Mason Dixie Foods - Ayeshah Abuelhiga

Speaker A: All right, welcome to the podcast on today's show with Asha from Mason Dixie Foods. Thanks for joining.

Speaker B: Thanks for having me. Really excited.

Speaker A: People who don't know what's the company.

Speaker B: Yeah. So we specialize in frozen natural comfort foods. Our premise is really that, um, people should feel good about the food they crave. And, you know, comfort foods taken many forms and a lot of industrialization over the time. We actually started as a restaurant.

Speaker A: Oh, no way. Okay.

Speaker B: Yep. 11 years ago now. Wanted to take out chick fil a and the big guys that were just, you know, feeding people stuff filled with preservatives and nonsense. And it really got away from the premise of what the origination of, like, comfort food in America really is. So we took it back to basics. Like, five, six ingredient formulas. Everything from scratch, handmade techniques. And then sure enough, you know, really quickly into having the restaurant. We had mile, mile long lines. I mean, our first drive thru opening, I'll never forget, we had lines two miles long out to this Costco that was opening.

Speaker A: Wow.

Speaker B: And this, like, guy on the security golf cart comes over. He's like, what the hell is this? He's thinking it's just like people blocking the Costco. And he didn't realize it was our drive thru line.

Speaker A: Wow.

Speaker B: So just, it just shows that people really want this kind of food. And so just a year into our existence, we were asked by Whole Foods to launch, um, our biscuits, actually.

Speaker A: Okay.

Speaker B: They wanted something signature and local that kind of would light the frozen category up.

Speaker C: We did that. We outsold butter and milk sales that day, and we just never looked back.

Speaker B: It just totally burgeoned to this full product line.

Speaker C: You guys have your.

Speaker A: When you first opened, what were the hero products or what did you think they'd be like? What were the things that people were responding the most to?

Speaker B: At the restaurant?

Speaker A: Yeah, at the restaurant.

Speaker B: Um, so our biggest number one seller was our fried chicken sandwich, which shameless plug launching into Whole Foods nationwide as we speak. Sold out at the West Hollywood location right now. Um, but, uh, it was that and then our biscuit breakfast sandwich. So sausage, egg and cheese biscuit.

Speaker A: So you were crushing breakfast and lunch, basically.

Speaker B: Yeah. We were open seven to two, um, six days a week. And in the cut. Like, we were in a very, um, food deprived zone. Right. But we took over an old Wendy's. It was the shit. It was so cool.

Speaker A: Okay, that's cool.

Speaker B: And it blew up and it just, you know, we were doing almost $2 million out of that location. And quality of life was great. People Were making money, we were selling out of food. So that's how we knew we were like onto something.

Speaker A: When you first came to market though, were you telling people that you're gonna go with the healthy angle, like the simpler, better formula? Or were you just like, let' go on taste? And people would, if they want to ask what's in it? Because the people at Chick Fil A, they don't ask, they don't care. They just go, does it taste good? I'm in.

Speaker B: Yeah.

Speaker D: Yeah.

Speaker B: Both really, because we really believe that the quality of what you put into the food really brings taste forward. Right. I mean, you're in California.

Speaker C: Right.

Speaker B: So that's the best.

Speaker A: We're very blessed.

Speaker B: Oh, 100%. So we really, really spec every ingredient that goes into the food. And in the end, even though it's a simple formula, it is incredible.

Speaker C: Right.

Speaker B: And really, even early on at the restaurants, I think it was, to your point, it was a shift. Like we were in a food desert. The only competition we had was a Checkers, uh, KFC, Taco Bell and a McDonald's. All of them lost thousands, thousands of dollars the first three months we opened. Because everyone was trying us. Because that neighborhood was begging for something different.

Speaker A: Sure.

Speaker B: And explaining to them like they would taste it. They were like, oh, this is so much more expensive than kfc. And we're like, right, but you're eating organic hormone free chicken. We're frying it in fresh oil. It's not like being recycled. It's not hydrogenated oil, it's peanut oil. You know, we were doing all the right things. And once they realized how it could be done, they never went back to the chains. They were like, wow, this is such a different thing. Yeah, I mean, funny story. We were right across the street from a strip club. And because we were

Speaker A: late night at the strip club.

Speaker B: Well, not even late night.

Speaker A: You're open till 2. Yeah.

Speaker B: So they're having dinner at 7am okay. Those strippers are the reason why we started serving for fried chicken that early. We used to wait till like 11.

Speaker A: This is the first time anyone's ever shot out or plugged strippers.

Speaker B: I'm just telling you. Thank you. To the ladies.

Speaker A: To the ladies.

Speaker B: It was strippers and nurses, man. Because they wanted, they wanted, you know, dinner for breakfast. Breakfast for dinner. You know, you're dealing with all kinds

Speaker C: of people that are kind of ignored

Speaker B: by the traditional, fast, uh, casual space. So yeah, it was, it was a game changer. And that's.

Speaker C: They.

Speaker B: All these people really were the Focal point. Right. They were the ones that, uh, to this day, I mean, we still pulse all those same customers that have been ride or die with us for 10 years as to what they want, which

Speaker C: is why we have so many products now.

Speaker A: There's a story there. It's like the strippers work so hard to eat our food. They don't want to do with their job. They're just. They're just trying to eat the Mason Dixie Chicken.

Speaker B: Maybe that's it. They're just working for. Was it working for Friday?

Speaker A: Was your plan always to launch into. Into supermarket, like, into. Into frozen cpg? No. Okay. Uh, so what did you think originally when you first started that you thought, okay, cool, let's open up a brick and mortar, see how it goes, and then probably just expand it, I would imagine.

Speaker B: Yeah, Yeah. I wanted. I wanted to open 100 plus brick and mortar location, fast, casual alternative. Right? Because, like, at the time we launched in DC and dc, if people don't know, is a fast casual hotbed, there's just an epicenter there of people that are from all over the country. So you get a good litmus test, Right? No one's really from D.C. yeah. So they bring all their perspectives in. Kava, sweetgreen, um, five guys, uh, and pizza. They all launched there, right? So I had a good cohort, right, to learn from and gather intel from and contacts and whatnot. But the one common thread, right, there was better pizza. There's better burgers, better everything. But there was not better fried chicken and biscuits. It was still Chick Fil A booming.

Speaker A: What year was that?

Speaker B: Um, that was 2013. 14.

Speaker A: Okay.

Speaker B: Yeah.

Speaker A: Yeah, totally. Right?

Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. And that was before Chick Fil A is what it is now.

Speaker C: Right?

Speaker B: They were still. Still rising. And I'm like. When I looked at the ingredient panels for stuff, I'm like, holy crap. This is worse for their kids than them going to Popeyes. And it is, to this day.

Speaker A: It's pretty bad.

Speaker B: It's bad. So, you know, I was like, all right, there is room for this if there's room for clean label burgers. Right. If there's room for better for you pizza. Yeah, there's gotta be room for better for you comfort food.

Speaker A: And so when did the flip happen, uh, for you, personally, mentally around, like, okay, let's make this a CPG brand and not scaling this to 100 locations.

Speaker B: So when we launched in our first Whole Foods, that was like, a year into our existence as a restaurant.

Speaker A: And they approached you because.

Speaker B: They approached us.

Speaker C: Okay.

Speaker B: Yeah. It was Just gangbusters. And we went from, like, zero because we outsold, like, the dairy overall category sales. It went from 0 to 200 overnight. So we were basically in every local grocery, uh, store around. Still thought it was great marketing for the restaurant. Yeah.

Speaker A: You're thinking like, this drives people in.

Speaker B: Totally.

Speaker A: Yeah. And you're making the product anyway.

Speaker B: Exactly.

Speaker A: Yeah, exactly.

Speaker B: Yeah. We were making out the back of the drive thru. Right. These are things you can't do anymore. But, like, this is how we did it, right? We were just grinders, and all of a sudden we had two companies. And I was like, all right, we'll figure this out, right? And then, you know, three and a half, four years in Covid hits, okay? And the restaurants went to a standstill. I mean, there were no people commuting on Metro. The federal government shut down. There were no customers walking around and to mobilize quick enough to get deliveries or all that. It was just so hard.

Speaker C: So, uh, we closed the restaurants and then we totally pivoted to the consumer side.

Speaker A: Survival.

Speaker B: Survival. But the crazy thing was, on the consumer side, we were growing 500%. It was nuts.

Speaker A: Wow.

Speaker B: Because everybody was rediscovering their grocery store. Everyone was.

Speaker C: That was.

Speaker A: Their freezer aisle became high.

Speaker B: Yeah. So it was like a whole different experience. And then, holy shit, you know, we just leaned in on it and literally in the middle of the pandemic, whole food comes out again and they're just like, hey, can you make your restaurant stuff but in frozen? And we were like, uh, we can try. Um, but it was the best timing too, because, um, fun fact about us too. We really work with a lot of

Speaker C: the largest, uh, food manufacturing partners in the world.

Speaker B: I'm actually really proud to say that

Speaker C: because I think there's a glory in startup culture to talk about starting grassroots and small, right?

Speaker B: And there is, right?

Speaker C: We're at the small local manufacturer, small local bakery, right? And. And you want to support. But when scale comes, people aren't trying to spend $10 on a sandwich, right? So when you really start thinking about that, you gotta find these large partners. To me, it's a real achievement because these guys make biscuits for McDonald's, right? These guys make biscuits for Popeyes, and they make it out of crap. And it's crazy because whenever we go, uh, the line workers that make our product, they will only eat ours. So, you know, all the uglies and the mistakes that come off the line and the extras at the end, they clamor to take those home. They never take the Other stuff home.

Speaker A: Wow.

Speaker C: Just goes to show you, like, how much we've been able to not just change consumer products, but even food manufacturing. So anyway, leaning in on those big partners really allowed us to kind of scale quickly. And they're the ones that really just give us the opportunity to really say, okay, how do we get this everywhere? Right.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker C: So it was the right partnership at the right time. Also, during COVID they were hurting. Right. All the QSRs were down 100%. Food service dead. So we were keeping the lights on

Speaker B: because we were growing.

Speaker D: Yeah.

Speaker C: And they were, like, willing to do it. So there was this crazy, like, Nexus, Right. Of, like. I know.

Speaker B: I think you don't get to be

Speaker C: retrospective as a founder. Right.

Speaker B: You're just always like, go, go, go.

Speaker C: Right. You don't look backwards enough. And so in moments like these, it's kind of nuts when you think about it, like, holy, like, m. The amount

Speaker A: of emergency board meetings I attended during that time. And so to hear, I'm, um. Like, in my head, I'm just going, oh, okay. So for you, you're pivoting to cpg. And at the same time, nationally, we're being told, oh, uh, two weeks of spread, you know, two weeks to curve it. It's gonna be over soon. Three months. And then fucking two years later, we're still in it.

Speaker B: Still in it.

Speaker A: And so all that's happening, and you're growing a business in a category that is fucking steeped in competition, but you're taking off.

Speaker B: Yeah.

Speaker A: When does it click for you actually that, okay, we're gonna be a CPG company. We're never opening the store again.

Speaker B: You know, that's so funny. Cause I think, yeah. In the back of my mind, I'm like, we'll go back to the restaurant 100%.

Speaker A: Let's go back to normal.

Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker A: Just normal. Normal life.

Speaker B: I. I think it was two years in. And I say that because we got approached by Marriott to help solve for the white paper bag situation they were in. Right. They had no food to serve at the hotels when things started coming back on board because all the big guys had, you know, labor go down. You know, when you have a whole year of not making anything, it's really hard to start back up. So they're in year two, trying to get back to servicing all these customers. And so Mary was like, nah, like, we gotta find other things. They were like, local brand. I heard they make biscuits. Let's talk to them. Right? And then they asked us if we could actually service, you know, 3,000 locations. And I just said, yeah, let's do it. No idea, like how this is going to work. But I, uh, bring it up because that was the moment where I was like, holy crap. I'm sitting here thinking about brick and mortar, right. Every brick and mortar is like one, one and a half million dollars cash in investment, trying to scale it. And then it's like two year payback.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: If you're lucky, Right?

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: And then it's, you know, it's the changeover. It's, um. And you go right into it, right. You try to plan 10 locations. I'm sure, you know, it's a lot. It's a lot.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: Where here we are, we're having this conversation with Marriott and we're about to bust through 3, 000 hotels. It's everything that I wanted originally, Right. I wanted to make better food accessible to as many people as possible. In my mind, it was okay, every hundred brick and mortar times 50,000 customer receipts. You know, I'm thinking, I love this was just like scale, boom, impact, impact. And that was like, this was way better.

Speaker A: I love that.

Speaker C: Yeah.

Speaker A: So for me on M Real estate, people asking like, why don't build like residential properties? It's like, okay, let's take a look at it. So if I build a residential property, let's say it's 40 units. Let's say everyone has fucking Christmas and Thanksgiving and Hanukkah at their place. I'm probably impacting. Let's call it 2000 people max, right?

Speaker B: Yeah.

Speaker A: If I build a brewery or sports bar, I'm doing that weekly or monthly. Right. And so the impact is massive. And then like, people will get married, they'll meet their husband, they'll meet their wife, they'll get divorced, whatever it might be.

Speaker B: Exactly.

Speaker A: But we're gonna have real impact. So I totally get that. The impact side of it is really what we're achieving. Not so much the let me have 100 locations so I can flex. Yeah.

Speaker B: And if you think about it too, Covid really changed everything about. I mean, we were just talking about it with your coffee shop here, Right. Like, it changed human behavior on a social level, on a consumer purchasing level, on everything. So we were limited to thinking brick and mortar was the way until Covid wipes that out.

Speaker C: Right.

Speaker B: Then you're like, man, now everybody just wants to buy, to take it home and be socially like, blockaded. And, you know, everyone's eating at their desk now and there's less of this. Like, so it was Interesting, because coming in from the consumer products side allowed people to have the best of both worlds. Right. They could have restaurant quality food, but they could do it in their pajamas in the privacy of their home.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: And then now, as things kind of move forward, what is the new normal? While restaurants are now becoming again that third place environment, to your point, they have to be absolutely reimagined.

Speaker A: Totally.

Speaker B: We're coming out where, like, alcohol can't just be the centerfold anymore because everyone's on all kinds of know this, know that. Right. You got introduction of anything from marijuana to whatever. Right. You got so much stuff.

Speaker D: Y.

Speaker B: So you, you really think, okay, then what are people going to lean on? Sometimes you just want a little bit of comfort. Right. Sometimes you just want a little bit of normalcy. And like, yeah, I'm trying to tear up a biscuit sandwich right now. Right. I love that. So we really, you know, when we

Speaker C: think about it, like, we love that

Speaker B: this all happened, the timing that it did, because it really allowed us to branch out and finally become a restaurant and a freezer door. Right. Because the world's not 5050 normal yet.

Speaker C: Right.

Speaker B: It's still, still different.

Speaker A: I love that. Did you raise capital at all or were you approached maybe after Covid or during?

Speaker B: Yeah, it was, it was, uh, funny. We were, we were raising just at. Right before COVID happened. A small round. Covid happened. Then obviously we needed a much larger round.

Speaker A: Okay. Um, we're able to get it.

Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. The boom was crazy. Um, I have incredible investors. I'm not going to lie. I've been very lucky to recruit mission based people that really just want to get behind success. And you know, for me, it's a lot of success. Right. Like, I grew up in section 8 housing till I was 13 years old. I came from nothing.

Speaker C: Right.

Speaker B: But I work hard as shit.

Speaker C: Like, I.

Speaker B: This is everything. I'm all in.

Speaker C: Right.

Speaker B: I did everything my immigrant parents told me not to do to lean in on this business. And so, you know, I think our partners really believe in that. Right. They don't. There's no failure button in their mind.

Speaker C: Right.

Speaker B: We're going to figure this out. And yeah, you know, it's been a wonderful ride with them, for sure.

Speaker A: I go back to this all the time where, to your point, like, similar upbringing for me, but it's like the hard work is undefeated.

Speaker B: Yeah.

Speaker A: And if you're an immigrant, it's, it's, it's the same. It's like feeding your families equals hard work equals undefeated. Like, it's a pretty simple formula. Yeah.

Speaker B: It's really. What are your real battles?

Speaker C: Right.

Speaker B: Like becoming a millionaire. Sure. Right. But I'm like, no, no. It's whatever the hell is on the docket today. Like, what is my new. Every day? Like, it's just ingrained in your brain to work like that. Right. Like, uh, what is.

Speaker A: I mean, you have reference point, too, because you saw your parents do it. So you know what it looks like. You know what sacrifice looks like. And so then it's like having that. And it's so funny because growing up with that, you kind of feel bad about it. You're like, oh. And then at some point, you're like, holy shit, that's my superpower. Because I have that reference. How many people don't have that reference?

Speaker B: Right, Exactly.

Speaker A: So you can always tap into it.

Speaker B: Exactly.

Speaker A: I always thank my mom at the groundbreakings as, like, she's the first person I thank for showing me what sacrifice and hard work looks like.

Speaker B: Oh, yes.

Speaker A: Because that's like, I'll never have the problem. We'll never have the problems our parents had.

Speaker B: Correct.

Speaker A: And so in that we live in this space of complete luxury because we can choose our adventure.

Speaker B: Yeah.

Speaker A: But we also know we're going to bring that type of hard work and grit to that adventure.

Speaker B: Totally.

Speaker A: And that that hard work is undefeated.

Speaker B: Totally. It's the best in many ways, too. It's like, for my parents, they used to own a little convenience store deli in Baltimore. We call them carryouts. But my mom's Korean, and she had no idea about running a business, but she just did it. And she. She did it really well because we were in, like, a food desert again, not too far from Hopkins, and she just realized there was no place to get food. So she was like, all right. She learned how to make, um, fried chicken and, like, comfort food when she was working at this, like, old school market called Lexington Market. So your first job when she came to the States, she was like, well, I know how to make these things, so I'll just sell that. And so she used to sell it out of, like, the cold case, but she would put, like, warmer. I mean, she was. Yeah, she was grinding.

Speaker C: Right.

Speaker B: And she did it so well. But then she had such little confidence because she wasn't American because she didn't have a business degree. So she, uh, ended up handing it over to her dad, and he just wrecked it.

Speaker C: Right.

Speaker B: And then she was like, I'm never going to business again because I'm not good at it. I'm like, no, it's not that you weren't good at it. You just didn't. You just. You made one bad decision and then you just let it stop you. Right?

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: So sometimes I think back and I'm like, this is crazy. Is this just some weird curse that's being passed down? It's like my mission to correct for it.

Speaker A: Right.

Speaker B: Or it's not. Like, I just think she, she was onto something and she just didn't get to finish it.

Speaker A: I always think about it like it's skill acquisition.

Speaker C: Yeah.

Speaker A: That's how I look at it.

Speaker C: That's a good point.

Speaker A: So it's like, it's always like, okay, like, if something's bothering me, flustering me, whether it's employee and like, people related, or whether it's like, numbers related, and if it's bothering me or keeping me up and whatever it might be, I'm just like, oh, this is just a skill.

Speaker B: Yeah.

Speaker A: That's all it is. I just, I just have to get the skill.

Speaker B: Bezos also says that.

Speaker A: Is that right?

Speaker B: He said that, like, stress, anything that stresses is just unaddressed things.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: And so the second you address it, it no longer is a stressor for high, high performing people.

Speaker A: Yep.

Speaker B: And that's so true.

Speaker A: And you just have to skip the emotional, like the natural human part of, oh, no, I'll fuck this up, blah, blah, blah. And then you're in your head just so my body's good. My brain is good at skipping that now.

Speaker B: Yeah.

Speaker A: And then I go like, what's the skill? What is the thing I'm, um, missing?

Speaker B: It's that breakdown moment.

Speaker D: Right.

Speaker B: Where it's like, okay, there's a problem. Must compute. Like, it's like, these are the options. Pick one. Right. Like, you just, you don't give yourself the opportunity to wallow and to be threatened.

Speaker A: You can't.

Speaker B: You cannot.

Speaker A: Yeah. I realized this is another learning for me where I was like, when I did wallow, something clicked for me where I just realized, uh, this wallowing is making me an incredibly selfish person. Because while I'm wallowing, nothing's improving.

Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker A: And like, this isn't good for the team. This isn't good for the brand. I'm not growing anything. The impact I'm chasing isn't getting any closer.

Speaker B: Yeah.

Speaker A: So it's like, it's of no value. And once that clicked for me, it was really interesting. Took me a while. Took me like a long, long time of sleepless nights. But once that clicked, it was it. It was like Oh, I never have to deal with that again.

Speaker B: It's funny though, don't you think? Like, I. I get this a lot, maybe more because I'm a woman, but it's like everyone is expecting you to be human, and in their minds, human is having a full scale breakdown and in crisis. And I just don't. Like, I've never operated that way, and I've been through way worse crises than anything in this business. Like, you know, just personally.

Speaker A: Totally.

Speaker B: So it's funny because I've never really broken down for anything because I really don't believe anything is not accomplishable. You know, Like, I just. I just genuinely don't. When I was in la, I had this job where I was at this firm, and this guy, Pastor Casanova.

Speaker A: What a name.

Speaker B: What a name and what a guy he was, he was great. Uh, he fell in love with this girl in Merida, uh, and he was trying to get her over to the US and it was, you know, crazy town, just hard as hell. Because, I mean, hey, we're full circle now, right? Immigrant stuff is just nuts. But then he was like, on his down, and he was just so disappointed because he made the first effort, didn't work out, and he was like. But then I just thought, you know, what have I ever failed at that I put 100% of myself into? Um, and he's a first generation Mexican American. And I'm like, that's a great question. And then I literally, I just stood in that for, like, days. I was like, trying to find something to disprove that comment, right? Like, where have I failed where I haven't put, you know, where I put 100% of it? And I couldn't think of it. And here we are, like 20 years later. I still think about that quote every day. And I still try to find a moment where I put 100% of myself into something and I've failed at. And I can't find one.

Speaker A: I like that. But it's all okay, so then I'll go deeper. But it's like, what is failure actually then.

Speaker B: Oh, that's a. That's a good question too. Right?

Speaker A: Because then it's like, if it brings you to something closer or different or better, then it's like you're in some way, you could say your brick and mortar failed. You just don't look at it like that because Covid wiped out something you did.

Speaker B: I always tell people failure is a period. Pivots are ellipses, right?

Speaker A: I love that.

Speaker B: You just add two more periods or you just, you now it's no longer done, you've just, you've given yourself time to come out of it, you know.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: And so yeah, I think we would not be here if we didn't have that restaurant. It was an absolute story, 100%. It was a necessary also great feedback loop.

Speaker A: Right. I mean like incredible. Always instead of doing demos, you're doing in, in city demos and like now everybody knows about she's on the top

Speaker B: of the box rip.

Speaker A: That's awesome.

Speaker B: You know, I mean like that.

Speaker A: Do you ever have the itch to open again? Oh gosh, you know, you must, you must.

Speaker B: I do, I do. Because I think all I've learned now, 10 years later, if I, if I could apply it again, I would do so many things differently. But at the same time I also think, man, we were onto something way before people got onto it. Right. And I was like, if I could scale that, you know, like it would be amazing. But you know, it's interesting you bring it up though because I think thanks to that Marriott relationship, we really started to enter into this new vertical of food service. And being an operator first gave us a really good lens. And then having incredible partners like Marriott to lean into to learn m the operating environment, we're talking about night auditors ordering and making food. Right. This isn't like traditional back of how staff, you know, like this is hard. And you realize how many food outlets in this country are run like that. They're not run properly with a back of house staff full time, you know. You know, so we were like how do we start becoming a solution for these people? And so here you're seeing all the retail items. So we have a whole lineup of food service ready. We have a packaging component now that's like high heat safe. It could sit in a warmer, it could sit in freezing in cold temps. Hold great individual UPC'd so people don't have to unwrap it and sticker it. Like we really kind of started coming up with solutions. Just efficient. Yeah, yeah. But if we didn't have the restaurant, I wouldn't have had the operator mindset to even think people want this, you know.

Speaker A: Totally.

Speaker B: And it's crazy because we're about to launch in 300 plus colleges, universities this fall because of those little things, those little tweaks. Yeah, uh, you know, like I said, the new normal post Covid is really supporting low skill labor in high yield environments and food. It's hard. And on top of that you got the Starbucksization of coffee People everything in two minutes, including hot food.

Speaker A: Yep.

Speaker B: So if. And you want it to be done well.

Speaker C: Right.

Speaker B: So like to marry that. It's a lot of hard work. And so, you know, being an operator first, being in a high paced breakfast environment every day where you had strippers and children. 7am Hungry, M as hell line out the door, you got the drive through, you got the front. You know, you're used to so much uh, blended experience, you know that it really influences product in a big way.

Speaker A: Okay. So on the growth plan.

Speaker B: Yeah.

Speaker A: Outside of grocery. So you have this, the universities you're launching.

Speaker B: Yeah.

Speaker A: What else is on deck?

Speaker B: Oh, gosh. So convenience is a big play for us. Um, it's an interesting channel because the fastest growing segment is Gen Z. People don't realize that in this, in food and convenience. Yeah, convenience, like small format stores.

Speaker A: Okay.

Speaker B: And. But the variety is terrible. Right. It's just slim gyms and you know, five hour energy. Right. It's still not where it needs to be. And like over 70% of customers want better items, but they're just not getting it because the infrastructure for how convenience is run hasn't really kept up as quickly as it needs to. But that's changing. And I think with brands like, uh, us entering into that world, there's a huge impact we can have. Because again, going back to the mission and the goal of making this stuff accessible, making better food accessible. What an environment to be able to do that. Right.

Speaker A: You know how in parts of like in China, you, you go into a convenience store, it's got like a number on it, like one.

Speaker B: Yeah.

Speaker A: You buy it and then you go to the microwave and you hit one.

Speaker B: Yep.

Speaker A: Do you think that'll. I'm shocked. That doesn't exist at scale.

Speaker B: You wouldn't believe it. I mean Netflix headquarters here buys our stuff. Um, a lot of it's micro vending or unmanned.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: There's over 24,000 private micro marts in the country. So these are anything from your office buildings to basements of apartment buildings to whatever. And 9,000 of them have cold to hot service within the Micromart. So it could be a machine or it could be a self serve, it could be various formats, but it's one of the fastest. It's funny, in Europe they're all over the place. Like when I was in Lisbon at the metro station, like if you're hungover, there's a place to get like those awesome Portuguese sandwiches in the vending machine. You just click it and it comes out. In the airports, you get sandwiches and coffee. And then here it's that crappy, like coffee matic at the Austin airport. It always cracks the hook. This is 1960s Jetsons technology here. This is terrifying. It's so bad because it'd be so much better, you know, and the technology is available. There is ways to do it. But yeah, it's like entering into that whole space is a whole nother. That's a whole other subsection of convenience too. And we're about to really blow that up too, in a big way. So there's restaurant for iteration, for ideation, for corrective action, retail for learnings, consumer brand awareness and building. And then to me, really, it's like that. Food service, convenience, college, university, hospitality, uh, medical. I mean, there's so many verticals of that that we're just beginning to touch and learn about. But that to me is really where we can be that impact. Right. Better than the hundred brick and mortars. Right.

Speaker A: Where do you want to take this? Do you want to go public? Like, where do you ultimately see the brand globally, nationally versus financially?

Speaker B: I just, I want to make it as big as I can. You know, I think, um, the, the interesting thing about this industry, and I'm sure, you know, right, there was a lot of people thinking it's a get rich quick scheme. Like they all idolize.

Speaker C: What's that?

Speaker A: CPG in general.

Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, Food CPG specifically. Like, everyone wants to be like, it got hot for a minute, right? Like, I'm like, bro, like he was one lucky dude. But if you go back and look at some of these brands, like the Chobani's, like the, these were 27, 30 year old brands before they really got to where they were. You got to really want to do this. This is a hard industry. And gosh, you throw a little bit of COVID and all the other craziness at it, right? Like, you got to be agile and

Speaker C: you got to be.

Speaker B: You got to want. I mean, to me, this is legacy. Like why we're still serving Jimmy Dean to 17 year olds who do not want to buy it. I mean, let's be real. They're like, who the hell is that? Right? Like, there needs to be a relevance factor.

Speaker C: There's.

Speaker B: You got to be speaking to the consumer. And right now comfort food in the frozen aisle doesn't. And we're just getting started, you know?

Speaker A: Yeah. Is that how you feel?

Speaker B: I do. I think we're just getting started. I mean, uh, all the crazy things shifting in, in food today, even food regulation. Right. With make America healthy again.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: It's actually really good for us because all these big companies are gonna be scrambling to figure out how to do it right. And we're just like, just, just, just take this. You know, we're good to go. Let's, let's do it. Right.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: And then once people, really people are reading, right. They're researching now. They're trying to figure it out.

Speaker A: Information's everywhere.

Speaker B: It's everywhere bad and good. Yeah, right.

Speaker A: That's true.

Speaker B: But there's no lies here. Like, it's really easy to take the back of this box, look at the ingredient deck and go, okay, I understand what everything is on this. Cool. Right? And that's, that's what, that's what it's going to take.

Speaker A: What's your favorite product today? And what's your hero product? What's your favorite child? I keep looking at it. I'm like, which one am I going to have? And so I realized if I put it on you, I'll have that one when we wrap. And that makes my job easier.

Speaker B: My everything. It started with a recipe from a public library. There are people I'm sure tuning in that have no idea what that is or was. When there was a photo copier, I took a, I took a book, photocopied this Southern cooking book. And it was a five ingredient recipe for biscuits. And I made it for my sisters for the first Thanksgiving I had to cook alone for. Because my latchkey kid. Right?

Speaker A: Yep.

Speaker B: So I was 10 and I made these biscuits because my sisters asked for biscuits. Why they didn't ask for like stovetop stuffing where I could have just added.

Speaker A: Changed your life forever.

Speaker B: Changed my life.

Speaker A: That's amazing.

Speaker B: That one moment. So like, that recipe right there is completely based on that blue box.

Speaker C: Yep.

Speaker B: That is the legacy biscuit sandwich.

Speaker A: Buttermilk biscuit sandwich.

Speaker B: Our buttermilk biscuit is the best. It just hits on very different levels.

Speaker C: So I would say that.

Speaker A: Okay.

Speaker B: But I will tell you, we just got People's Choice award from People magazine on our pancake sandwich and Good Housekeeping on our biscuits for best biscuit snacks.

Speaker A: All over the map.

Speaker B: We're all over the map. It's, I mean, it's doing, the brand's doing really well because we're doing all the things right.

Speaker C: Right.

Speaker B: I think when you do stuff right, people get it and for people listening.

Speaker A: So I know it says microwave here. Can you, can you air fry this?

Speaker B: You can air fry it. You can toaster oven it. You could do all the things. Yep.

Speaker A: Oven this is quick.

Speaker B: It's very and I actually, I'm m not gonna lie. Microwaving that biscuit sandwich to me is the best because the moisture in the biscuit stays really, really beautifully.

Speaker A: Okay.

Speaker B: It's actually, you'd be surprised what can come out of that microwave. Trust me.

Speaker A: I do. I trust you. You're the pro. Thanks for coming on the pod.

Speaker B: Thank you for having me. This is so much fun.

Speaker A: Tell people where they can buy whole foods. They got to enroll in university again, go back to school.

Speaker B: Yeah, no, you can find them at your Costco, most likely, um, nationwide. We're in Albertsons, we're in Kroger's.

Speaker D: We're.

Speaker B: We're pretty much everywhere. If you check our website, mason, dixie foods.com we have a store locator on there. They'll tell you their closest store where you can find us.

Speaker A: Love it. Thanks for coming on the pod.

Speaker B: Thanks for having me, Diego.

Speaker D: Thank you for tuning in. If you enjoyed this episode, share with your friends, your family, or anyone you might think might benefit from the conversation we've had today. And if you haven't already, please take a moment to leave a review on your favorite podcast platform. We'd greatly appreciate it. Your feedback helps us improve and reach more people who can benefit from our discussions. The best way to stay connected with us and get the latest updates on future episodes is through our social media channels. You can find us artup storefront. We'll be back next Tuesday with another great episode. See you then.