NOSH: Market Share with Jan Tharp, CEO of Bumble Bee Seafood Company

Carol Ortenberg [00:07] Hello, I'm Carol Ortenberg, the editor of Nosh. Welcome to the first episode of our new video series, where we'll sit down with the executives, leaders, and key decision makers in the food industry to learn how they approach their own strategic choices and understand their points of view of trends and news. As an opening theme for the first few shows we do here, we're gonna speak with some of the top female executives in our industry, understanding what their careers and food have looked like and what motivates them. Now, the role of CEO can be stressful even on the best of days, but being the CEO of a company that's undergoing a complete overhaul of its messaging, products, business, and company culture can take the pressure to the next level. That's what's happening at the Bumblebee Seafood Company, which is trying to adapt to changing consumer values in real time. Today, we're going to speak with Bumblebee CEO and president Jan Tharpe, about the way she operates when trying to retool Bumblebee for the future. But to do that, first she had to get through an uneasy immediate past. Jan didn't come to the job during a peaceful journey. She became CEO and president after her predecessor stepped down. He'd been indicted by the US Department of Justice regarding his part in a price fixing scandal. And there were already choppy waters. Bumblebee was dealing with product recalls around possible pathogen spoilage and lawsuits regarding underfilled cans. In short, Jan had a big task facing her, yet she has managed to turn around the brand, repositioning the company for future growth in the midst of a global pandemic, no less, rebranding its products, and pushing the company forward into new categories including plant-based seafood. Today we'll discuss how she went about helping the company recover, what her immediate goals are, and what she'd like to see as the future for Bumblebee. Jan, thanks so much for being here today. Thank you, Carol. To start, describe to me the company situation when you took over as CEO and what your immediate goals were.

Speaker 2 [02:16] It was, uh, it was May of 2018, and, and actually I was called to a conference room in, in our corporate office and On the line was a few of our board members. That's when I was told our previous CEO was indicted, and they had asked me to step up to the CEO role and be ready for a bank meeting later that afternoon. And, as you know, my background really is not banking, but, uh, It was one of those things that happened so fast and, and so we agreed I would do it. There was no length of time associated with it. Really, the key issue of the day was to get through the, the bank meeting. So, We got through the bank meeting and as far as next steps, we had two issues that we needed to get through. We, we had a bank refinancing and we had civil cases against us. And, and so to me, which I was pretty task-oriented, uh, I figured, OK, we've got to get through bank refinancing and settle the civil cases. So, we'll put those on the list. Uh, clearly, I'm not a banker. Or a lawyer because those tasks were significantly larger than, than what I had expected. Uh, and, and we spent the first year basically going through, uh, getting our banks happy with the company performance and attempting to settle the, the civil cases, which, which took about a year before we got to the point where we had to make a decision between Uh, potentially settling or going another path, which, uh, as you know, that other path was bankruptcy.

Carol Ortenberg [03:57] Now, you clearly saw a future for this company, but I imagine with a brand of this size, there's a level of coordination that's required to get your whole team on board. Can you give us a little detail as to the scope of your constituents and how as a leader, you got everyone working in the same direction and really won over their trust in you as CEO?

Speaker 2 [04:19] Yeah, I think the advantage that I had is that I had been in the business as COO for about 8 years. And, and from that vantage point, uh, you know, I knew that we had an incredibly talented team with a lot of passion and a lot of resilience. And, and so, It really became Carol, uh, managing these two stories. And one story was we had a great group of people, highly motivated that um did not represent at all a lot of the news that they were reading in the trade journals with respect to our company. And, and so it, it was, everyone had this, uh, and this passion to show the world that, you know, at the end of the day, the Bumblebee Seafood Company is a, a great group of people and, and so we began our transformation at the same time that we were also, uh, every single day reading all this, this negativity about the company and about some previous team members that were, were at the company and I, I think that one thing that bound us all together was our collective love for the business and, and our respect for each other. And so from that perspective, my style is, is very, very open. We, we intentionally had Just an incredible amount of communication meetings and, and we did those frequently, we did those with full transparency. So we didn't hide anything. And, and one of the things that I, I feel very passionately about is when you're in times of trouble, it is so much easier to hear one voice. Um, so instead of trying to have little group meetings and pass the message Down so that we could get it out, you know, into our corporate offices and into our factories and into some of our, our global operations. Uh, I did those myself and, and intentionally did so because the, the content of what was going on was so critical for everybody to understand that yes, we absolutely were in a very difficult situation. Um, but at the end of the day, there was an endgame, and, and we called those that period, we absolutely called it our choppy water period, and we talked a lot about those blue skies, and, and blue skies to us represented what it would be like when we got out of those choppy waters. And because we're a seafood company, uh, a lot of times we use seafood or, or nautical references. We, we talked about the lighthouse that would guide us through those choppy waters. And, you know, the lighthouse ended up being our core values, values and guiding principles that we use to operate the business. The lighthouse also became what we called our North Star. Our North Star was this business transformation of how we were going to put the consumer first. And listen to our consumers as we designed new products and revamped some of our, our packaging. Um, we also have a sustainability pillar, which again, you know, we've, we've always been on the forefront of sustainability, but essentially, Carol, we revamped the entire company and, and we broken into three sections, people, product, and planet. And, and while we were fighting off the, the issues that, that we've talked about earlier with our financial issues and, and our legal issue. Issues. Uh, we were able to devote a lot of time and effort into the business and, and a lot of times we talk about planting the seeds for future growth. Uh, we diverted the attention away from the negative, put it into trying to build what we knew would start to flourish, and, and what we're seeing now is those seeds are starting to get these green sprouts and, and we couldn't be more excited about where we sit today.

Carol Ortenberg [08:21] As a leader, you know, as you're going through this process, was there one question you routinely asked yourself or asked your team to think about as you, you know, started making these decisions to get through the choppy waters?

Speaker 2 [08:35] I don't know that there was necessarily a, a. I, I will tell you there were some dark days and as you can imagine leading a company through that, uh, our, our senior executive team, there were a lot of times we sat around the table in silence just staring at each other, uh, because it was, uh, in some cases very dark, but there was one thing that, that we said a lot and, and I still say to this day that it's always darkest before dawn. Um, there was never a time that we doubted our ability to get to the other side. I can say that with 100% confidence. Uh, I have so much confidence in our team, and, and again, their resilience that there was no question that we would get to the other side. But certainly there were those dark days and there were those setbacks and, and each time you'd have to wake up the next day and, and get dressed and, and come back to the office and, and be ready for that day's fight. But it did work and, and we did get through those. We, we got through those choppy waters together and we were able to do every single thing that we said that we would do. Uh, we were able to accomplish and, and I think it was, uh, a matter of Holding two truths, accepting reality. We couldn't change the fact that we were in a, a difficult situation and it wouldn't have done any good to try to sugarcoat that. It was a bad situation. So accept reality, but still be optimistic about your future. So hold those two truths and, and don't let one over, overshadow the other. So accepting your reality, moving towards optimism, and, and we were able to get to the other side. So I don't know that necessarily there was a question that we asked every day, uh, but I did know that every day that was dark was just leading us closer and closer to those blue skies which we eventually got to.

Carol Ortenberg [10:31] 2020 hasn't been the easiest year for America and food companies in general. I know canned tuna certainly was probably a product that many people stocked up on. Um, you know, did that period prepare you for this year? I think that point of accepting reality, but then thinking about how you could move forward is perhaps a good blueprint for a lot of companies about how they address the pandemic as well.

Speaker 2 [10:59] Exactly. Uh, our industry, and I think anyone in the, the wild capture fishery industry is used to dealing with a lot of volatility and a lot of crisis. I mean, you're dealing all around the globe and, uh, weather impacts your business and, you know, tariffs impact your business. There's so many things that impact a, a wild. Capture, uh, fisheries business. And so as a, a group, we're actually pretty good at managing through crisis and if something happens, we're able and, and nimble enough to react to it. Um, when we were going through those choppy waters, I, I would say that was the crisis a little bit on steroids. It was a lot to, to juggle. Um, and when we came through the bankruptcy, it was at the end of January and, and sold the business. And there was a momentarily, we were all so happy, hey, we got through it, and, and so to be hit with the pandemic in mid-March, you know, our, our celebration was very short-lived and we were right back into the throes of Crisis, but to your point, Carol, I mean, it is, uh, we didn't get a break, but that muscle that we developed over time to, to be able to get through a difficult situation certainly came in handy when it came to COVID-19. Uh, it was almost like we were preconditioned to To deal with the situation. And obviously, the, the situation was a little bit different. Uh, to your point, we did see a spike in demand. Uh, our number one priority across the entire company is the health and welfare of all of our team members. So making sure that they stayed protected and, and we took care of them. In a holistic way as they continued to come into our factories and produce product for the shelves across the, the US was really important and, and we were able to do that. So I would say yes, we were conditioned a bit given what we had been through the last 36 months to, to deal with COVID-19. Uh, and we continue to do that today.

Carol Ortenberg [13:05] Now, you referenced this a little bit. In 2019, the company did declare bankruptcy, and to some, I think this would, you know, on the surface be, oh, this is a bad sign. But at the same time, um, in speaking with you and reading about the company, it seems like it also freed you to make some changes for the better. So, what did the bankruptcy do to the company with regard to its ongoing financial position and how do you now push forward and recover in the eyes of the market and your partners as well?

Speaker 2 [13:37] Yeah, the, the bankruptcy was a tough, it was a tough pill to swallow. There's no question about that. Uh, in fact, for the longest time when I was speaking to our team, I wouldn't even use the word. I would use financial restructuring because I had a hard time with the word bankruptcy. It just had this very negative connotation and it felt that it wasn't, it just didn't feel like it was right for our business. And as we went through it, we had so many people say, well, this is just a very unusual situation. You, you actually have a healthy business, but because of your extenuating circumstances and the circumstances that are outside of your business with respect to interest in the, the civil case and the litigation, uh, you really don't have a choice and, and we fought to the very end. We were hopeful that we might be able to avoid a bankruptcy. When it became evident that that was really the only path forward. Again, as I mentioned, it was a tough pill to swallow, but we used the same exact communication vehicle that we used to build up to the bankruptcy to explain to, to all of our constituents because obviously the bankruptcy is not uh an insular. Type activity. It impacts our team members. It impacted our suppliers as well as our, our customers. And, and so that communication then had to be significantly wider and, and, but the same open and transparent communication that we use with our team members, we also did with our suppliers. We explained the situation. Uh, we explained that we would come out to the, the other side. We talked to all of our customers and explained we are still the same great Bumblebee Seafood Company that is supplying your products and, and regardless of this bankruptcy, we will continue to supply you products and, and we did. So the, the bankruptcy for us was a change in ownership and, and what it allowed was for the company to move forward in the bankruptcy, we sold the business to FCF, which is one of the largest fishing companies, fish trading companies, um, in the world, and they're also very familiar with our company. So they've been a supplier into the Bumblebee Seafood Company for almost 30 years. So they're very familiar with the industry. They're a strategic buyer and, and quite honestly, if there was any light at the end of the tunnel, the fact that the business was sold to a strategic Certainly put us in a significantly better position uh than we were previously. And, you know, they've owned us since the last part of January, I want to say, and, you know, they're an extremely forward-thinking company and uh very uh open in their thoughts, very supportive of the management team and, and our philosophies and where we're going as a company, and, and so we couldn't be happier.

Carol Ortenberg [16:34] As the CEO of a company, you know all the details of what's going on, but how do you figure out what messaging to deliver to, uh, you know, what part of your team that gives them enough to feel comfortable and secure in their job and their work, but also not overwhelm them at the same time.

Speaker 2 [16:54] Yeah, I believe, I think my, my general philosophy is that, you know, we have a group of extremely competent individuals and, and actually the more you can share with them, the better the ideas to get through the situation. And, and what we found, Carol, is, you know, in addition to dealing with the bankruptcy and, and the refinancing, the, the business had other challenges. We had the, the highest prices or raw material prices in history that we were dealing with. There were supply shortages in, in some of our categories and, and we were also dealing with the, the new China tariffs. So there was a fair amount of pressure on the business even before the civil litigation and, and some of the banking issues and And being able to sit around the table and talk openly about that and, and talk about this is what we need to do in order to get close to our numbers or make our numbers. What I found is there were so many different ideas and, and when you really lay out the issues and say, this is the reality, this is where we are, this is where we want to be, and, and what's the best way to get there, we found from all levels of the organization. Fantastic ideas with respect to, well, you know, Jan, if we do this, then maybe we can save a little money here or if we do this, perhaps we can be more efficient and, and get an increase in our case production by 10%. These ideas came from the entire business and, and quite honestly, every, every time we got one and we implemented it, It gave the team so much more uh confidence to come back with another idea. And as much as we say the bankruptcy helped us to get to the other side with our new owner, I would argue that, that half of our success really came internally from the business with people coming up with these great ideas. To help us run the business more efficiently and, and deal with some of the residual issues that were already there. So, as far as sharing information, I'm, I'm a huge advocate of being completely open and, and being OK with admitting that you don't have the answers. I don't have all the answers. Clearly, I don't, uh, but Having a conversation with a group of people, you're going to get so many more ideas and the solutions are going to be better than if you think that, that your ideas are the best. And, and I think that that was so evident as we've gone through the last 36 months, that the, the more voices that you can bring around an issue and, and the differing perspectives on an issue, your solutions are just so much better.

Carol Ortenberg [19:44] Speaking of changes, you've also reimagined what's pretty iconic packaging, rebranding Bumblebee and even saying goodbye to your company mascot. I imagine there's a lot of concern when you change packaging consumers are used to seeing on shelves and the risk that they might not recognize or like the new bumblebee. How did you approach this process and why did you feel it was necessary, and has there been blowback from consumers?

Speaker 2 [20:13] Yeah, great question. Uh, I'm gonna go ladder up just a little bit. So before we change the packaging, we actually changed and enhanced our, our consumer marketing team. We brought in a new chief growth officer, uh, and, and he brought in a lot of rockstar talent from outside of the industry. And, and so with that talent and that fresh perspective combined with the, the tenure of the people already inside Bumblebee. Uh, we had some really robust discussions about our brand. And, and again, the main goal was to become relevant to the consumers because the shelf stable industry had, had lost a little bit of its relevance. There hadn't really been any innovation and it looked the same as it, it probably did 50 years ago. And, and so the, the new team and, and some of the old team got together and, and again, had some tough conversations about About how we should show up on the shelf. And in that discussion, and, and we did involve consumers in that discussion. So that was a diversion from, from how we operated before. We certainly listened to the consumer voice. But if we just look at tuna, there was a risk calculation that we, we took as we rebranded our bumblebee tuna and, and there's two portfolios of tuna. There's our pouch business and our Canned business. If you look at our pouch business, uh, we were not a major player in pouch, we were, you know, under 5%. And, and so the team felt, well, from a 1 to 10% risk profile, since we're so small, we can afford to be up in the 8 or 9% when it comes to changing our package. And, and so that package looks radically different, uh, than, than perhaps our, our bumblebee can. When you move into the can. Um, the can, we have a close to a 40% share, a little higher than 40%. So you want a lower risk tolerance there. So the, the, the graphics change there was maybe a 3 or 4. But again, talking to the consumer, our team knew what was important to a canned tuna buyer and so keeping that red and, and keeping some of the font the same. Uh, it was OK to retire Horatio, but there are certain elements of the can that are very similar to the old bumblebee, refreshed in an exciting way. And if you look at the, the pouch business again, uh, the idea there was to bring the culinary forward. The, that our products have an immense amount of offerings and it just wasn't coming out with our old packaging. Uh, Old packaging wasn't inviting enough to the culinary experience that one would get when, when they purchased our products. So that was really the goal. Again, the risk tolerance was a little different for pouch versus, versus cans, but um we're getting a lot of positive feedback on, on the move and we'll continue to use that same philosophy as we look at the rest of our portfolio in the Bumblebee Seafood Company. So I think it was quite effective.

Carol Ortenberg [23:24] I want to shift uh directions a little bit. You mentioned having a fresh perspective, and it might be ironic to some that you're the CEO of a seafood company, but also someone who is very outspoken about the need to protect our oceans and the animals within them. Um, some may allege that seafood companies are part of the problem, but you're really trying to change your role to that of protector. So how do you reconcile these two efforts and marry both profit and mission? Are you looking at other industries for their own resource management practices and sort of how are you developing this path forward?

Speaker 2 [24:03] Uh, I think it is, uh, it's a great question because at the end of the day, no matter who you are in this industry, the ocean becomes extremely important. And as we look at this business, um, everyone needs to be thinking about what happens 25 years from now, what happens 50 years from now. And if we don't take care of the resource that is providing us our livelihood today, Then it, it won't be here for tomorrow. And so as our team looked at, you know, population growth, I think is a, a really good indicator. By 2050, the population is going to be in round numbers, close to 10 billion people, and the consumption or the demand for seafood is only going to increase. And if you look at the math, that would tell you that there is no way under the current situation. That you will be able to increase demand for seafood just with wild capture fisheries, which is predominantly what, what bumblebee is in. Um, and, and so it really meant embracing other technologies and, and other innovations and That means to us taking a look at what else is out there. And, and so when we look at our business today, we look at wild capture fisheries certainly have a home in, in seafood, so does aquaculture, plant-based, we were the first in, in North America to enter into a plant-based distribution agreement. Uh, and, and then finally, which is kind of in its infancy stages, is cultivated seafood. And, and I think, Carol, there may be more technologies that come over time, but I think that as an industry, we all need to embrace those technologies. We all need to be stewards of the ocean and, and figure out how do we protect the ocean and the 200 million families that rely on seafood for their livelihood. So it becomes a balancing act. But I, I think in too many cases, if people are narrow-minded or have blinders on with respect to, I only want to focus in on exactly what I've always done, uh, you could become obsolete very quickly if you do that, and you could be obsolete because of a disruptive technology, or you could be obsolete because you're, you know, the primary species that you're fishing is perhaps overfished or there's some other complications. So I think having a, we like to talk about it as having like a 30,000 ft view of the world. I think you do need to open up your aperture and think about things that we traditionally weren't thinking about. And if we start thinking forward, uh, I think that helps us make better decisions today. And, and, and quite honestly, that is something that we are working on at, at the Bumblebee Seafood Company. Traditionally, you know, I talked about how great we are in crisis and we're really good and nimble at adapting to different things that are going on in the business and, and we are really good at that. But the muscle that we haven't really developed yet that we're working on now is thinking forward. Forward and thinking about not what happens in the next 3 months or the next 6 months, but let's talk about what's happening in the next 10 years and 15 years so that we can start making the decisions today that will still continue to provide livelihood for everybody that relies on, on seafood 15 and 20 years from now. So it's a, it's a little bit of a Company shift. And, you know, that's, that's also one of our challenges. How do you get somebody who is so used to managing in short-term increments to take those glasses off and put on a new set of glasses and start thinking about the future. Uh, it is, uh, it's a different skill set and, and again, I, I'm not going to say that we're perfect at it, but we're certainly starting that journey.

Carol Ortenberg [27:57] I appreciate how thoughtful you are in making these decisions. So what's your advice to a brand that sees the tide turning in consumer sentiment and doesn't know if it's going to be a long-standing movement that they need to pay attention to, or a passing fad that they should ignore and just stay true to their mission and their brand?

Speaker 2 [28:19] Yeah, I think that's a, a really good question because things are changing all the time. You know, every day it's a new flavor or it's something because consumers are changing very, very quickly. I, I think it's really important for brands to understand who they are as a, a starting point. So, basically, what their, their purpose is and, and what they're really good at. Um, but it's also important at the same time, and we've talked a lot today about holding two truths. It is important to watch what's going on around you and it's extremely important to understand what's going on outside of your industry, especially things that are going on outside your industry that could impact, um, things that are going on inside your industry. And so one of the things that we've done is we've used partnerships. So partnerships are a great way to understand Other business models and, and kind of test the water before you actually get into, let's say, uh, an acquisition. And, and so we've used those effectively. And, and that helps us keep our eye on what's going on in, let's call it the fringe part of, of seafood. And if something looks like it's gaining traction, then we can move very quickly. But I would say the advice to anyone looking at trying to figure out if something is a, a movement or a fad is to go in with your eyes wide open. Open and, and today as things are changing at record pace, you do have to understand anything that could be outside your industry that could have implications to your, your industry and, and change your trajectory. So it, it's a, it's a matter of balancing both. What are you really good at and keeping your eye on what could potentially change your strategy in the future.

Carol Ortenberg [30:13] Well, I wanna end by, by looking forward to this future a little bit more, uh, in a different direction. Um, I personally love attending the Seafood Expo every year in Boston, um, and while there's an increasingly larger pool of women in leadership positions, it's still, um, shall we say, a work in progress. Um, so what is it like being a female leader in the seafood industry?

Speaker 2 [30:41] Uh, I've been very fortunate at, at the Bumblebee Seafood Company and that we have a tremendous amount of, of female leaders. Uh, and, and I would say that one of the things that, that companies need to think about is, uh, I'm not so sure that it's gender-specific as much as it is, um, Being open to thought diversity and you almost need that thought diversity and you need to be able to be open to other perspectives, uh, before you start seeing changes in, in your organization. So, if the organization thinks in a homogeneous way, then the organist, the, the organization is going to look homogeneous and And, and Carol, that's something I've learned just in the last couple of years, uh, with respect to what does thought diversity really mean? And, and a lot of people just get caught up in things. I, I've been in business for 30 years and, and it's still fallen into the trap of interviewing somebody and asking my question or asking the question, gosh, would they fit into our culture? And, you know, right out of the gate, that's a bias. You're, you're trying to find somebody that is going to fit into your culture, well, then that's not thought diversity. And, and so I, I think that as you look around business and, and you look around businesses that don't have diversity, there's probably an underlying reason why they don't have diversity and it's probably because they haven't yet discovered that, you know, they could have these biases and, and maybe not even be, uh, maybe they're not awake to those biases. yet. And, and so that's something that I am extremely proud of our company that we are going through that. We're not perfect by, by any stretch. But if you had asked the last couple of years for me personally, uh, growing as a leader inside this organization, it is understanding and appreciating uh this thought diversity and diversity of perspectives and how much stronger that can actually make an organization if you embrace that.

Carol Ortenberg [32:53] Well, while you have embraced this idea of thought diversity, how do you then get that to filter down throughout the entire organization so that you really see it on all levels?

Speaker 2 [33:05] I, I think it starts, uh, it does start in your guiding principles and for us, it was creating our shared values and we did that collectively and, and bringing values to the table. They're not just words. If, if you just create your values and you stick them up on a wall, then, then that's not overly effective. What we've tried to do and, and it has been extremely effective is bring those values to life. And, and so we have 5 of them. And they get incorporated into our presentations. A lot of times they get incorporated into the way we talk to each other. One of our values is show love and uh we use text a lot and so we've got a little love symbol in our text that we send. Uh, and, you know, there's nothing, it's one of those things that, uh, it has taken off. And what is so fantastic to see is when you start getting into some of our, our team members that are not located in San Diego. So when you start seeing our team members, perhaps in our, our Bali office or our, our Thailand office, using our Values in their presentations, then you know that that's actually taken root. And, and I, I think that that helps us with our culture and, and it certainly makes Bumblebee or the Bumblebee Seafood Company a great place to work. Another proof point of that is as we were going through our choppy waters, I think because we put so much time into value. and culture. Uh, we also won one of the top workplaces in, in San Diego in 2019. So the same month that we filed for, uh, bankruptcy protection, we won top workplaces in San Diego. I think that speaks to our team and it speaks to the culture and, and how much we value having a very strong culture inside the company.

Carol Ortenberg [34:59] Well, Jan, thank you so much for sharing your company story and your company culture and values with us. I'm excited to see what the future of Bumblebee Seafood Company looks like at you at, with you at the helm, and uh thank you again for joining us today.

Speaker 2 [35:14] Thank you, Carol, it was great to be here.