[SpotOn Series] Tips To Grow Your Business and Support Your People With Tom Coogle of Reynolds Foodliner Inc. and Your Pie Franchising

Tom Coogle is the President of Reynolds Foodliner Inc., a grocery company that operates stores including Piggly Wiggly and Stripling’s General Store. He is also a Franchise Owner at Your Pie Franchising. Tom has been in the food and beverage industry for over 22 years, taking his family’s company from modest success in the grocery business to a diversified company with his team members as the priority.

Here’s a Glimpse of What You’ll Hear:

Tom Coogle explains how Reynolds Foodliner Inc. has changed over his 22-year leadership
Why it’s crucial to create a partnership between employers and employees
Tom describes his journey with Your Pie Franchising
How Tom and his team made adjustments during challenging times
How do you establish and maintain a great culture?

In this episode…

In this episode of the SpotOn Series, Chad Franzen is joined by Tom Coogle, President of Reynolds Foodliner Inc. and Franchise Owner at Your Pie Franchising. They discuss maintaining a great culture, supporting employees, and pivoting during tough times. Tom explains the importance of sharing profit with employees, streamlining processes to improve workflow, and creating a culture based on authenticity and positivity. Plus, he shares his experience running a business and franchise.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

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Episode Transcript

Intro 0:04

Welcome to the Top Business Leaders Show powered by Rise25 Media. We’ve featured top founders, executives and business leaders from all over the world.

Chad Franzen 0:20

Chad Franzen here co host for the show where we feature top restaurateurs, investors and business leaders. This is part of our SpotOn Series. SpotOn has the best in class payment platform for retail and they have a flagship solution called SpotOn restaurant, where they combine marketing software and payments all in one. They’ve served everyone from larger chains like Dairy Queen and subway to small mom and pop restaurants. To learn more, go to spoton.com This episode is brought to you by Rise25. We help b2b businesses to get ROI clients referrals and strategic partnerships through done for you podcast. If you have a b2b business and want to build great relationships with clients referrals and thought leaders in your space, there’s no better way to do it than through podcasts and content marketing. To learn more, go to Rise25.com or email us at support@rise25.com Tom Coogle is president of Reynolds Foodliner Incorporated and a franchise owner with Your Pie, a chain which allows customers to customize personal pizzas, pastas and paninis. Tom is a multi Gen generational entrepreneur who has taken his family’s company from modest success in the grocery business to a diversified company with his team members as the priority. Their goal is to change the lives of their team, which will then improve the product delivered to the customer. Hey, Tom, thanks so much for joining me today. How are you?

Tom Coogle 1:31

Happy to be here. Appreciate it, Chad.

Chad Franzen 1:33

Hey, yeah, so tell me a little bit more about Reynolds Foodliner and what you guys do?

Tom Coogle 1:37

Yeah, so like, like I like you said there. It’s a father started the company in the late 70s. Grocery operator operated for a long time. I certainly learned the basics of what we do. From my dad and the people that I worked under. With him. I started working in one of his stores when I was 11 years old. I don’t even know if that’s legal anymore.

Chad Franzen 2:04

So he’s Reynolds Foodliner, like a grocery store.

Tom Coogle 2:07

Yeah, well Reynolds Foodliner is a grocery company. And then we operate Piggly Wiggly stores. And we also are operating some other banners. So we manage a store for an independent owner, called Varian coastal market is on the coastal side of Georgia. And we’re also operating a Stripling’s General Store franchise, which is a specialty butcher shop, we’ll make grocery and restaurant combo. So this grocery restaurant combo has been, you know, new to the business. And it’s something that, that we really think that will expand on the future. Of course, like you said, we’re also doing your pop pizza stores. I really love that franchise.

Chad Franzen 2:50

Yeah, great. So tell me how Reynolds Foodliner, you’re the president, you started working there were when you were 11 Tell me how it has changed since under kind of under your leadership.

Tom Coogle 3:03

So you know, it really comes down to a focus on the culture of our company, and, and sort of a redirect to, you know, what our mission was, you know, I don’t know that we had a mission, I think we were at a place where we’re trying to get to the next month, through the next pay period, you know, for years, my dad did did very well. He operated the company through the late 70s 80s into the 90s some of the best economic times we had a period of pretty steady inflation and, and growth. You know, it was a time where you can do well in that industry. And it was really a time before restaurant had such a massive piece of the pie. And we’ll so important and it’s called what we’re doing, you know, I think it’s we really kind of changed our focus and said, you know, instead of competing with restaurants, who become more like them and and also become restaurant tours in our own right. And that’s, that’s a, that’s what we’ve done. The focus is just truly shifted from how do we just operate this business? And how do we grow? And how do we bring up our, our team members along with us so that we all grew up together and we can begin to promote from within and give ourselves a place to do that. So you know, we’ve got more focused on growth and more focused on our people.

Chad Franzen 4:40

Yeah, talk to me a little bit more about the ways that you kind of view the employer employee relationship.

Tom Coogle 4:47

Um, yeah, so, you know, not not unusual to any business of the day. It was a transactional kind of a thing. You know, you work somewhere. I think that in those early years, it It was probably naturally more of a family environment, right? The world wasn’t what it is today, people didn’t job hop people. We, our stores, we operate in small towns anyway. So it was very much. You know, you hired a guy and he worked for you for 35 years. That’s the way it went. And as you get into the 90s, mid 90s, things pretty much changed. People didn’t stay in the same places, and they did have their eyes looking outward. You know, that was that’s a challenge, right? I’m sure it was a big challenge. I love to ask my father right now, you know, how he felt about that time period. Because I’m sure it was just all boom, all of a sudden, more people are looking to go here looking to go there. And the economy grew so quickly during that spell, and the opportunity for retail workers increased even in small markets. So you know, you had compensation for employees that you didn’t have before. And things got tougher. So things tightened on the backside of the 90s. We always entered into a deflationary period of food, which was very difficult to navigate. You know, you got prices going, going down. Yeah, I mean, that sounds like a good thing. And maybe it is for the consumer, but it’s a bad thing for the business owner who’s buying something and then sell it for less than next week. So it was it was a tough time, it was hard to keep up with with wage inflation. And, you know, we decided to kind of turn that on its head and stop saying, What can I What can our people do for us, but how can we do something for them, so that we operate more with a field of partnership. And last year, we really put our money where our mouth is, we went 49% ESOP. So we’d sold off almost half the company to to the team members themselves. That’s a big part of what we see in our future, you know,

Chad Franzen 6:54

how has that worked? How has that changed things for you?

Tom Coogle 6:58

So you know, we’re in the early goings of it, I know, the kind of top, top end of our company really understand that excited about the prospects, but we haven’t even gotten through a whole cycle where we’ve given them a chance to say, Look, you, you own this piece of the company at this, and now look what it’s already grown to.

Chad Franzen 7:18

Do you think that, you know, in society at large here in the US that the employer employee relationship is heading in, like, a certain direction? Maybe the wrong direction?

Tom Coogle 7:30

You know, I think some companies Yeah, and some companies, no, I really believe that. From a corporate standpoint, you know, I’ve always said that in food, your people should like you, right, they’re taking something from your hand and put it in their mouth, they need to like you a little bit. And if you’re just about building an evaluation on your company, so that you can sell it all. That’s great. And I mean, that works for some people, but in my mind, you know, it’s a people business and, and if you’re gonna be really successful, what you’re doing should exude that, and they should have a culture and it should be a place that makes people feel good. And I don’t think you’d get that by just running off of a spreadsheet, and how much value can we create here, it needs to be about real profit. And those profits really need to be shared with with with your team, if you’re not doing that you don’t have happy people.

Chad Franzen 8:32

So tell me about your pie and what a customer can expect when they go to your location.

Tom Coogle 8:36

Yeah, so we looked into your PA my family that did that and so the arrangement there is my family my father, my brother in law, my brother, all of us fall down to do our your path franchises and we follow a group of stores and are bought the franchise in South Georgia rental food louder than helps operate that so you know, the grocery operating company, but once you can operate, you can operate anything. And so we stepped into to that I love your pop, because a lot a lot of it was because of the reasons that that we just brought the culture in there. You know, the the idea that, hey, we’re not we’re selling pizza, but we’re also selling a feeling, you know, and I really liked that part of it. They do a great job with their franchise best getting all the franchisees and sort of creating a family atmosphere. And those those operators communicate well together. So I really liked it. If you’re not familiar with your PA, it’s, it’s I don’t know the terminology for it, but it’s a lot like Chipotle but with pizza, right? You go through and you make your own pizza. And we have also a lot of specialty pizzas, craft beers, and just Great atmosphere, and it’s a heck of a pizza. I mean, it’s just really good.

Chad Franzen 10:05

What would you say is kind of the vibe that you guys shoot for that you guys have when people walk in there.

Tom Coogle 10:11

So Your Pie’s based out of Athens, Georgia, got a group Brett started it. And it’s got that, you know, college town, vibe to it, cool place to go sit and hang out. Fire cook pizzas that are really done. The old way. So Drew married a woman from Italy, and spent a couple of months over there prior to the marriage and just really enjoyed what he was, you know, the pizzas he was getting on every street corner and thought, we’re really not doing this, we’re not doing this in Georgia anyway, and start a gallon started his company. And he, he sources, a lot of authentic ingredients, and do a great job of flavour profiles. You know, you try to keep your costs as low as you can, but it’s really about good food. I think people come back to get food, you know, over and over again, they’ll they’ll stick with that you don’t do anything else, make sure the food’s good.

Chad Franzen 11:07

You know, there are a lot of food franchise opportunities out there. What what what was it about Your PIe specifically that really drew you in?

Tom Coogle 11:16

It was the culture, it was the it was the people? You know, it was a unique idea at the time? I don’t, there are other competitors out there that have sort of tried to do the same thing. But at the time, I don’t I don’t know of anybody that was doing pizza this way. And, you know, and and the authenticity of it. So it was really going back to where where pieces come from, and make sure they stay true to that. And I think they did a great job of doing that. And making it work for an American market.

Chad Franzen 11:49

When you when you got involved with your first Your Pie location, did you open it? Or was it already there?

Tom Coogle 11:56

No, we opened it. So yeah, we built it out from scratch.

Chad Franzen 11:59

What were the early days, they’re like, I’m sorry, what were the early days, they’re like,

Tom Coogle 12:04

listen, we started out, right. So you know, we’ve we’ve, we opened up with a bang, we opened up right before the pandemic started. Or just was given and just after the pandemic started. So nobody much was going into these spaces than jumping out and doing nothing. But we had a really great thing. I think it was their best opening during the pandemic. And it’s continued on from there. And you know, we had some ups and downs during that just like everybody else did, would would lock down for folks not being out. It’s very much a come in and eat with us kind of place. And we do curbside pickup, but we really want you to come in the store and enjoy some gelato and get the full experience. But you know, there were some slow times there were but we’re on the uptake now, and getting ready to roll into some new stores with them. So

Chad Franzen 13:01

what kind of adjustments did you have to make during that time,

Tom Coogle 13:05

you know, a lot more curbside. So we had that we had to adjust your pile was going through some technology changes on the curbside piece at the same time. So that was a challenge right here. You can’t pick worse timing to be going through a change with those things. But it is what it is. And you know, our staff did a great job of sticking in there and making sure it worked and that people got what they wanted. And we’re happy we saw a huge increase in our DoorDash orders during that time. And in the market. We’re in there not a lot of DoorDash drivers. I think a lot of the ones that were there were fairly new. And so there were probably lots of problems with the DoorDash drivers grabbing wrong orders. You know, big, big challenge, you know, we didn’t have a challenge, your power of staffing during that time. And I don’t hear a lot of people say that. Yeah, I feel like it’s a testament to my team and how, how good a job they’ve done to create a positive environment to work in. And so where people want to work.

Chad Franzen 14:09

Sure, great. Hey, you said you know, once you want to get operations down you can you can operate anything. Was there anything that as you got into the restaurant business that you didn’t know that you didn’t know?

Tom Coogle 14:23

Oh, man, I’ve been in food so long, it all made sense to me pretty quick. I’m not gonna not that we know everything, but it wasn’t hard to grasp. But there’s certainly we rely on your pot and we talk to Your Pie constantly about what they’re doing emotionally. So I think that the biggest difference was how we promote so you you just don’t promote the same way on the Treasury side as you do on the restaurant side. And so some of those little tricks were were really key. You know, and you’re part of the franchise and they know what they’re doing. So they delivered us a process that we can execute on Again, I think I got the best team in the business, they were able to jump right in and do it.

Chad Franzen 15:05

And then, so you had one location Do you have more than that now, for your planning,

Tom Coogle 15:09

we’re working on our second location about 20 miles away. In a pretty short, short succession, we’re gonna go with two more. So we know that we’ve got four, where we have sites planned. And we’ll do a max of probably six there with them in this market, or who knows, we may find some workers that we’d like to keep doing.

Chad Franzen 15:37

So what goes into kind of maintaining the culture, this kind of unique culture that you guys like to set? When you have more than one place? How will you? How will you establish that,

Tom Coogle 15:49

you know, we still work together. So even though you’re part of a completely different model, we very much work together. And so my, my team, my admin team, works with your path, we help on the marketing side, you know, payroll, bookkeeping, all those boring things that nobody likes to do, my operating company takes care of that nobody at the store needs to worry about anything like that. So we’ve really streamline those processes that made it easy for our store level team to worry about what they need to worry about, which is our customers and our sites. And so you know, we take all those, those other pains away from them, and you know, big companies that do that kind of thing. Well, also, but I feel like that if you lose sight of those team members, it’s easy to do all the other things poorly.

Chad Franzen 16:40

Sure, sure. Hey, I have one more question for you. But first, how can people find out more about everything you’ve got going on with Reynolds Foodliner and Your Pie?

Tom Coogle 16:50

So you know, we’ve never marketed Reynolds Foodliner very well, it’s always kind of been in the background. But haven’t done a management agreement was with a third party operating store for somebody else, sort of these offshoot things that we’re doing we are starting to do that so Reynolds Foodliner’s got a Facebook page that’s the only way that you can see it. I’ve had a number of people ask me lately i We can’t really find rentals food lottery anywhere whereas so I think we just need to do a little better job of getting it out there. And it’s it’s fairly new that we’re changing in the way that we are and using Reynolds Foodliner as a brand in and of itself. For sure for operating.

Chad Franzen 17:33

And what about those Piggly Wiggly’s how can people find out about those?

Tom Coogle 17:37

Yeah, man, we got picked up www.PigglyWigglyGA.com. And you know also StriplingsGeneralstore.com. That’s a franchise we didn’t talk much about the brochure restaurant combo. Smaller format, real specialty gourmet, really having a lot of fun with that as well.

Chad Franzen 17:56

What can people what can people get when they go there?

Tom Coogle 17:59

So you can get we do full service meats you can get out, you can buy a whole hog will. Or you can buy the whole hog and we could really get the best barbecue sandwich in Georgia. We sell a ton of sausage dogs, fresh cut steaks, gourmet groceries, a lot of Georgia made products that we sell. Really good. We’ve got our location is right off by 75 in Georgia and 64 in Tipton, and, you know, been open now, seven weeks and is really booming and doing great. Lots of fresh produce that’s in season kind of stuff that we have piled up short tutori cheeses, specialty cheeses, and really focus on all those Georgia products. Thanks people, Mike right here in Georgia.

Chad Franzen 18:45

Nice, very nice. Hey, last question. If you were to go to Your Pie, what would kind of be your meal of choice?

Tom Coogle 18:51

So I’m like a creature of habit. I get the same thing every time. I get a pizza with ground beef, pepperoni, fresh basil and garlic and then below oregano on it. And that’s my pizza. I use it every time.

Chad Franzen 19:04

Very nice. Very nice. Hey, Tom, it’s been great to talk to you. I really appreciate it. And thanks so much for your time.

Tom Coogle 19:10

Thank you for your time, Chad. I appreciate it. So long everybody.

Outro 19:13

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