It’s hard to believe we are nearing the end of 2020 and, before we know it, the holidays will be over and we’ll be starting fresh with a new year. If nothing else, 2020 will leave us with plenty of memories — both good and bad.
For us at Edible, we haven’t been immune to the lows brought on by this year. At the same time, we’ve been fortunate to have experienced some of the highest of highs, including sales numbers like we’ve never seen in 21 years of business.
There are many other milestones we’ve achieved this year, and as a result I’ve recently been repeatedly asked by the media and others in the industry: “How did you do it?” The answer is simple. We did it TOGETHER.
There’s no “I” in “TEAM”
A successful business is like a champion sports team. The different players on the team depend on each other, challenge each other and ultimately will only achieve their championship dreams if everyone is doing their job effectively. A team made up of all the best players working together toward one common goal is unstoppable.
It’s taken time to find this perfect combination for us, but the team we have assembled at this point continues to produce incredible results regardless of the challenges put in front of them. I’m fortunate to be surrounded by a group of men and women who are singularly focused on our brand’s mission to “WOW” our customers with everything we do.
As simple as this mission may be, keeping it at the core of our efforts has resulted in what will be a record-setting year for us despite all odds. As I look back on what has led us to this point in what is a relatively short amount of time, I’m reminded of what a team effort it’s truly been.
It takes an army
Between our nearly 200 corporate team members and our 1,100 franchise locations worldwide, the Edible team is a large and mighty force. With everyone pulling their weight, some amazing things have happened for us this year.
First, you have our HR team. As concerns took over regarding how the pandemic would impact our organization, this group probably had it worst of all as they struggled with how to keep us afloat by potentially having to take away the livelihoods of people they’d grown to love and respect as their colleagues. But thanks to HR Vice President Tom Horn and his team, we not only maintained a majority of our original staff, but we’ve expanded our headquarters team by an impressive 27% since March and plan to grow by another 25% in the coming months.
A major driving force behind us actually growing our team during this crisis has been our finance department, led by Vice President of Finance Carey Malloy. Without Carey and her team keeping our fiscal affairs in order, we not only would not have been able to grow our team, but we wouldn’t have been able to achieve the profits we’ve seen this year.
Meanwhile, our innovation and marketing departments have made a perfect team in the face of all this uncertainty. Thanks to Vice President of Innovation Cindy Mockler and her people, the creativity Edible has put forth this year has been unmatched. We’ve launched multiple new product categories this year, including Fresh Produce Boxes, FruitFlowers, Bakeshop, Printible, and Edible Music. And each new launch has made a major splash thanks to Vice President of Marketing Laura Rueckel and her marketing and PR teams.
And of course we can’t forget the complete 180 we’ve seen from our eCommerce platform in the past year since Somia Farid Silber took over as Vice President of eCommerce. The timing couldn’t have been better for our eCommerce platform to excel like it has, as this aspect of our business has been more essential than ever this year.
Naturally, implementing so many exciting new innovations and adjusting to the world as it is now meant making a LOT of changes to our standard way of doing business. But transitioning to this “new normal” was seamless under Cheikh Mboup as our President and Chief Operating Officer, with VP of Operations Scott Wakeman and their teams by his side. They worked tirelessly with our franchise network to figure out the best way to respond to all the changes, coordinating with our Vice President of Supply Chain & Berry Direct Jamie Davis to ensure that we had all the resources in place to actually accomplish their grand plans.
Speaking of franchisees, ours certainly deserve special recognition. Their trust in us and their willingness to adapt to everything this year has thrown at them really blows me away. Not only did they take everything we threw at them in stride, but they went above and beyond, making major, lasting impacts on their local communities all the while.
And best of all, thanks to the tireless work of the team under Patricia Perry, Edible’s Vice President of Development, our global network of passionate and driven franchise owners continues to grow at astounding rates. As of September, we’d signed 63 new franchise agreements this year, and I know this number will pale in comparison to our end-of-year development results.
Round of applause
Clearly, there are so many individuals I could thank for making our organization what we are today, and a single article doesn’t do them all justice.
So, after the new year, I’ll be highlighting different members of our Edible team every month on LinkedIn. These people are the real reason why Edible is the company it is today, and they deserve my eternal gratitude and all the applause for their hard work.
You can follow along on LinkedIn by following #EdibleTeamSpotlight.
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