John Popp of Aunt Millie’s Bakeries: 5 Things You Need To Create a Successful Food Line or Specialty Food
An Interview With Vicky Colas
…Get the right advisor to analyze your product, and the probability success of the product. Get the right people that can help you finance your operation. Get the right people to help you build your manufacturing facility or find a co-manufacturer.
As a part of our series called “5 Things You Need To Create a Successful Food Line or Specialty Food”, I had the pleasure of interviewing John Popp, President of Aunt Millie’s Bakeries.
John F. Popp is the third generation to lead Aunt Millie’s Bakeries which was founded in 1901 in Fort Wayne, Indiana by John’s maternal grandfather, John B. Franke.
Graduating from University of Michigan in 1954, John Popp entered the United States Army and was stationed in Maryland and New Jersey, working on tank ballistics and statistics. Following military service, Mr. Popp was offered a position at T Rowe Price as an analyst for Mr. Price.
After soul searching and discussion with his parents, Les and Lucile Popp, John Popp joined the family business, then known as Perfection Biscuit Company. Mr. Popp started working on bakery operations and personnel. In 1967, Mr. Popp left the bakery to work independently as a realtor and real estate developer, and was instrumental in developing several large residential subdivisions.
In 1980, John Popp returned to Perfection Biscuit as president of the company. Soon afterward, the company acquired the Way Baking Company. Perfection continued to expand into the southwest Ohio and southern Indiana markets. In 2005, the company changed from Perfection Bakeries to Aunt Millie’s.
A strong advocate for independent businesses, Mr. Popp worked with the Independent Bakers Association in 2001 to convince the U.S. Congress to extend a little-noticed Environmental Protection Agency order covering mixer bowl coolants. His action saved millions of dollars in potential fines and replacement costs for independent bakeries throughout the country. Mr. Popp has taught Junior Achievement classes and served as a member of the local school district’s board as well as the Indiana Commission for Higher Education. At Aunt Millie’s Bakeries, he encourages continuing education for the bakery staff and offers R&D internships to multiple university students. Mr. Popp has participated in the activities of the W.E. Long Co., Quality Bakers of America, and the American Bakers Association.
In 2021, John Popp was inducted into the Baking Hall of Fame, an honor recognizing inductees for their achievements in organizational growth and development, advancements in ingredient technology and processing or in a service related to the commercial baking industry.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dive in, our readers would love to learn a bit more about you. Can you tell us a bit about your “childhood backstory”?
I was the youngest of two boys and grew up in the shadow of my older brother. He was a superstar athlete, earning 12 letters in high school and was on both of University of Michigan’s football and basketball teams. Me? I was the 10th man on the high school basketball team and played only when our team was guaranteed to win. For part of my high school years, I attended Culver Military Academy. Although I didn’t like attending the academy, being mistreated as a plebe at Culver turned out to be a valuable life lesson — Life is not always fair, but you must persevere anyway.
Can you share with us the story of the “ah ha” moment that led to the creation of the food brand you are leading?
At Aunt Millie’s®, we hired George Jones, a veteran bakery sales executive to run our sales department in the 1990s. He and my son, Bohn, decided to try and consolidate all the different brands that we had developed and acquired into one brand and exit some franchised brands that restricted our selling territory. The marketing department took one of our low-cost promotional labels and redesigned it into the current logo with the silhouette of Aunt Millie. We consolidated the product line and the name, and the logo became quite popular.
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
This isn’t necessarily funny but has a great lesson to it. While overseeing the operations of our Fort Wayne bakery, I developed an epoxy floor coating that worked quite well, where I decided to start a little “side” company to formulate and sell it. Figuring the product was so good it would sell itself, I set up corporation, called it Winston Chemical Company, had stationery printed and finally secured my first substantial customer — another bakery in central Indiana. I felt this would be my “anchor” customer who could provide testimonials to catapult my business to a roaring success. Unfortunately, they declared bankruptcy soon after we provided beautifully coated hardwood floors that would become his soon-to-be auctioned bakery building. I never got paid, of course. After reflection, I scuttled the whole idea.
The lesson I learned is that you can’t start a business by only devoting part-time to it. Starting a business requires a full-time effort. And, you had better check the credit of your customers.
What are the most common mistakes you have seen people make when they start a food line? What can be done to avoid those errors?
The first most common mistake is not doing serious market research. Second is introducing a new product without a marketing plan and just putting it on the shelf, hoping someone will buy it, like it and tell their friends. Third is not having a good reputation and relations with the grocery buyers. You must have a track record and history of performing successfully. To avoid the mistakes, you need good market research, a comprehensive marketing plan and good relations with the grocery buyers.
Let’s imagine that someone reading this interview has an idea for a product that they would like to produce. What are the first few steps that you would recommend that they take?
One must understand that not only must produce the product, but you also need to sell it. Those are two vastly different tasks. That is where a business plan comes into being. There is no point in producing it if there is not a market big enough that will justify the labor and capital of producing it. There is no point in producing it if you can’t make a profit. There is no point in starting a business unless you can obtain the financing. The business plan must cover all those challenges.
Many people have good ideas all the time. But some people seem to struggle in taking a good idea and translating it into an actual business. How would you encourage someone to overcome this hurdle?
Find good advisors who have had experience and are trustworthy. There are entrepreneurial advisors who can help you analyze the potential of your idea and can assist you in raising the capital. However, make sure they are trustworthy and have a track record. Find the right people to help you.
There are many invention development consultants. Would you recommend that a person with a new idea hire such a consultant, or should they try to strike out on their own?
Unless you have had some experience, you need a consultant.
What are your thoughts about bootstrapping vs looking for venture capital? What is the best way to decide if you should do either one?
If you can afford to do it on your own, do so. I have many friends who have regretted taking on partners. If you are successful, the silent partners have a way of exiting at the wrong time.
Can you share thoughts from your experience about how to file a patent, how to source good raw ingredients, how to source a good manufacturer, and how to find a retailer or distributor?
I had a patent approved once, but our company decided not to pay the filing fees. If you have a unique idea, it’s not too hard to get a patent with a good patent lawyer. Selling the patent or producing and selling the product is the hard part. I have not had much experience in sourcing raw materials or finding a good manufacturer. We have some people in our company that are good at that. You must be incredibly careful about importing raw ingredients from off-shore.
Here is the main question of our discussion. What are your “5 Things You Need To Create a Successful Food Line or Specialty Food” and why? (Please share a story or example for each.)
The top five things you need to create a successful food line or specialty food is:
#1 the right people
#2 the right people
#3 the right people
#4 the right people
#5 the right people.
Pardon me for being a “scamp”. However, that is the key. Get the right advisor to analyze your product, and the probability success of the product. Get the right people that can help you finance your operation. Get the right people to help you build your manufacturing facility or find a co-manufacturer. Get the right people to market and sell your product. Get the right wife that will put up with the long hours and lean years. That’s easy, isn’t it??
Can you share your ideas about how to create a product that people really love and are ‘crazy about’?
I think our Aunt Millie’s Live™ Carb Smart bread is an example of an idea that we created, and people are crazy about. It is a loaf of bread that only has the equivalent of one net gram of carbohydrate per slice. Many folks who are diabetics or trying to lose weight try to stay away from carbs, which the body coverts to sugar. Here you have something that people want very much, but also it tastes good. Many of the low carb products that have been developed don’t taste all that much like good bread. If you analyze the success of the product, you will find it is a product people are desperate to obtain and it is a product that they enjoy. It satisfies the need and provides pleasure. Find a product that can do those two things and you have a winner.
How have you used your success to make the world a better place?
Throughout the year, Aunt Millie’s makes bread donations to various food banks and emergency relief efforts. Being involved in the community is very important to Aunt Millie’s. Personally, I played the piano at a local nursing home one night a week for diner hour until COVID. I serve on the board of several Christian organizations that share the good news of Christ among inner city children and on college campuses.
You are an inspiration to a great many people. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.
You must understand the only reason for whatever success you have had is because God gave you your brain and your DNA. No one else has it the same as you and we must therefore be thankful to our Creator and give Him the credit. We must try to live our lives in a way that will be pleasing to Him.
Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this.
