When this husband and wife team bought a biscuit business out of administration, they learned baking was the easy part
In their first week, every new employee at family-owned and run business Charlie’s Cookies has to spend a day working in the bakery. So whether you’re the cleaner, the receptionist, or part of the sales team, you’ve got to get down and dirty amongst the flour, butter and sugar.
“It’s really important that everyone understands how the product is made, and the care and passion that goes into making our cookies,” says Jacky Magid, one half of the dynamic husband and wife duo behind Charlie’s Cookies.
Her husband, Ken Mahlab, bought the business out of administration in 2004. The story goes that Magid was at home, breastfeeding the couple’s first child, when he walked into the room and announced his purchase. Despite her reservations, she was immediately supportive of his decision and the process of rebuilding the business, and transforming it from Uncle Charlie’s Cookies to ‘Charlie’s Cookies’ began.
It’s been one hell of a ride ever since, Magid says, but with the Melbourne-based business’ annual turnover now approaching $5 million, it’s definitely been worthwhile.
For the first three years following the purchase, Magid largely played a support role from home. An accomplished lawyer, she was still working part time as a commercial litigator at Arnold Bloch Leibler, and was caring for their infant daughter.
Mahlab had to negotiate the minefield of buying a bankrupt business on his own, which Magid recalls was a huge challenge and really put his business nous, and commitment, to the test.
“Buying a bankrupt business has all sorts of problems with it, a lot of which you don’t really understand until you’re behind the steering wheel. Cash flow was an issue, and Ken had to really dig deep to understand why the business had failed in the first place,” she says.
“At the same time, he had to rebuild relationships with suppliers who didn’t want to deal with us, because they hadn’t been paid properly, and then you’ve got customers you have to approach and tell them the former owner was selling his product too cheaply and prices are going up. All those difficult things were Ken’s to manage.”
There was no way through but through, and in 2007, and another child later, she joined the business full time. She recalls that the couple hadn’t really thought about how they were going to work together, and some valuable lessons ensued.
“The first year was really challenging and I think we could have done it a lot better. But the lessons we learnt have set us up for the business we are today. We took a lot of learning from working together and getting clarity around roles. Now that we have 25 staff, we have a really good HR system, there’s a clear organisational chart and we’ve got position descriptions for everyone, from the cleaner to the managing director. Everyone understands their role and their purpose,” she says.
The couple weren’t afraid to ask for help, either. When their roles started to overlap and they realised their staff were confused about who to go to over what, they hired a business coach, George Moraitis.
“He was absolutely fantastic,” she says. “The first thing he did was sit us down and do a personality profile. He said it’s perfectly fine to both see ourselves as business owners, but we had to work out where our skill-sets are, and who should be doing what. It came out very clearly that Ken was going to be the operations and finance managing director, and I was going to be head of sales and marketing. Once we had clarity there, it was kind of like, I’ll support you in your role, you support me in mine, but that’s my territory and this is yours. I think the staff felt a lot better about it, too.”
The business has continued to go from strength to strength. In a saturated market, Charlie’s Cookies has an outstanding reputation in the food services industry, and has won awards for both its products, and they way they are packaged and marketed.
The company has experienced phenomenal growth too, as much as 300% in the past four years.
“In the first quarter of 2012, we turned over as much as we did in the first year, when we bought the business,” she says. “And that’s about where we’re at now, again, in 2014.”
They’ve also upgraded their facilities, moving into a custom-fitted factory in the southeastern suburb of East Bentleigh, in Melbourne.
“It was a huge part of growing up for us. When we bought the business it was operating from a down and dirty manufacturing facility in a backstreet of Highett.
“It was always a dream for Ken and I to get to a size where we could both need and afford to relocate, and to put our staff and our business into a custom built facility that will take us into the future.”
What that future involves is unknown. But it will involve cookies, and lots of them.
“I’m so over the large cookie, it’s had its day,” she laughs. “Our most recent launch into retail, the Mini Moments range, is one of my creations and I’m so proud of it. It was inspired by the macaroon trend, and all the different flavours. They’re so easy to just pop in your mouth and I eat two, three, four, OK, maybe five a day. I’m quite partial to them!”.
Writer: Megan Gamble
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