
(16:48):
summer, in the fall. Thenat Christmas time we started. We do
a lot of business, are alot most of our businesses done in the
fourth quarter. I've always wondered thatokay, yeah, it's not even closed.
And what happened was is that umit's Tim called Jim called in his
company places a fifty five hundred dollarsorder. So for five thy five hundred
dollars was it worth for for threefifty four hundred dollars to get to get
(17:11):
it right? Absolutely? Absolutely so. And I said a customers would call
us, they're disappointing our behavior,disappointed in a performance if you know the
UPS truck runs over it, Itdoesn't matter. They make the check out
to us, they pay us,they don't make it out to anybody else.
So we have to own it,even though it may not be our
issue. So um, so it'sit was. It was apropically learning lesson
for our team and UM and Idid the customers as long as you give
(17:36):
it in the mind of the customersa priority. Yeah, Cheryl, we
do tons of these podcasts and Ialways try to take something away from everyone,
every leader that we have in here. But right there, that is
an incredible story about how you canfix something, you can own it and
turn it around and then get theirbusiness back. That's something you could teach
(17:57):
somewhere at a business school. That'san incredible I appreciate you sharing that.
Yeah, customer service is critical andas one as those departments that so very
I was overlooked in many companies.Yeah, no, I would agree.
And I was um talking to aprofessor here a while back, and he
said, you can ays tell thediscrete accord of a business, the soul
of the business by walking around andthe employees, so they have their plaques
(18:19):
that they are there. Um.Any type of swag that they have may
have gotten hanging around on their wallor in their office or on their desk,
or their awards probably displayed. Saidif if there's if they're in sight,
then people are proud to work withthe business. If they're not in
sight, then people are reluctant.I've never it's like a job about that
(18:40):
before, never thought about that.When did you walk through offices and look
at the situations, look at lookat what they have. Any company awards
that they may have won, theydisplayed in the on the walls. So,
Sheryl, there was a point wheresuccess was good. You did an
amazing job at building up this thiscookie empire, but you were eventually approached
(19:03):
to sell the company. Yeah,how that came about is that Hallmark UM
was an owner of a part itwas a sharehold of our company. Um.
They got it. They saw aship at birthday tend to somebody that
worked in the Hallmark organization and oneof the vice president of Marcized didn't happened
to work past the ten is said, where you get that from? And
so they loved it so much theyflew out to check our operation out.
(19:26):
And they've been looking for an operationto like us to do gifts for their
stores for the holidays, Like we'dship a bunch of cookies to the Hallmark
store, Mayde some just for hardheart cutouts, and they'd sell them for
dis Valentine's Day. Then Easter eggswere Easter and red white blue for summer,
and then of course pumpkins were fallingChristmas shapes for Christmas. So um
(19:48):
and and so they've got you gotthat to consider. Then what happened was
UM this was they were shareholds forabout three years, and then it happened
is that UM franchise ease if ourowners there's a parent company that there's franchises
after beneath the ranks. Anyway,they had UM they decided that they were
(20:12):
going to buy from other companies besidesHallmark. The Hallmark stories that were going
to happy about it. So weended up we had to buy cell agreement
and so we bought our percentage back. Well, then that got out in
the marketplace. So then one eighthund of Flowers called us up. That's
worth so and so they thought itwas a good preemptive move to get us
(20:33):
off the markets for the they wantedus, and we did we're really interested
in selling. We had thought aboutit. I guess at some point you
know you're going to but we didn'treally thought about it. We just processed
the building and m one thing ledto another, and we got a com
phone call from one eight hundred Flowersthat said that they wanted to come out
and look at our operation. AndI said, how did you hear about
(20:55):
us? And they said, youknow, their direct competitors with Hallmark,
and so Hallmark Um. Hallmark couldn'thandle it, couldn't. They were trying
to shore up their own franchises becausethey had lost some of them, some
of the volume out of the stores, so that and so they wanted to
regroup and look at their strategic plan. My hunter came in and they made
(21:21):
us an offer was a low ball, and over the next six months then
we finally agreed that we agreed upouta price and sold the company to them.
And we really were in the movie. We really really didn't want to,
but we thought it was a goodtime. The timing was right,
and the comedy was in a goodshape, and the offer was a fair
offer. So you had had thecompany at this point for well over what
(21:44):
two decades, yeah, two thousandand five from two five okay, yeah,
two thousand and five, yeah,so almost twenty five years. Yeah,
yeah, was it was? Itsad to see it go. I
mean, I've always wondered this whenwhen you say goodbye, just something that
you started, literally from scratch,how did it feel inside of you?
(22:04):
Wouldn't well, it's it's melancholie.You know, your part of me is
really happy, but the other partyis really sad. And um, and
it was it was a dream ofmine to have this cookie company and started
out it was just just going tobe a way to get me not to
travel as much, did a jobwhere I could just be more in the
Columbus and um, as it turnedout, it turned it out i'd be
(22:26):
a lot more than that. That'swhen I sold the company, I felt
like I felt like there was alarge sum of money. So UM,
I said, why don't this isn'tright for I me to have all this
because without the people I worked withme, we wouldn't have had anything.
When when we came to sell thecompany and divide everything up, people have
been there five years or more gotmy year's worth. They got paid generously.
(22:49):
Wow and um, because five years, which show they were dedicated to
the company and helped me the companygo. And so we had it.
Took over a million dollars of mymoney to divie it up amongst the few
people that got it, and theywere so excited. Some people when someone
comes up to you and says,thank you for letting me have this.
You know, if or give methis gift, because I know I can
put it down payment of my house, or I can I can buy a
(23:11):
car, or I can send mykids of college. And so it made
me feel that that was a goodpart of it. It was really I
felt really great about that well.And and if you're listening to this conversation
with Cheryl Krueger, who you knowstarted Cheryl's Cookies, eventually as we're talking
about sold it, would you know, reinvent herself a few years later and
(23:32):
start see Krueger's Finest baked goods.Cheryl, you truly are one of the
most generous people I've ever met.You don't know this, but I'm going
to tell you now. I havedone charitable functions like Boxer Boo Bash that
benefit it's you know, the JamesCancer a Hospital, and and you have
donated product time and time again tothat. I mean, You've done lots
(23:55):
of things for me. I've alwayscome by and want to see you,
but you're you're not there, butthey probably think, who's this stalker guy?
You know? But but I can'tthank you enough. This city,
this area, that dare I say, this entire state, we are really
lucky to have you. So thankyou. Thank you. That's very kind
(24:15):
of you to say to who muchhas given, much is expected. So
and I live by that. Soit's important that that I'm glad that you
picked up on that because absolutely,And now that I find out you grew
up on a farm, I grewup on a farm, I get it.
Now the connection it's there, Yeah, I get it. That's a
special sauce of people right there.That's right. Well look, let of
(24:38):
course, well let's let's jump forwardhere to so you sell the company and
eventually and this is where I'm curiouswhere Mark Voltman comes in. Who's the
CEO and chairman of the board forSea Krueger's Find a Spake Goods. How
did you guys connect? How didthat happen? I called there's a gentleman
in a church. Um always agood place, always a good place start.
(25:00):
And I knew him through another personintroduced us and um and Sam Coons
is this guy's name, And Isaid, I needed a really good person
in finance because that's my weak area. And I said, to really help
us put complex deals together. Andhe said, I've got just a guy
for you. So we had breakfastand one thing lent to another. And
(25:22):
Mark's been a godsend to the company, help us grow and get through to
the COVID was a tough time toget through and uh so, but Mark
helped us from maneuver through that andso he gets a lot of the credit
for for that. And he's beenUm he had golf courses on beforehand,
and I think now it's uh he'sproud, a proud leader of our company
(25:44):
and we're excited to have him onboard. So Mark, were you there
from the very beginning then of ofc Krugers. Um. Sam is the
guy who introduced us, is abusiness partner and friend of mine. UM
and Um he thought, um,we'd be good together. As it turns
out we are. UM. I'mhonored to have her as a partner.
(26:07):
Um And and I came on thescene February of twenty. The Sea Kregers
brand was launched at the in thethird quarter of eighteen, so it had
it had already um gone through itsinitial um formation and bringing the management team
(26:29):
together and and and its initial youknow, facing all the initial startup issues,
um and and um and so Ididn't have to do any of that.
So Mark, how difficult was it? Was it difficult at all to
go from well, you owned golfcourses? Is that right before? Okay?
So what was it like to gofrom that and the other things you
(26:52):
did to overseeing bake goods. Um. My background first career was was banking
in private equity. Um uh.When I when I left that, I
started an investment company and we uh, you know, we've done things that
because of you know, things likebin Laden dropping the trade towers. Um.
(27:14):
We found ourselves in distressed businesses andwe found out that we were pretty
good at it. So that youknow, the c. Kruger's brand had
the usual startup issues and a coupleof hiccups and whatnot, and then COVID
hit and and there were some thingsto fix. Yeah. Um. So
UM, I found myself because ofa friend who I will probably you know,
(27:38):
blame this on for life. Ifound myself at the helm of a
company that needed some of the skillsthat I had learned in the golf industry
and in other industries. Yeah,and the rest is history. Mark Voltman
is with us, who's the CEOand chairman of the board for CEA.
Krueger's Finest Baked Goods. And ofcourse we have the founder of the company,
(28:00):
Cheryl Kruger's with us too. Cheryl. If I could go back to
you for sec you you sell yourold company and did you just get bored?
What what made you decide to goback into it again? Um?
Well, I still did. It'snot only because um it's a fair offer,
but also because my dad had cancer. I had lost to friends to
cancer, so and I wanted togive I really wanted to work on trying
(28:23):
to help raise my for cancer researchbecause thinking, you know who won't help
my father who died of cancer orother family members, but it will help
hopefully there are children. So Igot a couple of generations of researched in
there. So, um so weI decided to, um, you know,
take a sabbatical and and go tohelp fundraising, which is great because
(28:47):
I got to meet a lot ofpeople in the community that I would have
otherwise had a chance to meet,and had a lot of good conversations about
it and learned a lot about thiscommunity and the people here who're they're so
giving. I mean, you canhave successful fundraisers only your audience is going
to give. And this audience hasbeen very generous here in Columbus, Ohio
to us. So. UM,that's how I'm started. So see Krueger's
(29:07):
at this point here we are twentytwenty three. How is how is the
business doing? Oh, I'm excitedfor its future. UM. We've the
management team. I will tell youwe have one of the finest management teams
I've ever seen. They are terrificfolk and really UM. Starting from our
(29:29):
chief operating officer, UM, who'sthe former president of Cheryl's. UM,
We're we We've got just cascading downfrom him. We have a terrific team
in every area of the company.And our salesforce has been trained to give
fabulous customer service that that measures upto the quality of the product. UM.
(29:49):
And you know the whole packaging thingthat started with your first company,
and you've you've brought that to theyour your new company as well, that
that seems to be very iconic forwhatever the reason, people just remember that
packaging. Yeah, it's interesting.I think it's um because you know,
you have to be you have tounderstand your customer and we talked to our
(30:11):
customers a lot and we engaged themso UM. But I think that um,
it's coming from the merchandising background thatit came from. That was that
was seemed like people would buy thesecookies in a bag and put them in
a bag, and so we cando with them, is that we're going
to go find a box to putthem in now or a tend to put
them in and ship them off.So well, we could do that and
(30:32):
so the only tricky part of thatis sometimes the minimums are really high for
a pattern you want to get startedwith. But um, so we would
buy some stock patterns and then seehow they worked, and that worked really
well. So they kind of weremorphed our way into that. We're getting
me the first first and so manyfirst cookie company in America to go through
and start putting contents and get differentor cookies and different tents and different raps
(30:56):
that were seasonal and we decided tokeep the focus on season now the person
and the events in people's lives likebirthday, baby and so on. I
like a second but um, yeah, then since he says the customers,
and we approached the customer, there'sso she's so time poor right now.
Customers about eighty five percent female,and and they're working to usually two jobs
and being a mom and then tryingto just like dads are trying to be
(31:18):
a dad, and so it's it'shard. And so if we can make
it easy for him and and they'rehappy with it, then so be it.
Point time time poor. There's there'sa word our phrase I haven't heard
in a while. That's so true. Though, I wanted to encourage all
the men that are listening. Yeah, hey, just because it's eighty five
percent, when the guys step up, come on, I've been there.
I've been there, and your storyis on where I live at northeast side
(31:41):
of town, reynolds Burg No AlbanyRoad. So you can go right in
there and buy goodies there or onlinetoo. Yeah, absolutely absolutely, And
you don't have to wait and orfind a parking lot or probably a parking
spot and just pulling in yeah,come on in. I like that,
Cheryl, if I could get morepersonal with you. It wasn't too long
ago that you went public with yourbattle with Parkinson's. Yes, Um,
(32:06):
before that happened, though, howdid how does one know? Like?
How did what? What tipped youoff that you should start going to the
doctor? How long ago? Oh? Gosh, I was diagnosed with it
almost ten years ago? Okay?But um, but I didn't believe the
diagnosis. I thought, that's that'scrazy. I don't have Parkinsons. And
(32:27):
so the doctor at this so Ohiostate he said, yeah, I think
you do. And I I said, well, what what? Why do
you think that? And I noticedthat I was signing customer service letters,
that my handwriting was not as goodas it was before. Okay, that
was going on with my muscles hereabout that. Maybe I just carpal tunnel
and it didn't hurt, but nonethelessit was still um frustrating and um.
(32:50):
So I were continuing to work,and my aunt had I started. My
aunt started a tremoringe when she wassixty years old, and my dad's oldest
sister and my grandmother. She wasshe liked to be almost a hundred and
she had, but I noticed herhand right handed head tremors as well,
So I thought, well, there'sinteresting. It's just hand tremors. And
so that's I thought, that's whatI thought I had. So it wasn't
(33:14):
a chill. About five years agothat I really realized that I saw other
parts of I was falling down ortripping out my own feet and that's not
picking up my feet. Um,and so I thought, what's what's happening
here? I went back and itwas definitely Parkinson's at that point in time.
And uh, now I've learned thatthere's different types of Parkinsons, there
(33:34):
are different grades of it, Ishould say. So, um, you
know I threw that I'm blessed I'vegot a mild case of it, but
nonetheless I do have it. Andum, the partist thing is walking without
some kind of man mechanical device tohang on to keep my balance. But
um, I'm being treated really wellby the hospital here in town now and
(33:55):
the with with Parkinson's. I'm learningfrom my point of view, I'm learning
that it affects everybody differently. Soand so he really need to get a
good doctor who understands that so theycan tweak your the combination of medicines that
they give you cure to cure thedisease. I never thought about that.
Sure, sure, may I askwhere where you're being treated? For those
(34:17):
that might be listening that have aloved one. Yeah, Actually Jenny Reagan
gets credit for this. She recommendedthat I go. I'd gone to doctors
in Cleveland Clinic and um, Boston, but I just didn't feel comfortable.
Boston would have been great. Thedoctors were great there, but with Partison's
you've got to go to see thedoctor a regular basis, and being in
(34:38):
Boss's she didn't work. And Iwas really frustrated as far as what to
do next. And Jenny as afriend, and she said she wanted me
to try a doctor or Riverside inthe Newer area. So I went to
Riverside and met doctor Hinkle, DavidHinkle, and he's he's terrific. He's
doing a great job of helping meto um my head. My hand isn't
(35:01):
really trem very much. Might nowum, which is good? Um,
so how long it lasts? Andbecause some days you have to wake up
we have a great day, andthe other days to wake up and you're
just terrible. You're a key allover and and I call the doctors when
it happened. I said, what, I didn't do anything differently, and
they said, that's just the disease. It's a nature of the disease.
Sure, I know you've also partneredwith the Michael J. Fox Foundation.
(35:23):
Yes, that's huge, that ishuge, and um it's it's it's a
really wonderful partnership effect um um markup is get involved with that. And
it's been a very really good it'sbeen a good, good arrangement all the
way around. And I think wecan help raise money for Parkinson's. It's
Parkinson's. It's not as it's I. It's a disease, but about it
(35:45):
and it affects about a million peoplein the United States. It's six million
people worldwide. And they made alot of progress on it, and there's
there's there's some hope. Its onthe horizon. But so every day I
lived to be longer, it liveslonger, there's day get closer. Good
maybe a cure before or before mytime is up. Absolutely, But yeah,
(36:05):
it's been it's been a really goodknowledge. It's a good experience it
because I'll tell you you don't.You don't think you look around and you
say it'll happen to them, Itdoesn't. It's not going to happen to
me, and it does. Andthe reality of it is is that you've
got to you've got to think aboutUM. In my case, I was
concerned about the leadership of the company, and so that's the way Mark came
in because he could he has astrategic point of view but also a tactical
(36:29):
point of view. Yeah. Yeah, so so Mark, you were you
were instrumental with getting this partnership togetherwith a Michael J. Fox Foundation.
You help kind of we decided,um that you know, every corporations that
exist only to make a profit,UM, I mean job one is to
obviously make a return for your shahoulders, but you've got to have a cause.
(36:50):
I mean, you've got to havesomething other than just making cookies.
UM. As the reason for gettingup in the morning, and and our
our matriarch, um, you know, is fighting this this awful disease.
UM. And we we looked atthe Michael J. Fox, We looked
at a bunch of Parkinson's foundations,UM, and the Michael J. Fox
(37:10):
Foundation Head and Shoulders is the creamof that crop UM and and they're they're
they're so innovative in how they approachit. For example, they're the only
to my knowledge, not they're speaking, but my knowledge, they're the only
UM mental health research foundation that tooktheir their database, all of their research
(37:37):
data, and they made it anopen platform so that every other mental disease
research facility in the world could tapinto their pool of data to augment their
own because the bigger the sample size, the more information you have, the
faster you get to clarity. Andand they were we were invited to their
(37:59):
MVP weekend in New York. AndI'm I'm rambling a little bit here,
but we were invited to the MVPweekend in New York and got to hear
some of the other research entities thatwere benefiting from this open platform setup that
the Michael J. Fox Foundation hasso long way around the barn. Yeah,
fabulous group of people, really energized. No, I have not met
(38:22):
Michael yet, but he came outwith a documentary that is playing on Apple
TV right now that you will spendhalf the movie crying and half the movie
laughing your head off because it's it'sjust him talking about his journey through Parkinson's,
(38:44):
which is very similar to Chryl's.Yeah, well, Mark and Cheryl
especially hearing you know your story,your story of success, you know the
American dream. You've given so muchto so many other people for those listening,
and as actually more myself because Ialso have family members through my ancestry
(39:05):
who have had parkinson So, uh, it's it's in my family as as
well. How can how can wehelp you? How can we help you
with this? What? What canwhat can I do? Well? We
UM as part of our partnership withthe Michael J. Fox Foundation, we
we and if our website, whichif there are any web makers out there
(39:27):
that want to work for free,UM we needed we're upgrading website UM.
If our website could handle it,our entire product line would be UM on
a portion of proceeds campaign for theFoundation. UM. It can't, so
we had to create a specific productline UM to that that we could run
the portion of proceeds campaign through UM. And so if you go to our
(39:52):
website see Krugers dot com UM,and you UM go to the Michael J.
Fox found Tion tab UM and I'msure my folks back in the office
are going. No, that's nothow you navigate to it, but you'll
find it. We'll find um,there will be a list of there'll be
a whole group of products there andUM fifteen percent of the proceeds of every
(40:15):
sale go to the Foundation for FutureResearch in UH to kill this disease.
I like that. Oh, Sekruegersdot com. That's where it starts.
That's where it starts. All right, Hey, before we wrap up,
Cheryl and Mark, what's what's thefuture look like for Sea Kruegers as far
as products go? Is there anythingyou can wet our appetite or things that
(40:38):
might be rolling out new products downthe road? Well, we try to
roll out new products seasonally. Um. Last Christmas we had some really great
hits with with new cookie flavors.We are a cookie and brownie company right
now, Well, we're a giftingcompany that does cookies and brownings, um
and and we've won twelve of nationalawards for the packaging that you referenced earlier.
(41:02):
And I would be remiss if Ididn't give a shout out to Jason
Kraus at the House of Krause,who's a partner of ours, that is,
and he's our head of creative sookay, that packaging is for him.
So in terms of what's coming inthe future, UM, we're going
to grow out our cookie and browniebusiness, our gifting business, and then
hopefully we'll add new product types tothat as we grow. Well, guys,
(41:29):
as we wrap up. First ofall, I want to say thank
you for your time, Cheryl.Pleasure to finally have a sit down with
you and do this interview. AndMark, nice to meet you as well.
Hey, let's um, if youthink of an event down the road
where that you know benefits Parkinson's ofthe Michael J. Fox Foundation. Uh,
let's swap contact info and I'd loveto be part of it in some
(41:50):
way. Seriously, away, I'dbe awesome. Well, look, Cheryl
Krueger and Mark Foltman, thank youso much for your time. We'd be
in this week's guest on CEOs youShould Know. Thank you for having us
better, pleasure to meet you.CEOs You Should Know is hosted and produced
by Brandon Boxer, a production ofiHeartMedia Columbus
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If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people.