I’ve spent April celebrating National Pecan Month, as everyone should, and marveling that 2019 marks my family’s 50th season in the pecan industry. Fifty years! What a milestone. I’ve found myself doing a bit of reflection on where it all started and lessons I’ve learned over the years.
You may know where it all began. About 180 miles north of New Iberia, Louisiana, it starts on the Cane River, which runs through Central Louisiana and dissects the historic city of Natchitoches, Louisiana. My father bought our pecan orchards, nestled along the banks of the river, in 1969. Years later, he opened a small, seasonal retail store on Front Street in the city of Natchitoches.
What you may not know is that my mother started our mail order division of the company. She was the one who came up with the idea to start selling pecans as gourmet holiday gifts, using pecans that my father grew on our family farm. After closing our seasonal store years later, the retail business of selling our pecans moved to where we lived and still operate today — New Iberia, Louisiana. In addition to my mother running the mail order operations, my two brothers and I started a pecan cracking company in our family garage. We ran the “Nutcrackers” until my youngest brother left home for college. Simpler times.
The start of the company wasn’t without its challenges. After all, getting customers to believe in giving gourmet pecans as a gift was a tough sell at first. If you can believe it, there was a time that giving pecans was not really a thing. Luckily, people came around to the power of pecans as presents. Getting people to believe in the idea of our style of gifts was one of the first wins for Cane River Pecan Company.
Since the beginning, our business has enjoyed steady growth, year over year. When we started selling flavored pecans in our signature red tin, sales really began to take off, and we gained national traction. Offering a branded tin made Cane River Pecan Company memorable, and it began to set us apart from other pecan companies in the country.
Hometown CNO
Though it may be hard to believe, for nearly 13 years before becoming the Chief Nut Officer you know today, I worked in sports marketing and administration. After more than a decade of working in that field, I was inspired to leave my big city corporate job in Chicago to return to Louisiana for a few reasons. First, I love Louisiana and our food culture. To “come home” and be a part of that was intriguing to me. And the opportunity to work for myself was really a big pull to get me “home.” And of course, there are a bunch of cool things that I missed about being in the South, like attending LSU football games, duck hunting, the Cajun lifestyle, being close to family and continuing a family tradition of working in the pecan industry. I feel the same way today. No regrets whatsoever.
While we’re taking this trip down Memory Lane, I often get asked about how I came to be the Chief Nut Officer. I remember while on a flight home, I read an article about the man who runs the famous little red wagon company – Radio Flyer. He was the self-proclaimed Chief Wagoneer. I knew I needed a title that would get me access to the C-suite for corporate sales, yet light enough to have fun with the company. Right then, I decided I was going to be known as the CNO of Cane River Pecan Company. After all, at the end of the day, we sell pecans. It’s not that serious. And you know what the best thing is? Over the years, people sometimes forget my name, but they never, ever forget my title! Whenever I give a person my card, I have the pleasure of a “wait-for-it” moment until they read my title, and they always give a little chuckle. It’s memorable. And hey, don’t we all need to be memorable in business? Of course we do!
Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop
Running a company is tough and unpredictable to say the least. We are faced with so many incredible challenges all of the time and each year, the challenges change. It really never stops and the pace is incredible, even for a small company like ours. Our original challenge was marketing the pecan itself, our later challenges have included upgrading packaging, expanding our selection of pecan specialties, building a real mail order catalog, embracing the internet, technology upgrades and facility improvements. I consider these healthy challenges, as every one of them speaks to an increased demand for delicious pecan goods.
I am proud that we have been able to offer a consistently great range of products and services year after year and have grown as a result. Sure, we spend a lot of time and financial resources to grow the company. But when you can grow organically by offering great products to a new and unsuspecting customer, and they in turn buy the product for themselves because they were so impressed, well … then you have something unique on your hands. That is when it becomes special. That’s why, thanks to customers like you with an insatiable appetite for our delicacies, we are still here to celebrate yet another National Pecan Month.
Keeping your business ahead of the curve means developing strong relationships — and lots of them. From clients and customers to business partners, vendors, employees and more, your list of vital players is ever growing and increasingly harder to handle. With professional gifting tips and industry insights, Cane River Pecan Company is here to help.
