Specialty Food Magazine is the leading publication for retailers, manufacturers and foodservice professionals in the specialty food trade. It provides news, trends and business-building insights that help readers keep their businesses competitive.
Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/173967
Q&A PHOTO: CARA FIGGINS A Cracker Company with a Long Shelf Life BY DENISE SHOUKAS W ith a law degree in her pocket, Cara Figgins, executive vice president of Partners, a tasteful choice company, decided to devote three years to her family's cracker business before starting her law career. Twenty-one years later, she's a force in the award-winning company, growing the business and helping transform it into one of the world's most well-known food businesses. Today, Figgins, along with her mother and brother, creates more than 35 varieties of crackers, cookies and granola in an eco-friendly facility outside of Seattle. Here she talks business obstacles, longevity and working with family. How does your law degree help you in your job today? It helps me in many ways, from how I analyze situations and solve problems to the opportunity to take continuing-education legal classes for my license—all subjects that help me run my business. Initially, we added to our line fairly quickly to have a diverse SKU set. My mom is the product development specialist in our business and she has a lot of inspirational moments. She's really amazing at her work. We are a little more strategic and methodical now, but we have years' worth of ideas and recipes just waiting for introduction. Location: Kent, WA Year Founded: 1992 Products: 35 varieties of crackers, cookies and granola Best Seller: Walla Walla, winner of the sof Award for Outstanding Baked Good in 1994 60 ❘ SPECIALTY FOOD MAGAZINE We have a great team and we're committed to making great-tasting, highquality products. Each of us has different strengths that we bring to the business. I think this has helped us make good decisions. How did you approach expanding the line over the years? PARTNERS, a tasteful choice company If you knew you were having your last meal, what would you eat? The meal would have to be multicultural so that I could include Thai food, Italian food, sushi and a steak. Why has Partners remained such a strong player all these years? What has been the biggest obstacle? Our biggest challenge was being able to go from a very labor-intensive process to a more mechanized process. This allowed us to control our costs and become more profitable. My brother was able to put together a business plan that clearly conveyed how the loan we were applying for would make specialtyfood.com all the difference. The underwriter gave us a shot. And the biggest perk? Working with a lot of different people who I really like. Today we had our longest-time employee of 20 years retire. It was amazing to see all of our employees come together to celebrate with her. What's it like working with family? I worked with my mom so much in the past at her restaurants that it really has been fairly easy, and my brother and I have always been close. There were some growing pains adjusting to working out challenges and issues, but we all trust each other and value one another's intelligence and respect each other's opinions. That makes it work. In addition, over the years, we have all settled into our own areas of expertise. We don't try to tell each other how to do our jobs, but we do make all major decisions by committee. Denise Shoukas is a contributing editor to Specialty Food Magazine.