Welcome to Season 14 of the Troubleshooting Innovation podcast. Trina Bediako, CEO of New Horizons Baking Co., shares how she balances generational wisdom and youthful disruption to expand a family bakery business in unconventional ways. Sponsored by Coperion.
In our fifth and final episode, we dive into how New Horizons is reshaping its business model with vertical integration as it supplies the foodservice industry and what that means for the future.
Learn more about this season here, and tune into Troubleshooting Innovation on Apple or Spotify.
Joanie Spencer: Hi Trina. thank you so much, not only for joining me today, but also for all you’ve given our listeners over the past month. Thank you so much.
Trina Bediako: It’s my pleasure. Thank you, Joanie.
Spencer: So, a couple of weeks ago, we talked about how the bakery operation has grown, which it’s grown tremendously, but honestly, we really only scratched the surface of New Horizons’ evolution since you stepped into your role. I’d really like to start this conversation with the Coalescence acquisition that happened in 2021. That was the first step in the creation of a custom ingredient portfolio. Can you walk me through how that came about?
Bediako: Sure. We always consider how we grow and change and evolve and be relevant. After COVID, it was just a totally different feel for myself and my team, and we had to reassess who we wanted to be and what we wanted to represent. There are more private equity groups coming in, buying bakeries. The family-size bakery, or the family bakery structure was changing, and we needed to assess who we were and what we wanted to be, and that’s what we did.
So we thought about, you know, maybe buying other bakeries, or should we have acquisitions and non- bakery specific categories. We chose to purchase a custom ingredient blending company. And people will say, “Well, what in the world is that? How’s that working out?” I think that’s what I hear most, “How’s that working out?” Well, I’ll tell you what. It’s working out pretty good.
It’s in food manufacturing industry. We purchased a business from an existing McDonald’s NBE supplier. Former owners had owned the company for about 15 years, and they were ready to sell, and we knew them personally. We started doing this several years ago, and the timing just wasn’t right. But then after COVID, we thought, well, let’s kind of revisit that. What can we do as a business to make us stand out or have some distinction, or where can we get diversity? I say this in a safe way. The company was a good company. It had its degree of success and financially was strong. They had one-fifth of our revenue, so it wasn’t so big that we couldn’t manage it, being our first one. So after all, you know, dotting the I’s crossing the t’s checking it all, we decided, “We’re going to do this,” and we’re glad that we did. It does diversify us. Figure everything you eat has flavor, you might want it to, and it’s a dry ingredient company … Coalescence in 2021.
Spencer: I love it. We’ve heard the word diversity used in a multitude of different ways, but if we go back 20 or 30 years, diversity was really the word that we use when we looked at financial portfolios. That was the safe way of investing, was when you diversified your investments. And so I feel like this is what you’re doing, and when you think about diversity, and you know in people and how it’s used today, it really is still the same concept. And so you are someone who has stood on this platform of diversity of thought, and that you have to have different perspectives in order to grow in the right ways.
So I really love that you looked at the growth of the company and how you could diversify your capabilities in order to grow. And it really, truly is, I believe, unique in our industry. Were there ever serious considerations for just expanding the product lines or going into another market beyond foodservice? Or, you sort of mentioned it as you answered the question, just simply acquiring another bakery?
Bediako: Yeah, we always thought foodservice. We didn’t want to, you know, I can’t sell tires. I don’t want to embark upon things that that we didn’t have the skill set. For Mike and I often talk about we can’t grow any faster than our team can support. I can have as much blue sky thinking as I’d like, but if my team can’t manage it, if they’re not trained, and if they’re not comfortable enough to try, we won’t get anywhere. So we’re in food manufacturing.
We assessed our vision and our mission statement post-COVID, we just find it as wanting to be more than a bakery, more than just a bakery. Bakery is our core. It’ll always be our core, but there’s more out there, and we needed to define ourselves just a little differently, to put our feet in the ground a little bit and move forward. So this made sense for us, and what we were able to bring to the table, this was an existing company already, again, a McDonald’s supplier, one-fifth of our revenue, but we had similar customers, and we were able to help take them to a place where they weren’t able to go with our resources.
For example, today, we are fortunate to be able to provide the marinade for McDonald’s chicken nuggets from one distribution center. It’s one distribution center today. It’ll be more in the future, but coalescence spent five years trying to get that business, and within a year after being acquired by us, we were able to get them across the finish line. So they did a whole lot of work to get up there, but we were able to help them, and that’s what that integration is about, taking the business to the next level. I’m proud of that. As you can imagine, chicken nuggets, major, major, major, core item for the McDonald’s system. It’s a lot of work to get them to agree to give someone else an opportunity. We’re grateful for that. Relationships that we have built over the years helped us get there, and the amazing skill set of the former Coalescence team helped us get there as well. So
Spencer: You mentioned this when you wrote The Last Word for us, and you’ve said it several times in the course of this month. You start by asking, “Who are we and who do we want to be?” And that is such a critical first step when making a strategic business decision like this. And so in the answer to that, like, what a win-win for you and the Coalescence business. You helped them get across the finish line for business they have been pursuing, but at the same time, you were able to go to your top customer and say, “Look at what other capabilities we have that we can help your business, and by taking a chance on this operation, we can help streamline your business, because you’re essentially going through one vendor for multiple services.” That’s the epitome of good, strategic thinking.
Bediako: Well, thanks. We’re excited about it, and we’re looking forward to more … at the right time.
Spencer: So getting into the ingredient side. What are some of the lessons that you learned when you first got into that business? You’ve been on the customer side all these years of the baker, ingredient vendor relationship. How did that knowledge impact the kind of supplier that you wanted to be, and vice versa?
Bediako: So this was our first acquisition, and there are a lot of learnings there. One in particular, you must have the right support staff around you. You must have the right attorneys, you must have the right financial support. Without those components, there’s all sorts of dark holes you could fall into.
The vetting process has to be thorough with the new customers, with the existing employees, and with all your stakeholders as well. And then a really big part is integrating the culture, taking the time to understand who they are and what’s important to them, and then them hearing who you are and what you’ve tried to do, and then building on what you can be together. We’re both entities or in food manufacturing, but we process differently, and we have to listen to each other.
So the culture piece is big. To me, that’s what takes the longest time. You think of any relationship, a new marriage, a blended family, it takes time, and constant and clear communication when there’s change. So the acquired company’s been doing things this way forever. You New Guy, you come in and you want to do it this way. You know, you got to tell me why. Otherwise, everyone’s in an uproar these learnings, you know, we’ve taken with us in this acquisition, and then a second acquisition in December of 2023, a company called Graffiti Foods, which is liquid ingredients. So why do both? We had the dry ingredient company, good customer base. We’re doing okay, but realized when we made our sales calls, there was often opportunities for soups and sauces. So ingredients are part of that, but we couldn’t sell it because we didn’t have the foundation.
So we were able to find another company in Ohio. Now both of these are right in Ohio, and we acquired that company in December 2023, so I believe we’ve gone full circle with our ingredients, liquid and dry. We rebranded that part of our business. It’s now New Horizons Food Solutions. So each of those businesses had their own building. We’ve leased a new facility in Columbus, Ohio. One side has the dry ingredient manufacturing and office space; the other side has liquid ingredient manufacturing and office space. And we brought them together, and it’s pretty exciting.
Spencer: Was there any sort of long term plan, or was it truly just that aha moment where you were getting requests that you’re like, oh, maybe we should bring the liquid side into this? Had you had your eye on graffiti foods, or did it all just truly kind of happen serendipitously?
Bediako: There was no plan. It kind of happened kind of vaguely. Maybe one of our bankers even brought it up because we consistently have told our stakeholders, like our bankers, if you hear of any bakeries being for sale or any other food manufacturing companies that you think might fit, let us know. You know, our salespeople are out there. We all have relationships, and we’re talking, but we’ve always asked our bankers to share it with us as well. I think one of our bankers brought it, brought it to our attention, enough for us to research and then delve in a little deeper.
Spencer: Do you think you have the acquisition bug? Did you get bitten by the bug?
Bediako: Yes, it is exciting. So it’s a lot of work, and it takes time, but it is nice when it comes together and the learnings continue. And I have to share this, one of the things that we did learn was that it’s probably not the best thing to keep the former owners on payroll for a little while, even if they’re contractors. We started the first acquisition thinking, “Keep the former owners on just for a little while. It’ll just help the transition.” But it complicates things. I mean, when I stop working, I’m going to stop working. I can’t stay on. When you go from being an owner and a leader to being an employee, it’s different. It’s confusing to the staff, it’s hard for the former owners and complicated for the new, so I don’t think I’ll do that again, for sure.
Spencer: I’ve heard that. I actually have heard that several times, and I’ve heard it in the context of hindsight is 20/20. A lot of acquisitions happen that way. Like the selling company, the owner wants to stay on. They want to transition. The acquiring company does it out of respect, and they think that it’s going to just like help sort of phase out of one and into the other. And then the big lesson, when it’s all said and done, is rip off the Band-Aid, create this new company, communicate well, treat people with dignity and respect, and just move forward.
I talked to a baking company a few years ago, and it was sort of a holding company that was building portfolio and really just like scouring to acquire all these different smaller bakeries to create one huge network. And they were like, telling me stories of the owners who just took the money and ran almost literally, like this one, she bought an island. She lives on a tiny little island somewhere, and she was like, “Give me my check. I built this up. It’s now yours. I’m proud of it, and I’m gone. I’m retiring, and I’m going to live on the beach somewhere.”
Bediako: I don’t hate that.
Spencer: So I’m curious … with these acquisitions, and now it’s New Horizons Food Solutions, and they are in one building. How does everything, operationally, work together? Do they operate on the same network as the bakeries? And is there any sort of operational crossover in terms of, like, equipment that you use. Are there vendors who are in that ingredient space, too, where that’s helped? I’m just, I’m curious how that all comes together.
Bediako: Yes. So we are, you know, we’re integrated where it matters, Human Resources, Finance. Our digital systems are integrated appropriately as well, and we do share some customers or some manufacturers as far as support, in support of the equipment, etc. So we try to bring all the businesses together as much as possible while respecting the fact that there are true differences. The ingredients companies have kettles, for example, for the liquid components, and our production lines for bakery are much longer. And so there, there’s some similarities and yet some distinctions. But it tends to flow pretty well. It tends to flow pretty well.
Spencer: So the second acquisition, like we said, it was a little bit of serendipity. There was not a long range plan, but now that you are building that side of the business, while at the same time … huge expansion on the bakery side. Okay, first, I just have to ask you are not superhuman, but I’m wondering if maybe you are, like, how do you manage that much growth by growing your portfolio in different directions and then both sides of the business growing at the same time? How do you juggle all of that?
Bediako: My first comment is, or first thought is that I have an amazing team. I have an amazing team of leaders. I know I’m pulling them thin right about now, and we’re approaching a finish line, but sometimes opportunities present themselves, and you just have to go.
Twenty years ago, my father would not have added a production line that wasn’t fully sold, if you will, to a customer. But again, we just had so many learnings through COVID that you just can’t wait. Supply chain challenges, customer needs, evolution of the industry. So we knew enough about our key customers and our third-party customers that we were willing to take a degree of risk and build this line. So we’re building an 8,000-dozen line in Columbus, Ohio, in a new facility. It keeps about 155,000-square-foot facility. We’re also adding a pancake line to that facility as well. When we looked at it, we thought it was so big. You know, there’s a freezer there as well. We said, “Oh, it’s so big. Maybe we get like, three or four production lines in there.” We’ve already outgrown it, so we’re filling it up. We hope to have the pancake line operational this summer, July or August.
Our team, again, is spread right now. You know, as you’re onboarding, you’re finishing production engineer staff is involved. Mike told me the other day we had 90 contractors in there one day. I mean, there’s a lot of activity, but there’s an end goal. We made changes to our banks last year; we presented all sorts of planning to do this. We’re working, in regard to the pancake line, with Rademaker, and they are leading the install, as opposed to us bringing our own team in, which is different. So we’re trying to get our production lines up and running, and I’m waiting for the ROI. I’m waiting for the production to begin and for us to start making money again.
We’ve strained our team. We try to take care of them, but it gets hard. If it weren’t for them, we couldn’t do it. Mike is a super duper president, we’ve already discussed, and I have a senior executive team that leads very well. We talk and plan a lot. People believe the vision that we presented, and we’re excited about the mark that we’re making.
Spencer: So I would imagine that it would be really important to have a team of people with a growth mindset. There has to be an alignment of mindset, their diversity of thought is important, but also the way you think has to be important, too, like, open to growth and on the same page with that, like, get excited about growth. Is that true? If you’re going to grow, your team has to have a growth mindset.
Bediako: Absolutely. Again, I can think whatever I want. If I don’t have the people to support it, if they’re not believing in the vision or feel like they’re able to execute it, it’s not going anywhere. So yes, the team is excited. They get frustrated sometimes, but they’re a great team, and we’re aligned. We’re aligned, and when any one individual or group is having frustrations about it, we address it. We address it. So I haven’t lost anybody yet. They just grumble. Sometimes I grumble, too, but we’re getting through it. And gosh, we’re so close. We’re so close now. And I tell you what, walking in the in the new facility, months at a time, and seeing the change and the expansion and the shiny new equipment and the pride that the team takes in putting it together … it’s more than amazing. It’s a great thing.
My dad calls one of the facilities the Taj Mahal. We’ve got a little more square footage than we need, but we got a deal, so we leased the place. You know, it’s pretty neat, and it just shows, you know what it can be. I may have said this to you. My father used to say often, “How big do you want to be?” Oh, gosh darn it. I’m thinking about that. You know is, I don’t know. Let’s just keep growing and see.
Our intent right now, as we finish these last two big projects, is … we want growth, sure … but we need controlled growth. We’re not crazy. I’m not trying to just buy a whole bunch of businesses and get things out of whack, and we crash because we can’t manage it. That’s not the intent. It’s about controlled growth, and it’s about smart growth and smart investments and those things. So projects continue to present themselves. We are going to close these two down and just make sure we’ve dotted our I’s and crossed our T’s, and people are good, and we’re making money, and things are running well, and there’s room to grow when we’re ready, but not premature.
Spencer: Yeah, I love it. And, you know, I’ve also kind of heard this analogy, like when a business thinks about the mindset of the leadership team. If you have this analogy of looking down a road. You must have somebody who has the mindset of focusing on the horizon and looking at the long term. And then you have to have somebody who’s focusing very immediate and looking down at our feet and making sure that we have the right kind of shoes on. And then you have to have somebody in the middle, who knows how to plan the pace, who can plan the pace and execute. It sounds to me like you’re sort of building that is. Is that a fair assessment?
Bediako: That’s a perfect assessment. Being that we are New Horizons, that is absolutely how we see it. Each day is a new beginning, and we are always looking beyond the horizons. But our team is structured that way. It’s my duty to look at way out in the future. Where are we going? My directors handle the day to day, and my president and COO works on that, that short term vision, and I say short term, three to five. That is absolutely how we operate. And we’re always looking at the sunshine ahead.
Spencer: I love it. I love adding in, just like the sunshine ahead. It is perfect when you when you think about how aptly named you are.
Bediako: Yes, how about that?
Spencer: Okay, so I want to take everything that we’ve talked about in these five weeks, and just tie it all together looking at, you know, your dad helping start this bakery when he was on the cusp of retirement. He transformed it into a world-class facility. And, you know, you come in, and we look at leadership through the eyes of a person who is a daughter, a mother and a colleague, and then you even took it further and created a vertically integrated network out of something that started as not much more than just a high-volume bun facility. This is an amazing story and an amazing journey that you’ve been on. So I want to close it up with two questions. And the first question is, how has this evolutionist journey of New Horizons defined you?
Bediako: This journey of New Horizons, which is more than I ever dreamed, and perhaps more than my father even dreamed, has defined me as a leader in the industry, a strong female leader in an industry that few years ago may not have accepted me and what I brought to the table. I am grateful to have the opportunity. I am excited for what we’re doing, and it’s pretty darn good.
Spencer: Your journey is very different, but I do from a leadership perspective and a business planning perspective, see you following in the footsteps of Cordia Harrington and what she has built. I see you, similar to Paula Marshall at Bama Companies. These incredible women who are very humble and hardworking, who are building these legacy companies that are defining our industry.
Okay, so I have to say, I just realized that the three women is worth noting. The three women that I just mentioned you, Cordia and Paula. What do you all have in common? McDonald’s network.
Bediako: It is an incredible resource.
Spencer: That never occurred to me. So, let’s just take a second and give a shout out to McDonald’s.
Bediako: Let’s do that amazing partner.
Spencer: Way to see good business and see strong leaders who happen to be women. So that’s really cool, and you all have done an amazing job. I should say, knowing some stories that are out there, maybe it wasn’t necessarily like McDonald’s saying, “Look at that strong woman-owned business. I’m going to bring her in.” But it is the strength of women like you and Cordia and Paula who have pushed boundaries and taken risks and stood squarely on your feet when the going got tough and there was no one else in the room who looked like you, to persevere and make good decisions and lead your companies so bravely to be world-class vendors for such a huge network responsible for feeding so many people in our country and around the world. So you are one of the giants, lady.
Bediako: I’m the CEO in a medium-sized manufacturing business in Northeast Ohio. I am honored to be in the same sentence with amazing trailblazers like Cordia and Paula. I’ve learned from them and learned from all the female leaders — as well as the male leaders out there — but I’m all about girl power, and I’m excited about the marks that we’re making in this industry. And I hope that young women like my daughter and women in her generation can see, “You can. Yes, you can. There is an opportunity. There is a chance.”
We have an obligation to pull up those coming our way. My dad opened the door for me, and he opened the door, and he got out of the way, and he allowed me to do the things that I felt the business needed. I built my team. We’re still growing and learning, but he opened the door and we as women, as leaders, we’ve got to be sure we’re opening the door for the next generation as well, or there’s no industry to continue the legacy.
Spencer: Amen is all I can say to that. And you know, I am all about girl power as well, and I try to use the voice that I’ve been given to not look for female leaders that are qualified as females, but strong, good leaders who often get overlooked because they’re female, if that makes sense.
Bediako: The journey is not easy, but you must be determined. If it’s what you want, then you keep pushing forward. There’s success there, but it takes work.
Spencer: I agree. Part of what I want to bring to the table is for the women coming into the industry who are just out of college, or getting into manufacturing, or have engineering degrees that had to fight through a male-dominated education … I want them to be able to look up and see what’s possible, and see people like you and Cordia and Paula and Kim Nisbet, who is with United States Bakeries, and also on the IBIE planning committee, and Chimene Ross, who leads The Killer Brownie Company, and who is now part of the Irresistible Foods Group, like strong women and what’s possible. And what’s possible does not mean what’s easy.
Bediako: That’s right, that’s right. And we love the men. I just want to throw that out there. But it’s about collaboration; there’s room for us all. The stage is big. We need to embrace one another; embrace the differences. There’s a legacy.
Spencer: So I told you I had two questions. I’m going to leave you with this last question. So I asked you how your New Horizons journey defined you, and you defined yourself as a leader. So how do you take that definition, and what kind of mark do you want it to leave on New Horizons’ legacy in the baking industry? What do you want people to remember you for? Because there’s a lot.
Bediako: I want New Horizons Baking to be better when I leave than when I came in. I want the people that work for me to be able to retire and have a happy life beyond New Horizons. I want the industry to remember that Tim Brown’s daughter ran the business for X amount of years, and she was very successful. And I want my dad to enjoy his retirement knowing that this is handled, and we’re doing good things for many people.
Spencer: Well, I think that is a perfect note to end on. My dear Trina, thank you so much for spending this month with me. This has been just an incredible experience, and I very much appreciate your wisdom and your wit and your business sense, and the advice that you’ve shared for running a business and your manufacturing knowledge and thank you for all that your company does for the industry.
Bediako: Thank you, Joanie. I appreciate that you have an interest. This is what I do every day. It’s big. You try to stay grounded. I don’t think about how big it is. I appreciate that you find interest, your readers may find interest, your listeners, and I hope that maybe someone gets some help along the way, or some insight that might help them take their next step forward.
Spencer: I hope that everyone walks away from these five weeks with you and asks themselves how big they want to be.
