August 7, 2023 • 20 mins
Joe Ennen is the CEO of SunOpta, a pioneer fueling the future of sustainable plant-based and fruit-based food and beverages. An expert in driving dynamic growth at scale, and building vibrant company culture, Ennen believes in the power of people to build a more sustainable future.
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(00:00):
This is Twin Cities CEO You ShouldKnow, powered by iHeartMedia. What's another
episode of CEOs you Should Know?And I'm here with Joe Nan from Joe
Welcome and tell me a little bitabout Snapta. Thanks Adam. You know,
Snapta is a fifty year old sustainabilityfood company. We were founded in
Canada fifty years ago this year actually, and you might really describe us as
(00:26):
one of the ogs of the sustainabilityfood movement. We produce plant based milks,
organic fruits and fruit snacks and reallyhave been a pioneer and a leader
in developing out sustainability food products.Tell me a little bit about the sustainability.
What does that mean to you?You know, for me, that
sustainability. I think one of thethings around sustainability that is often missed is
(00:52):
there's two major dimensions. One ishow you run your company and the other
is what company does. And what'sexciting about synopt is we're working both sides
of the ledger. Not only arewe doing everything we possibly can in how
we run our operation to improve thisoverall sustainability and minimize the environmental footprint we
(01:18):
have in what we do, butmost importantly about our company is the products
we produce are better for the environment. And that's the biggest distinction that we
have versus other companies is plant basedmilks are undeniably better for the environment in
water use, land use, greenhousegas emissions, They're better for the environment.
(01:44):
Organic fruits and vegetables are better forthe environment. They produce and use
significantly less pesticides and herbicides. Andso we're proud of the fact that not
only are we making great strides andefforts in how we run our operation and
adding sustainability there, but the coreof our sustainability credentials is rooted in the
(02:06):
fact that the products we make arebetter for the environment. I think we
feel good about that. But howabout the end user? Are you into
the like the packaging sustainability as well? Absolutely, you know we a large
part. We are working right nowto move all of the film that we
use so to take our organic frozenfruits. We're moving towards fully sustainable,
(02:30):
compostable, recyclable packaging. Tetrapac iswe manufacture all of our plant based milks
in Tetrapac, which is highly recyclable, and they as a company are making
major investments in improving the overall recyclabilityof those products as well. Can you
(02:50):
tell tell me a little bit aboutthe beverage part of that, because it
kind of freaks me out a littlebit. I've been walking through the store
and I see that I was snoopingon your website a little bit. The
aseptic milk packaging. Can you talka little bit about that, sure,
So, Aseptic is a fancy wordfor basically just making sure that the product
is shelf stable and sterile. Manufacturingis just a process for making product shelf
(03:15):
stable and allowing them to not berefrigerated, which again is a great sustainability
benefit because if you have a productthat has to be refrigerated, think of
the entire supply chain from trucking towarehousing, etc. And all the energy
that's being used in keeping that productcold for literally months on end. The
(03:38):
product we make our shelf stable andtherefore have a much lower environmental impact because
we're able to produce them and sellthem ambient temperature or shelf stable. And
how long can they be on theshelf. It varies by product, but
we're certainly confident in twelve months asa pretty top goal shelf life. They're
(04:00):
good past then, but you know, for conservatism, we say twelve months,
right, Yeah, So people inmy family we look at dates very
closely, I guess, so that'sgood for them. Would you say that
the sustainability is probably the biggest initiativefor you guys. You know, sustainability
really defines everything we do in termsof the products we make and how we're
(04:21):
making them. One of the thingsthat we are focused on right now is
just a significant expansion of our manufacturingfootprint for plant based milks. So we
spent all of twenty twenty one,in twenty twenty two literally doubling the manufacturing
capacity of our business. So we'vegone from roughly a capacity of four hundred
(04:44):
million dollars of revenue in the endof twenty twenty too, now we have
the capacity to produce north of eighthundred million dollars worth of products. So
huge undertaking for US, major majorcapital investment, including a green field from
the ground up plant build out inmid Lothian, Texas, which is just
(05:08):
south of Dallas Fort Worth, andthat facility was completed in record time and
something the organization is very very proudof. Wow, that's fantastic. That's
a lot of growth, no doubtabout it. What would you say your
goals are for the next five yearsor so? You know, over the
next five years, we're dedicated todoubling the size of our business. That
equates to roughly fifteen percent annual revenuegrowth. And we you know, we
(05:33):
are fortunate to be in product categorieswhere the consumers migrating. You've see in
a thirty year migration from milk froma cow to plant based milks. We
see that that trend continuing, notjust in kind of fluid dairy products,
but also in other categories. Yousee it in ice cream, you see
(05:55):
it in yogurt, You certainly seeit in creamers. And we're just excited
to bide the manufacturing capacity and capabilityto continue to give the consumer what they're
looking for. Are there other productcategories that you're involved in as well.
Yeah, we manufactured the oat milkthat goes into many of the oat milk
ice creams that you see on theshelf. Some of our product is being
(06:17):
used for oat milk yogurts. Andwe're also excited about a small but I
think great proof point project for us, which is we just entered into an
initiative to sell the byproduct from ouroat milk production to a company called seven
(06:38):
Sundays, which is producing a breakfastcereal with it, and we had a
press release on that a couple ofweeks ago. Again, certainly an exciting
up cycled project that allows us tobasically use every part of the supply chain.
I'm jumping around here a little bitbecause I hear or see something shiny
and I moved to it. Butwe talked about five your five year plan
(07:00):
a little bit, Well, howabout longer than that? You know,
longer term, we see ourselves movingfrom you know, a billion to roughly
two billion in revenue. Again,super the fortunate to be operating in product
categories that have high growth. We'rein healthy snacking category. We see huge
growth in our recent entry into theready to drink protein shake category, and
(07:27):
then core plant based milks. Wethink have you know, at least a
decade, if not a lifetime's worthof growth ahead of them. We're talking
to Joe n N, CEO ofSenapta. Tell tell me a little bit
about you. How did you arrivein this industry? What's your background?
You know, my background I've beenin the food business for thirty five years.
I've worked for many of the leadingpackaged goods companies Kelloggs, General Mills,
(07:50):
Knagra, PepsiCo. Spent seven yearson the retailer side of things working
for safe Way, and then Iwas CEO of a private equity food company
prior to joining Synapta. So mycareer really came up through traditional brand management
and innovation roles and eventually led intogeneral management, but always been in and
(08:15):
around health and wellness adam, eitherrunning health and wellness businesses like Healthy Choice
and the Kellogg Serial portfolio, orhelping transform and build businesses through innovations.
So you know, when I wasat safe Way, we more than double
the revenue of our private label healthand wellness products in seven years. So
(08:37):
that's always been a passion of mineand something that I've been very very focused
on. What is your vision formaybe the next year we'll back up.
We're again jumping all over the place, but I mean, just in the
near term, what do you whatdoes twenty twenty four look like for Synapta
growth in a word, you know, we're continuing to focus on developing new
(08:58):
customers and growing our business with existingcustomers through our core product offerings. I
mean, we again feel great thatthe categories we're participating in our on trend
and growing, and we're excited thatwe have capacity to be able to work
with our customers to grow our business. You know, many many of our
(09:20):
products that we manufacture wouldn't be brandedSynopta branded. We're a bit of the
brand behind the brand, if youwill, meaning we're the manufacturer of the
majority of the brands that you wouldsee on the shelf in terms of shelf
stable plant based milks, and wedominate the coffee shop category with probably the
(09:45):
vast majority of the products being behindthe barista being produced by us. You
may have kind of answered this already, but I'll ask it anyway. What
is what is synoptas mission? Youknow, our mission is to improve the
overall sustainability of the food chain.You know, food and food production is
(10:05):
a huge part of the global economy, and while we're not a giant company,
we absolutely believe that every little bithelps. You know, people talk
about those small steps add up,whether that's in our individual helping onless journeys,
but the same absolutely applies to sustainability. I think sometimes people are walking
(10:26):
around looking for a silver bullet,and the fact of the matter is it's
going to take billions of people makingsmall steps to make massive progress. You
guys are based here in the TwinCities in Eaton Prairie, right we are.
We are based in Eaton Prairie.Any successful company usually needs people to
help with the mission. How manypeople work for you in Minnesota? We've
(10:48):
got about one hundred and sixty peopleat our headquarters, and then we have
two manufacturing plants up in Alexandria,Minnesota with several hundred employees there as well.
What makes an Opta such a greatplace to work? Why do that
many people want to work there?You know, I think it's a couple
of things. Number one is wehave a very simple model, which our
employees have kind of played back tous, which is at an OPTA,
(11:11):
I make a difference and collectively wemake a difference. And what that means
individually day to day is we havea very empowered culture where we really believe
and we try to run the companywhere anyone at any level can make a
difference and make an impact and championchange and make change happen. And that
(11:33):
collectively what we're working on as acompany in terms of sustainability, food and
beverage products. Collectively, that makesa difference in the communities in the world
we live in. I would alsopoint to we have built a very dynamic
culture focused on what we call ourmvbs or most valued behaviors. They are
(11:58):
alive and well and incredibly modeled byour amazing team members every day. And
those are speed, entrepreneurship, customercentricity, passion, dedication, and problem
solving. One of the exciting thingsabout our company is we have a website
in a way for employees to recognizeeach other for modeling and those behaviors.
(12:22):
And last year alone, over fiftypercent of the company recognized one of their
peers for demonstrating one of those mostvalued behaviors. And you know, there's
no financial compensation that comes with that. It's just people want to recognize and
acknowledge the great teammates that they're surroundedby. What's one piece of advice that
you or is maybe something you observedas an example from somebody else that you've
(12:45):
carried into your career. In termsof a great piece of advice that I
received early in my career that hasreally defined how I run businesses and companies
is if you want to do somethingmeaningful and impactful, you have to get
outside your comfort zone and take risks. And I think so much a business
(13:07):
is focused on risk management, meaningminimizing risk and not taking risk. But
what that fails to recognize is allgreat accomplishments, all big achievements, come
from putting yourself out there a bitand taking some big risks. And while
nobody wants to take reckless risks,I certainly have throughout my career and the
(13:31):
businesses I've run, in the teamsI've built, risk taking is absolutely of
paramount importance if you want to havedisproportionately better results, If you want the
same results as everybody you're competing with, you don't necessarily have to take many
risks. But if you want tobe in the top tier, if you
(13:52):
want significantly better results than everyone elsearound you, you're going to have to
take some risks. Can give mean example of why it could be just
a little one. I mean,there's probably different sizes all the time.
Sure you know, over the lasttwenty four months I mentioned we doubled the
size of our manufacturing base. Thelevel of investment there of two hundred million
(14:13):
was actually more than our profit duringthat window. So you know, we
absolutely believed in the potential of thecategories that we're competing, in the quality
of our team, and you know, we made that investment to try to
get ahead of the curve and makesure that we have capacity available for our
customers to grow. Yeah. Onceyou expand that, there's no going back,
(14:35):
right, the facilities are bigger andall of that. So tell me
something that people the people are surprisedat of Sonapta. One of the things
that people are surprised about Synapta isjust how many different household brands were involved
in and partnered with. You know, from the world's leading coffee chain who
(14:58):
uses d it's a millions of dollarsworth of our products every year to many
many of the brands you see onthe shelf. They're surprised by the depth
and breath of our product offering.Yeah, I think my daughter will be
impressed by that because she's at thatthat particular coffee place all the time.
So that's awesome. What would youlike people to know more? You know,
(15:20):
I'd love people to know while weare in a high growth mode.
You know, we need great peopleand we're a place that people can come
and regardless of you know, kindof age or background or you know,
it's a culture where people can comein and really make an impact. And
(15:43):
you know, we had a storyof one of our research and development leaders
who said, I used to workat another large company and you know,
I would go into work and I'mnot sure if I left for a month,
anybody'd missed me. And she said, that's an opt If I'm ten
minutes late for a meeting, peopleare blowing up my phone saying where are
you? We need you? Andyou know, we try to create a
culture where everybody feels valued and everybodyfeels like they're contributing to the team.
(16:08):
And at the end of the day, isn't that what everybody wants? You
know, you want to feel likeyou're part of something, that you're valued,
and that you're contributing. How doyou do that? You have specific
things that make people feel included oris it does it just happen or you
just great people? How does thathappen? You know, part of it
is candidly out of necessity. We'renot a huge company, you know,
(16:29):
we don't have departments of fifty orone hundred people. I mean we have
small departments. You know, somedepartments are three or four people. Our
biggest department might be twenty five people. So you know, everybody needs to
be on an oar rowing the vote, and you know, we just were
not big enough where we can havepeople not contributing and candidly, you know,
(16:53):
almost every single person we hire isexcited about making an impact and feeling
valued. While speaking of impact,what is Synapta do out in the community
as far as sort of charitable actions. You know, Synapta is very involved
in the local community, both withinour plant environments as well as our headquarters.
(17:14):
There's several different areas where we're focusedon. One is hunger as a
food company, not a surprising passionpoint for many of the people in the
company, is specifically childhood hunger,and we have great volunteer teams that go
out and donate product, build mealsfor underprivileged kids, as well as environment
(17:37):
environmental and sustainability and efforts. Sowhether it's everyone in the company picking up
trash around the local communities or goingout and doing volunteer work focused on environmental
things, like planting trees in thelocal community. We try to live the
values of our products, which aresustainability and health and wellness. Anything else
(17:59):
you want able to know about Synapta, you know, whether it's part of
your mission in the community, whatever, you know. We have built a
really amazing headquarters. We built itduring COVID, so we have the opportunity
to imagine what a post COVID workenvironment might need to look like. And
we built it for collaboration, Webuilt it for innovation, and we built
(18:23):
it for sustainability, and it issixty five thousand square feet of space focused
on building community within our team aswell as driving a big innovation agenda.
One of the things that we've recentlydone is we are wrapping up the installation
(18:44):
of thirty six thousand square feet ofsolar on the roof of our building,
which will power two thirds of ourannual energy needs. Then in the summer
months like June and July here morethan ninety percent of our energy needs will
be self produced, so, youknow, really demonstrating that commitment to sustainability.
(19:04):
But through and through everything we builtwas focused on sustainability. Thirteen thousand
feet of renewable bamboo flooring, ninehundred led lights, six hundred and thirty
plants throughout the building. Just reallyfocused on living and bringing our sustainability credentials
to life. Do you have aplant watering department that seems like a lot
(19:26):
of plants, you know, someof them are outside and they get naturally
watered, But on the indoor,we have one of those living walls,
and we have a partner that comesin and make sure everything's looking great and
looking green, just like most offices. Well, Joe Enna and CEO of
Snapta, thanks for being here.Um, you made the pitch kind of
for recruitment. So I know youhave a career's page on your website,
(19:48):
which is what www dot snapta dotcom. You guys have social media accounts
as well. We do. Youknow, we've got a very active LinkedIn
that's a great place to follow what'sgoing on in the company. I think
we have we're fifteen thousand followers,and we really use that as a central
communication vehicle for us to talk aboutgreat new people joining the team, initiatives,
(20:11):
milestones, accomplishments, and if you'reever looking for a little bit of
inspiration around sustainability or what a funworking environment looks like. I'd encourage you
to follow along. Nice. Thanksso much Joe again at sunapta dot com
and thanks for being here. Thankyou Twin Cities CEO. You should know.
(20:32):
Get more in our website keyword CEO
This is Twin Cities CEO You ShouldKnow, powered by iHeartMedia. What's another
episode of CEOs you Should Know?And I'm here with Joe Nan from Joe
Welcome and tell me a little bitabout Snapta. Thanks Adam. You know,
Snapta is a fifty year old sustainabilityfood company. We were founded in
Canada fifty years ago this year actually, and you might really describe us as
(00:26):
one of the ogs of the sustainabilityfood movement. We produce plant based milks,
organic fruits and fruit snacks and reallyhave been a pioneer and a leader
in developing out sustainability food products.Tell me a little bit about the sustainability.
What does that mean to you?You know, for me, that
sustainability. I think one of thethings around sustainability that is often missed is
(00:52):
there's two major dimensions. One ishow you run your company and the other
is what company does. And what'sexciting about synopt is we're working both sides
of the ledger. Not only arewe doing everything we possibly can in how
we run our operation to improve thisoverall sustainability and minimize the environmental footprint we
(01:18):
have in what we do, butmost importantly about our company is the products
we produce are better for the environment. And that's the biggest distinction that we
have versus other companies is plant basedmilks are undeniably better for the environment in
water use, land use, greenhousegas emissions, They're better for the environment.
(01:44):
Organic fruits and vegetables are better forthe environment. They produce and use
significantly less pesticides and herbicides. Andso we're proud of the fact that not
only are we making great strides andefforts in how we run our operation and
adding sustainability there, but the coreof our sustainability credentials is rooted in the
(02:06):
fact that the products we make arebetter for the environment. I think we
feel good about that. But howabout the end user? Are you into
the like the packaging sustainability as well? Absolutely, you know we a large
part. We are working right nowto move all of the film that we
use so to take our organic frozenfruits. We're moving towards fully sustainable,
(02:30):
compostable, recyclable packaging. Tetrapac iswe manufacture all of our plant based milks
in Tetrapac, which is highly recyclable, and they as a company are making
major investments in improving the overall recyclabilityof those products as well. Can you
(02:50):
tell tell me a little bit aboutthe beverage part of that, because it
kind of freaks me out a littlebit. I've been walking through the store
and I see that I was snoopingon your website a little bit. The
aseptic milk packaging. Can you talka little bit about that, sure,
So, Aseptic is a fancy wordfor basically just making sure that the product
is shelf stable and sterile. Manufacturingis just a process for making product shelf
(03:15):
stable and allowing them to not berefrigerated, which again is a great sustainability
benefit because if you have a productthat has to be refrigerated, think of
the entire supply chain from trucking towarehousing, etc. And all the energy
that's being used in keeping that productcold for literally months on end. The
(03:38):
product we make our shelf stable andtherefore have a much lower environmental impact because
we're able to produce them and sellthem ambient temperature or shelf stable. And
how long can they be on theshelf. It varies by product, but
we're certainly confident in twelve months asa pretty top goal shelf life. They're
(04:00):
good past then, but you know, for conservatism, we say twelve months,
right, Yeah, So people inmy family we look at dates very
closely, I guess, so that'sgood for them. Would you say that
the sustainability is probably the biggest initiativefor you guys. You know, sustainability
really defines everything we do in termsof the products we make and how we're
(04:21):
making them. One of the thingsthat we are focused on right now is
just a significant expansion of our manufacturingfootprint for plant based milks. So we
spent all of twenty twenty one,in twenty twenty two literally doubling the manufacturing
capacity of our business. So we'vegone from roughly a capacity of four hundred
(04:44):
million dollars of revenue in the endof twenty twenty too, now we have
the capacity to produce north of eighthundred million dollars worth of products. So
huge undertaking for US, major majorcapital investment, including a green field from
the ground up plant build out inmid Lothian, Texas, which is just
(05:08):
south of Dallas Fort Worth, andthat facility was completed in record time and
something the organization is very very proudof. Wow, that's fantastic. That's
a lot of growth, no doubtabout it. What would you say your
goals are for the next five yearsor so? You know, over the
next five years, we're dedicated todoubling the size of our business. That
equates to roughly fifteen percent annual revenuegrowth. And we you know, we
(05:33):
are fortunate to be in product categorieswhere the consumers migrating. You've see in
a thirty year migration from milk froma cow to plant based milks. We
see that that trend continuing, notjust in kind of fluid dairy products,
but also in other categories. Yousee it in ice cream, you see
(05:55):
it in yogurt, You certainly seeit in creamers. And we're just excited
to bide the manufacturing capacity and capabilityto continue to give the consumer what they're
looking for. Are there other productcategories that you're involved in as well.
Yeah, we manufactured the oat milkthat goes into many of the oat milk
ice creams that you see on theshelf. Some of our product is being
(06:17):
used for oat milk yogurts. Andwe're also excited about a small but I
think great proof point project for us, which is we just entered into an
initiative to sell the byproduct from ouroat milk production to a company called seven
(06:38):
Sundays, which is producing a breakfastcereal with it, and we had a
press release on that a couple ofweeks ago. Again, certainly an exciting
up cycled project that allows us tobasically use every part of the supply chain.
I'm jumping around here a little bitbecause I hear or see something shiny
and I moved to it. Butwe talked about five your five year plan
(07:00):
a little bit, Well, howabout longer than that? You know,
longer term, we see ourselves movingfrom you know, a billion to roughly
two billion in revenue. Again,super the fortunate to be operating in product
categories that have high growth. We'rein healthy snacking category. We see huge
growth in our recent entry into theready to drink protein shake category, and
(07:27):
then core plant based milks. Wethink have you know, at least a
decade, if not a lifetime's worthof growth ahead of them. We're talking
to Joe n N, CEO ofSenapta. Tell tell me a little bit
about you. How did you arrivein this industry? What's your background?
You know, my background I've beenin the food business for thirty five years.
I've worked for many of the leadingpackaged goods companies Kelloggs, General Mills,
(07:50):
Knagra, PepsiCo. Spent seven yearson the retailer side of things working
for safe Way, and then Iwas CEO of a private equity food company
prior to joining Synapta. So mycareer really came up through traditional brand management
and innovation roles and eventually led intogeneral management, but always been in and
(08:15):
around health and wellness adam, eitherrunning health and wellness businesses like Healthy Choice
and the Kellogg Serial portfolio, orhelping transform and build businesses through innovations.
So you know, when I wasat safe Way, we more than double
the revenue of our private label healthand wellness products in seven years. So
(08:37):
that's always been a passion of mineand something that I've been very very focused
on. What is your vision formaybe the next year we'll back up.
We're again jumping all over the place, but I mean, just in the
near term, what do you whatdoes twenty twenty four look like for Synapta
growth in a word, you know, we're continuing to focus on developing new
(08:58):
customers and growing our business with existingcustomers through our core product offerings. I
mean, we again feel great thatthe categories we're participating in our on trend
and growing, and we're excited thatwe have capacity to be able to work
with our customers to grow our business. You know, many many of our
(09:20):
products that we manufacture wouldn't be brandedSynopta branded. We're a bit of the
brand behind the brand, if youwill, meaning we're the manufacturer of the
majority of the brands that you wouldsee on the shelf in terms of shelf
stable plant based milks, and wedominate the coffee shop category with probably the
(09:45):
vast majority of the products being behindthe barista being produced by us. You
may have kind of answered this already, but I'll ask it anyway. What
is what is synoptas mission? Youknow, our mission is to improve the
overall sustainability of the food chain.You know, food and food production is
(10:05):
a huge part of the global economy, and while we're not a giant company,
we absolutely believe that every little bithelps. You know, people talk
about those small steps add up,whether that's in our individual helping onless journeys,
but the same absolutely applies to sustainability. I think sometimes people are walking
(10:26):
around looking for a silver bullet,and the fact of the matter is it's
going to take billions of people makingsmall steps to make massive progress. You
guys are based here in the TwinCities in Eaton Prairie, right we are.
We are based in Eaton Prairie.Any successful company usually needs people to
help with the mission. How manypeople work for you in Minnesota? We've
(10:48):
got about one hundred and sixty peopleat our headquarters, and then we have
two manufacturing plants up in Alexandria,Minnesota with several hundred employees there as well.
What makes an Opta such a greatplace to work? Why do that
many people want to work there?You know, I think it's a couple
of things. Number one is wehave a very simple model, which our
employees have kind of played back tous, which is at an OPTA,
(11:11):
I make a difference and collectively wemake a difference. And what that means
individually day to day is we havea very empowered culture where we really believe
and we try to run the companywhere anyone at any level can make a
difference and make an impact and championchange and make change happen. And that
(11:33):
collectively what we're working on as acompany in terms of sustainability, food and
beverage products. Collectively, that makesa difference in the communities in the world
we live in. I would alsopoint to we have built a very dynamic
culture focused on what we call ourmvbs or most valued behaviors. They are
(11:58):
alive and well and incredibly modeled byour amazing team members every day. And
those are speed, entrepreneurship, customercentricity, passion, dedication, and problem
solving. One of the exciting thingsabout our company is we have a website
in a way for employees to recognizeeach other for modeling and those behaviors.
(12:22):
And last year alone, over fiftypercent of the company recognized one of their
peers for demonstrating one of those mostvalued behaviors. And you know, there's
no financial compensation that comes with that. It's just people want to recognize and
acknowledge the great teammates that they're surroundedby. What's one piece of advice that
you or is maybe something you observedas an example from somebody else that you've
(12:45):
carried into your career. In termsof a great piece of advice that I
received early in my career that hasreally defined how I run businesses and companies
is if you want to do somethingmeaningful and impactful, you have to get
outside your comfort zone and take risks. And I think so much a business
(13:07):
is focused on risk management, meaningminimizing risk and not taking risk. But
what that fails to recognize is allgreat accomplishments, all big achievements, come
from putting yourself out there a bitand taking some big risks. And while
nobody wants to take reckless risks,I certainly have throughout my career and the
(13:31):
businesses I've run, in the teamsI've built, risk taking is absolutely of
paramount importance if you want to havedisproportionately better results, If you want the
same results as everybody you're competing with, you don't necessarily have to take many
risks. But if you want tobe in the top tier, if you
(13:52):
want significantly better results than everyone elsearound you, you're going to have to
take some risks. Can give mean example of why it could be just
a little one. I mean,there's probably different sizes all the time.
Sure you know, over the lasttwenty four months I mentioned we doubled the
size of our manufacturing base. Thelevel of investment there of two hundred million
(14:13):
was actually more than our profit duringthat window. So you know, we
absolutely believed in the potential of thecategories that we're competing, in the quality
of our team, and you know, we made that investment to try to
get ahead of the curve and makesure that we have capacity available for our
customers to grow. Yeah. Onceyou expand that, there's no going back,
(14:35):
right, the facilities are bigger andall of that. So tell me
something that people the people are surprisedat of Sonapta. One of the things
that people are surprised about Synapta isjust how many different household brands were involved
in and partnered with. You know, from the world's leading coffee chain who
(14:58):
uses d it's a millions of dollarsworth of our products every year to many
many of the brands you see onthe shelf. They're surprised by the depth
and breath of our product offering.Yeah, I think my daughter will be
impressed by that because she's at thatthat particular coffee place all the time.
So that's awesome. What would youlike people to know more? You know,
(15:20):
I'd love people to know while weare in a high growth mode.
You know, we need great peopleand we're a place that people can come
and regardless of you know, kindof age or background or you know,
it's a culture where people can comein and really make an impact. And
(15:43):
you know, we had a storyof one of our research and development leaders
who said, I used to workat another large company and you know,
I would go into work and I'mnot sure if I left for a month,
anybody'd missed me. And she said, that's an opt If I'm ten
minutes late for a meeting, peopleare blowing up my phone saying where are
you? We need you? Andyou know, we try to create a
culture where everybody feels valued and everybodyfeels like they're contributing to the team.
(16:08):
And at the end of the day, isn't that what everybody wants? You
know, you want to feel likeyou're part of something, that you're valued,
and that you're contributing. How doyou do that? You have specific
things that make people feel included oris it does it just happen or you
just great people? How does thathappen? You know, part of it
is candidly out of necessity. We'renot a huge company, you know,
(16:29):
we don't have departments of fifty orone hundred people. I mean we have
small departments. You know, somedepartments are three or four people. Our
biggest department might be twenty five people. So you know, everybody needs to
be on an oar rowing the vote, and you know, we just were
not big enough where we can havepeople not contributing and candidly, you know,
(16:53):
almost every single person we hire isexcited about making an impact and feeling
valued. While speaking of impact,what is Synapta do out in the community
as far as sort of charitable actions. You know, Synapta is very involved
in the local community, both withinour plant environments as well as our headquarters.
(17:14):
There's several different areas where we're focusedon. One is hunger as a
food company, not a surprising passionpoint for many of the people in the
company, is specifically childhood hunger,and we have great volunteer teams that go
out and donate product, build mealsfor underprivileged kids, as well as environment
(17:37):
environmental and sustainability and efforts. Sowhether it's everyone in the company picking up
trash around the local communities or goingout and doing volunteer work focused on environmental
things, like planting trees in thelocal community. We try to live the
values of our products, which aresustainability and health and wellness. Anything else
(17:59):
you want able to know about Synapta, you know, whether it's part of
your mission in the community, whatever, you know. We have built a
really amazing headquarters. We built itduring COVID, so we have the opportunity
to imagine what a post COVID workenvironment might need to look like. And
we built it for collaboration, Webuilt it for innovation, and we built
(18:23):
it for sustainability, and it issixty five thousand square feet of space focused
on building community within our team aswell as driving a big innovation agenda.
One of the things that we've recentlydone is we are wrapping up the installation
(18:44):
of thirty six thousand square feet ofsolar on the roof of our building,
which will power two thirds of ourannual energy needs. Then in the summer
months like June and July here morethan ninety percent of our energy needs will
be self produced, so, youknow, really demonstrating that commitment to sustainability.
(19:04):
But through and through everything we builtwas focused on sustainability. Thirteen thousand
feet of renewable bamboo flooring, ninehundred led lights, six hundred and thirty
plants throughout the building. Just reallyfocused on living and bringing our sustainability credentials
to life. Do you have aplant watering department that seems like a lot
(19:26):
of plants, you know, someof them are outside and they get naturally
watered, But on the indoor,we have one of those living walls,
and we have a partner that comesin and make sure everything's looking great and
looking green, just like most offices. Well, Joe Enna and CEO of
Snapta, thanks for being here.Um, you made the pitch kind of
for recruitment. So I know youhave a career's page on your website,
(19:48):
which is what www dot snapta dotcom. You guys have social media accounts
as well. We do. Youknow, we've got a very active LinkedIn
that's a great place to follow what'sgoing on in the company. I think
we have we're fifteen thousand followers,and we really use that as a central
communication vehicle for us to talk aboutgreat new people joining the team, initiatives,
(20:11):
milestones, accomplishments, and if you'reever looking for a little bit of
inspiration around sustainability or what a funworking environment looks like. I'd encourage you
to follow along. Nice. Thanksso much Joe again at sunapta dot com
and thanks for being here. Thankyou Twin Cities CEO. You should know.
(20:32):
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