农业+生活方式

甜美的梦

发布于2024年3月7日下午4:46

At the height of its success in the 1960s, Stuckey’s was an empire of roadside respite. 近370家门店分布在30多个州, 为驾车者提供干净的卫生间, 纪念品和山核桃圆木卷都在他们著名的蓝色屋顶下. 

But this roadside mecca wasn’t born of convenience or even consumerism. 这一切都始于农业.

他从祖母那里借了35美元.S. “西尔维斯特”老斯塔基. founded Stuckey’s as a roadside pecan stand along Highway 23 in Eastman in 1937. He prided himself as being a pecan buyer and thought of Stuckey’s as a pecan shop. 寻找山核桃的来源, 西尔维斯特从不同的农民和邻居那里购买山核桃, 把它们拿去剥壳，然后卖给司机. 第一年他赚了4500美元.

One day, he got the idea that if he sold pecan candy, he might make more money. 他跑回家去找正在打桥牌的妻子埃塞尔. The bridge club headed to the kitchen and started experimenting with pecan candy recipes, 最后落在斯塔基即将出名的山核桃圆木卷上. 桥牌俱乐部变成了糖果俱乐部, and for many years it was those women who made the brand’s pecan candies.

事情进展得很顺利，到1948年, Sylvester built his own candy plant and distribution center in Eastman. 到20世纪60年代, Stuckey’s became synonymous with the great American road trip and the company reached the height of its success.

那么，不管斯塔奇餐厅发生了什么?

That’s the question that prompted Stephanie Stuckey in 2019 to make a complete career change and take over what was once her family’s thriving business.

“This was my grandfather’s company and I didn’t want it to become an afterthought. When I Googled Stuckey’s, the top hit was, ‘Whatever happened to Stuckey’s?’ and there were so many stories asking where our company went,斯蒂芬妮说。. 我很难过.”

到底发生了什么?? In brief, Stuckey’s merged with Pet Milk Company in 1964 to add capital for expansion. Sylvester remained in charge of the Stuckey’s division of the company. 然而，西尔维斯特于1977年去世，公司被出售. What followed was decades of outside ownership and mismanagement.

斯蒂芬妮的父亲W.S. 小比利·斯塔基., acquired part ownership in the company in 1984 but changing times and the great recession of 2009 hit the company hard. 

与此同时, Stephanie had graduated with a law degree from the University of Georgia and by 2015 was working for the City of Atlanta as its director of sustainability. She was at her desk when she got a call that her grandfather’s company was once again for sale.

“我想，‘我有机会改变这一点.“我意识到，我们的故事不一定要这样结束. 所以，我做了. 我把毕生积蓄都投资了，因为没人愿意给我贷款. 公司出现了六位数的赤字，”她说.

在她被收购后的六个月内, the company became modestly profitable and she brought on a key business partner with decades of experience in pecans.

R.G. Lamar is a third-generation pecan farmer with a few thousand acres near Hawkinsville. In 2015, 他创办了前门山核桃公司, 消费品包装品牌, but found it difficult to pioneer a new brand no one had heard of. 他准备往新的方向走. That’s when he and Stephanie realized they both could bring something great to the table.

“I knew I needed to do something to grow the Stuckey’s brand and I had to pivot. My family owns about 100 acres of pecan orchards and I was thinking about focusing on pecan production. 我意识到R.G. and his family have been managing our family’s orchard for decades. I called him and asked if he’d be open to having a business partner,斯蒂芬妮说. “I feel like I won the lottery when I got him as a business partner. 他在我不擅长的领域非常强大. 他什么都擅长.”

斯蒂芬妮和R.G. had a shared vision of what Stuckey’s could turn into as a pecan snack brand.

“We agreed immediately on the vision of the company moving forward, and we continue to agree on the importance of sourcing things locally, manufacturing in America and that farmers are at the center of our brand identity,R说。.G.他现在是斯塔基的首席执行官.

One of the first things they did in 2021 was acquire a facility in Wrens that shells pecans and has a value-added production facility to make candies and snacks.

“We made the decision later to get out of the shelling business and focus on the value-added part and have moved forward with know-how, 创意与革新,” R.G. 说. “That focus changed Stuckey’s from previously being a distributor with a wide assortment of offerings, 到现在成为山核桃增值的首选公司. 剥壳者和消费者之间的任何东西, we want to do that for people and be the brand people think about.”

The company now has five core pecan snack flavors, and sales are climbing.

“We want to be the go-to snack brand for pecans anywhere in the world,斯蒂芬妮说。, 现在是斯塔基的主席. “我们认为这是可行的，因为我们生活在这样一个州, 从1950年代开始, 是世界上生产山核桃最多的地方. There’s no better place to have a pecan company than the great state of Georgia. It’s pecan central and our company has been around since the Great Depression making pecan snacks. We can make pecan snacks better than anyone else, and we want to occupy that space on snack aisles.” 

而斯塔基还有一些路边摊, primarily the blue-roofed buildings remain a nostalgic bit of Stuckey’s history. Stephanie 说 the brand’s future lies in selling their snacks to third-party retailers such as gas stations, 杂货店和专卖店. R.G. 说 he believes that in five years, the company could top $50 million in sales. 对于一个小镇的生意来说，这还不算太坏.

“We really pride ourselves in being located in Wrens, Georgia, population 2,500. We like being in a rural community, and we think that big things happen in small towns. 我们离种植山核桃的农民很近, 我们喜欢这种连通性,斯蒂芬妮说. “山核桃是一种美味、健康、可持续的坚果. And there’s nothing more sustainable than getting your food from the land and knowing your farmer, 这就是我们正在做的.”

R.G. 和斯蒂芬妮继续引领品牌R.G. 他在奥古斯塔的家中监督着日常运作, 并为斯塔基的下一步行动制定策略. 

从她亚特兰大的家里, 斯蒂芬妮花时间与社区中的其他人联系, going to trade shows and telling the story of a once-famous brand and its recent-day renaissance.

“I love telling the Stuckey’s comeback story to others,斯蒂芬妮说. “It’s my goal to bring hope and inspiration to others who are figuring out how to revive their businesses, 他们的农场，甚至他们的生活. Comebacks come in many different forms, and this is just our story.”