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1
HATTIE: (In
the Studio) Hi, I'm Hattie Bryant. We've been on search for the best
entrepreneurs in the country since 1994. Back in the fall of 1996, we found a
little woman with big revenues. Like so many of us, she's a baby boomer, and
today her business is ahead of the curve. She has a succession plan in place,
and it's working. In the next 30 minutes, we revisit our first interview with
the founder of Auntie Anne's Pretzels and then return for her to tell us about
her successful transition from day-to-day operations to her work now as keeper
of the vision.
Employee: OK.
Everybody ready to go? Ready to open the store?
 Employee #2: We can close it--
Employee #3:
Hot tray.
HATTIE
(Voiceover): Every day, the doors open and the cash registers ring at nearly
800 locations of Auntie Anne's Pretzels. Anne Beiler has something customers
want. They will spend $232 million to enjoy over 100 million pretzels per year.
Her hand-rolled soft pretzels come in an assortment of flavors, including the
traditional recipe with salt and this caramel almond I tried.
ANNE BEILER:
--dip it into the caramel sauce. Now I want to see you eat your first bite.
HATTIE: I've
never had one of these before.
ANNE: Well,
you're going to be pleased, I think, if you like--this is a sweet one, of
course.
HATTIE: It's
fabulous. And this is low fat?
ANNE: Yes.
Isn't it great?
HATTIE:
Low-fat.
HATTIE
(Voiceover): The Dutch and German who settled this part of Pennsylvania have
been enjoying soft pretzels for two centuries, but it took Jonas Beiler's dream
in 1988 to open a counseling center and Anne Beiler's desire to fund her
husband's non-profit work to bring this delicious regional treat to the rest of
the country and to the world. She's been baking since she was eight years old,
and by the time she was 12, Anne's pies and cakes were sold at the Lancaster
County Farmer's Market.
ANNE: When I
was working for this other man, I was manager at his farmer's market, I noticed
that the pretzels were selling faster than anything else, and so I talked to
him about just selling pretzels, and he's like, 'Well, I don't think we can
just, you know--I don't think there's enough money in just pretzels.' So after
a few weeks or so of talking to him, I finally convinced him that, yes, let's
get rid of the pizza and just do pretzels, and we did, and our sales continued
to grow. |
