Another great female entrepreneur: Cordia Harrington

THE BUN LADY

Cordia Harrington and the Tennessee Bun Company

In 1990, Cordia Harrington was tired of standing up all day, smelling of French fries. She owned and operated three McDonalds franchises, but as a divorced mother of three boys, she yearned for a business that would provide for her children and let her spend more time with them. As if she didn’t have enough to do, her fellow franchisees nominated her for the McDonalds Bun and Bakery Committee.

“The men thought that was hilarious because of the word ‘bun’! They didn’t know that McDonalds would be picking me up in the corporate jet to see bakeries around the world! Every time I went to a bun meeting, I was obsessed. I loved it. This was exciting!”

Harrington’s experience on the bun committee opened her eyes to a global business and she wanted in. So two years later, when McDonalds decided that they needed a woman-owned business to supply them with buns, Harrington became determined to win the contract.

“I could see this could be my big break,” Harrington recalls. “You see a tiny crack in the door and that’s it, you just have to run through it. I really believed I could do this.”

She lobbied McDonalds for four years, sending everyone she met baseballs saying ‘Let’s play ball’ or photographs of herself, in white baker’s hat and jacket, saying “I want to be your baker.” Harrington didn’t own a bakery and had no experience of running one. Everything she knew about buns she had learned running her restaurants. But finally, in 1996, after 32 interviews, her persistence paid off.

“If they’d just wanted a bakery, I wouldn’t have stood a chance. But they wanted a diversity supplier and I could see that that was my big chance. Maybe what convinced them the fact that I’d been so persistent for so long. When you want to pick someone, you’re going to pick someone determined.”

As a McDonalds supplier, Harrington was able to borrow $13.5 million; she also invested everything she owned. With her team of five – an accountant, two engineers a baker and a supplier - she set out to build the fastest, most fully automated bakery the world had ever seen.

“I wasn’t intimidated by what I didn’t know. In some ways, it was better that I wasn’t an expert because I would ask questions that helped the rest of the team to ask: why not? “

The Tennessee Bun Company opened, ahead of schedule in 1997, just in time for an unprecedented slump in fast food sales. Before she knew it, Harrington was down to her last $20,000, not enough to cover payroll. Her agreement with McDonald’s required that she sell exclusively to them – but she knew the business would never survive that way.

“It was a crisis of huge magnitude. I cried myself to sleep many nights. I really did think: I am going to go bankrupt. I never regretted it – even when I was thinking of slitting my throat or jumping off a bridge – because I’d had the chance to try it. But it was years before we could break even.”

Against McDonald’s wishes, Harrington agreed to supply Pepperidge Farm. “It took a lot of conversations with McDonald’s to get them comfortable,” Harrington recalls. “But they could see they’d get the benefit if prices went down, and no benefit if we went out of business! That deal saved us.”

Today, it takes just 11 people to turn out 60,000 buns an hour for customers across the US, South America and the Caribbean. When she became dissatisfied with her delivery service, Harrington started her own trucking company. She’s since added a cold storage company and, in 2007, another bakery that supplies fresh dough to restaurants. It’s an unconventional group of businesses but Harrington has always done things her own way.

“I am not smart enough to run a business like a person with a masters degree. I have no formal training. All I’ve had to offer was my heart and my passion and I’ve tried to give that freely.”

Grateful for the breaks she got, Harrington’s passionate about providing opportunities to her 224 employees. “We give people a lot of cross-training. It costs the company money but we just think: how can we help our employees be the very best they can be? That is unique for the baking industry where most bakeries have been running in the same way, every day, every shift. ” In that spirit, the company has hired refugees from Rwanda, Laos and Sudan. She says they are – like she was -- resourceful, determined and persistent, the ultimate entrepreneurs, grateful for the chance to prove themselves. For Harrington, growing her people and growing her business have become indistinguishable.

“I think financial success is the most fun when you can give it away. We had a project that came in under budget one year, and we gave everyone a car with a big bow! And you can do a lot more of that when you have a big business.”

And it is a big business. What started as a joke earned $50 million last year, with continuing double-digit growth. Cordia Harrington doesn’t have to be on her feet all day long any more, and her sons have grown up, but she’s as eager as ever to keep learning and growing.

“I started this business because I wanted it to be global. And that’s still my dream today. I want us to be known throughout the world as having one of the most dynamic baking companies in the world.”

Q and A

What made you into an entrepreneur?

I had good roots of love and encouragement. When I got crazy ideas, my Dad would say: you can do that! Even as a little girl of 11, I had a nursery school in my back yard and I’d charge 25 cents for 3 hours. I’ve always thought something could be done better. So I think being an entrepreneur is about how you think, always believing there’s a better way to do things.

Do you have very high standards?

Very. Extremely. I’m not happy unless everything has been done absolutely the best it can be. If we have an inspection, I don’t want us just to pass – I want us to get the highest marks. We give everyone a $50 bill to reward that high standard because I keep saying: how will we know we’re winning unless we play by the rules? I always want the best of the best.

What do you think has made your business so successful?

Our culture isn’t the only one that can be successful, I wouldn’t pretend that. But we run our business as a family business and, unlike a lot of companies, we welcome family members to work with other members of their family. Because the work can be unpredictable sometimes with goofy hours and I think it is important that people stick together.

What do you think are the most important characteristics to be successful in business?

High integrity, transparency and visibility- with your employees and with your customers. Passion and persistence. So many times – I felt like I was walking up staircase and I didn’t know where it was going and wasn’t sure where it would end. But you just have to keep going.

And if you had to choose just one of those qualities? Integrity. Doing what you say. What you see is what you get, in the numbers and in the person. We may not be perfect -- but people know we have given everything to make it work.

You don’t give up easily?

I have a saying – instead of moaning and complaining, you have to take that energy when problems happen and put it to getting you to the next level. There’s never an easy path if you’re an entrepreneur. No matter how good you are, you’re gonna have problems. You just got to keep going, be persistent, have passion and enthusiasm and be flexible and resourceful

Are you a very impatient person?

Probably, either that or antsy. My nickname is Aunt C! (antsy) When I was a little girl and they’d say dinner’s ready, I’d have to run round the house 10 times first! I’ve been always been high energy or antsy all my life.

It sounds like you spend a lot of time on relationships?

That’s what I enjoy the most. With me, you know what you see is what you get. Maybe my style isn’t great for everyone but candor is appreciated.

Are you a natural sales person?

I can sell something I truly believe in – a cause or a person. I couldn’t sell something I didn’t believe in or to someone if I didn’t believe in their values. So I couldn’t sell something I didn’t believe in. I’m too transparent. Everyone can see it in me.

Do you bake yourself?

I love to cook and entertain. But I’m not a very good baker! I take our dough home and bake that. But if I had to do it myself from scratch, we would be in trouble.