Business Growth: The Inspiring Journey of Parks Coffee

Hello. My name is Matt Bros of Lockton. In my role, I consult with employers all around the country related to their employee benefits strategy. We're in conversations all the time about how to attract the best talent and get the best out of their people. Work ethic integrity? Those are all traits of people that pursue excellence and it doesn't even stop there. From the boardroom to the storeroom, we're gonna find out what drives those people? Welcome to the Excellence culture. This is gonna be an excellent adventure. Welcome to the Excellence culture. Again, this is Matt Brost with law in Dunning Benefits. And I'm honored to have here with me. Clay Parks, good friend of mine. And Clay is the CEO of Parks Coffee, an organization that is widely known for their service. Yeah. I would I would we'll get into the details, but I would assume that's a huge focus y'all's and why Parks's coffee is so successful. Yep. But wanna start by saying thank you for your friendship, man. Yeah. Absolutely. It's just been a joy to get to know you and your family. And not only I mean, we're gonna talk about business a little bit today, but just on a personal side, you just exude excellence in everything you do, and I appreciate it, man. Thank you. So Appreciate that. Glad to be here. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you, man. Honored, honored. Yeah. Well, I would love I mean, we're gonna kinda go past present future a little bit. And and I'd love to know just a little bit about your upbringing, kinda just share some of the high moments and things that you would want somebody to know about the way you're brought up in this world. Sure. Yeah. I I really can are myself lucky. I'm I'm a brother and a son to a mom and dad that started a company when I was two in our garage. And I had a front row to the humble beginnings of what it takes to start, you know, boot strap company, and I feel really lucky to see so many lessons. The first hand. And, you know, so I grew up in Carrollton. Dad starts the company at two. He had three thousand dollars, and he buys a van, and my mom is she's going, what? Because previously, they they're both from Oklahoma, dads from Stillwater, moms from mid cities in Oklahoma City, and so they get they get married Dad is one of nine kids and trying to figure out life has a really hard upbringing, super super poor family and great family though, and he gets opportunity the day he turns eighteen he leaves and he starts a pipeline, and he runs a pipeline from the western side to the eastern border of Kansas. And so that experience taught him that he years ago and try to figure out something else. So he goes back, and the only guy his dad died young, and he has so many of those stories in They really, you know, that if you're in a home, really kind of took him under his wing, let him cut around the tombstones and make a little extra money through school or his primary school in high school, and then he went back and talked to the funeral director, said, hey, what what do I do? And, you know, he had some advice, and so there was some money to get a mortuary science degree. And if you meet my dad not a mortuary science person. And so but they're gonna pay for school. So he goes to school, and it was an incredible experience. He met some great people and a fraternity brother, and our first employee encouraged him hey, that is weird what you're doing. You need to get on a coffee route, and you need to start selling to people. You gotta great personality. And so, he encouraged him to get with a local group out of Oklahoma City, and dad was good at it. And to really loved it. Earl Neighbors taught him the business, and he could see himself doing it himself. And so he but he needs to grow and learn a little bit more. So Earl gave him a shot and said, hey, we're going to go to I need you to go run the branch in Tulsa. And my mom said that was too far from Oklahoma City, and so he stayed in Coma City, and he said, well, if another chance comes, I'm taking it, and they gave him a chance to move down to Dallas and run it. And so he ran it. They had me in between. They moved down to Dallas, I was too just a guy willing to take risk because it's so interesting. I think was willing to do that. Is this Carrollton? This is this is Carrollton. Okay. And he he was willing to do it, and if you talk to him, there there just wasn't another option. Yeah. And you you back yourself into a corner far enough that it all makes sense. And so he could really see his way through so he bought, you know, he had the three thousand bucks and gets the van shelved, and it was a one man show. He had to sell service and and do do the whole game himself. And it's incredible to think about when I think about the existing business we have today, my dad doing it doing all of that, all of those all of those touch points. And my mom babysit kids out of the front of the house, and we had the coffee service, pedaling coffee out the back, and it was beautiful, man. There was like a unity to to to survive, and you know, as a kid, you know, they were always both very present, and we didn't have everything. We had, actually, didn't have much. But we a common goal of, you know, we felt like we were all in it together. And from from really the beginning, and my dad and mom, they they just did a wonderful job, you know, making our family a strong unit without a lot. And they did things that, you know, brought us together, like, you know, on Saturdays, when it was in the garage, everybody would help out with the product and the equipment. And Yeah. But you you you know, you observe when you're young, what your dad does, and my dad was always working before I got up. And I think those traits carry into you of kind of what it takes, but I never heard a complaint. Growing up, I never heard an unfortunate story. My mom tells a story that she had saved up money to take us to a sea world because we'd never been on a vacation. I think I was eight or nine or something, and my dad found it, and he bought coffee brewers with it to go into the next account. And she recounts that story mom is incredible. I think behind most great men, you're gonna find an even better woman. And that's my mom. She said she's just That's the truth, ma'am. She's just a good statement. She's just a servant. Yeah. And her heart is amazing, and you know, while I know that she has questioned dad, you know, and these entrepreneurial things he's done, I know that she would she she was always there to back him. And, you know, the business really took off when I was in middle school, high school. But, you know, the reps earlier, and that in the struggles, the entrepreneurial struggles, going through those is is is how he learned, and he developed this in a credible selling system, and he knew that he had to be different. So, I think we're talking about still here. Right? I'm way over time. But he knew he had to be different. So he can he built a business model without contracts -- Mhmm. -- because he knew that he could go into an account, a potential business, and say, You don't have to sign anything. There's no guarantees from you, but I'm gonna I'm gonna serve so well that you're gonna keep using my business. Yeah. And so, he had That's how he did it, and that's how you have to do it if you're scrapping. Yeah. And so, that enabled him to gain a lot of business, and he outworked everybody. And, you know, defining the outwork, it it wasn't ours, it was intentional, engaged search service that when you said you were gonna be there, you were there, and he always says, it's a day before business. So you prepare today for tomorrow. And so when you're in everyday, work a day business like we are a blue collar service company, If you're not prepared today for tomorrow, you're gonna fail tomorrow. So that's what he built his mantra on, and, you know, you know, punctuality, when do we say we're going to be there, we've got to be there. If your coffee brewer is not working and we say we're going to be tomorrow and we're not there tomorrow, the customer has that moment where they question. So as you guys grew -- Mhmm. -- you guys became much more than a homegrown -- Yeah. -- company. I mean, so but it did seem like there was still this very intent focus on those grassroots service dynamics that you guys He wanted to be he he had we strive our customer's affection painted on the first building he built on the side of it. And it's not there anymore, but I'm gonna bring it back. We strive our customer's affection. That's cool. My dad I might use that. Yeah. And incredible, man. There was no business that education. He was he was caught up. He would he would You know, he had this little book. I don't remember what it call, but it had these little stories about just these business successes, and he would get it every month. It was kinda like a reader's digest for years, and he was so he was he loved it. And he would he would on his voicemail, every day, he would change his voice mail. This is back when, you know, voice mail was before the text, but he would change it to be a message every day that was different. Hey, thank you for calling your parks. Hey, today, let's go out and do -- That's cool. -- and make the customer smile. Yeah. And it it wouldn't he would say the date and he would say a message, and I remember hearing it as a little kid. Growing up and I was like, man, we're in the garage, or we're in our first warehouse, or we have ten people Where where are you where are you getting this from? Yeah. And he had just this incredible ability to see where he was and being able to see around the corner what it's gonna be really is why is where he is today. And he could visualize it and, man, he made it happen, and, you know, probably, you know, he's had a lot of businesses. We had a bottled water company that he tried. We had office products company. He was the first guy to sell a cake up online. We've had That kinda was a catapult, wasn't it? Yeah. They came The k cup is his greatest move. Yeah. And it was at a point of crisis. Yeah. And we are two thousand eleven twelve. The patent on the k cup is expiring. We are a we're in a contract with the biggest k cup maker, and they have a lock on the market. They own every brand at that point. And it starts with a g, and it ends with a mountain. Okay. And they were a big company. And so we were an authorized distributor, but the k cup is patent expiring, and it's our opportunity. We're already roasting coffee at this point. We're making fractional packs, which are the packs that you open up to make a pot of coffee in the office, an air pot or glass pot, and the k cup is huge. It's one it won the home, and it won the office. And he says we're gonna make one. And he's like, it's expiring. I know we can do it, you know, and he laid it all out on the line. I remember I was just in the business. I started in o nine, and this was two years in. I was still working my way up, and he would invite me in these meetings and they were tententious with this group, and and I was talking to him at one point. I was like, do you know this is gonna work? He's like, he's like, I don't know, but I'm willing to take the chance. And because of that our ability to manufacture that product instead of resell it -- Mhmm. -- completely changed our capital available grow. And so, we started the plug and play, and we had so many incredible people that we knew that if we could take them to their own city that they could make Parks Coffee work. And so we would plant these talented individuals and give them a salesman and and they would run the route, and then they would build it organically. We bought very few companies. I'm just really proud that. That was awesome. Let me try to move. Yeah. Really? That's really, really cool. And so fast forward a little bit. Maybe a lot in your mind, but two thousand nineteen -- Yeah. -- you guys are crazy, healthy company. Yep. I mean, where where did your revenue get to before you're around that? Yeah. So we got to we were at eighty five million. Okay. So very healthy company just kinda going into the sunset a little bit. We were going to the moon. March of two thousand twenty. Yep. And COVID happens. Yeah, we served a business break room. Yeah. And we're we're in shut down. Yes. And we are looking around going, what? Because we don't have a customer serve, and we only service the business break room. We we haven't developed any grocery store coffee or an online presence, what do we do? And my dad had, you know, he was around, and incredible leaders, James Engel, Mike Casey, just incredible people that we were in a room, and it was a crisis point, and we're all going, what's the what's the response? You know? And we knew that we had to make when when you have shut down orders of something we've never seen -- Mhmm. -- and no one's because we've always said, okay, let's use the password the future, and that's how we set our goals. That's how we do budgets. We do forecasts. Well, this has never passed. Yeah. So don't know any learned behavior from it. And so we were all looking around going, okay, well, what did what what what's proven in the past? No knew. And so, we knew that we had to make some tough decisions in order for there, hopefully, to be a business on the other died. Mhmm. Because we all thought it was two months at most -- Mhmm. -- six weeks, and then it kept going. And we were we had we had to lay off people. And people that worked with us for twenty years -- Yeah. -- families. Right? And they're in bad spot, they can't see the future, and here we are having to make really hard decisions. And so we we we lay these people off and we're down, we're we're just under five hundred people would go to thirty seven? Like, overnight almost. Within two days? Yeah. And we're you know, we're doing all these funny things. I'm answering frontline calls. We're sending sending out emails saying, hey, if you need us, let us know. I'm delivering product to look patience, everybody is. We were just trying to if you're there and you're a central worker, we want to be there to serve you, and it was a scramble, and it was I wouldn't call it unorganized, but it was we cut really deep because there was only so much cash available. We had ten months is what we forecasted, that burning rate of a full full steamboat going down the river, so we didn't couldn't see through what we had, but we knew we had to respond to the revenue levels. And so we responded and we followed the revenue line. Mhmm. And then we said, okay, we're gonna follow the revenue line back up. And as and, you know, PPP really worked. Yeah. Because we use that money to bring people back before everybody else. Yeah. And so while it was tough, we fought reference. Is that what you drew to mostly in the grow back? Is the the employees that you had to lay off? Yeah. Yeah. So those people came back in probably nine ninety percent back with us still. Okay. And so we went to those ones first, and those that were willing to come back And, you know, there's all sorts of regulations, all sorts of information, and are we essential, yes, okay, well, who's open? Alright. Well, let's go, you know, lots of closed business stores, but we're so we're slowly seeing come back, people are coming back, some people are staying remote. Okay? So what does that mean for our business? We serve the business breakroom. Is the business breakroom dead? All the articles, Right? You can work remote. You can your culture will be okay. You can train remote. Right? And so we're zooming, everybody's zooming? We're like, I don't know. So PPP comes back. We're like, where are you using money? And bring them back. Because we bet it on it early, cut early, Well, let's bring back early. And if this thing gets fired back up, because we believed that there was gonna be competitive pressure that you couldn't compete if you were a hundred percent at home, your culture wasn't going to survive, you weren't able to influence, you weren't able to impress upon, you weren't able to drive. So we thought that competitive pressures would bring people back to the workplace because Maybe they can only stay home so long, and I I I think there is a great work from home model too. I'm not saying there's not, but I do see a balance and then I see that you know, eventually people knew and got back to collaborating and sitting face to face -- Yeah. -- because as soon as you hit It's a culture thing. Yeah. As soon as you hit the red button on the on the the call and it's done, there was always some chatter in a conference room after your formal was done, that maybe some incredible ideas came up. Yeah. And so we we knew that I was gonna capture again. And so we were early back, and we were able to gain a lot of new business. And had our best year in twenty twenty two, because we were willing to serve early. Yeah. And we had more people on the sidelines jumping And so, yeah, COVID man, COVID rocked me as a leader. I just you know, lots of questions Yeah. You know, we you you question every move more then because you didn't understand you didn't understand the environment. Yeah. And you didn't know what you're coming back to. And I I wish I would could go back to myself then, and, of course, you wish she had a crystal ball, but I felt like moves are fatal and that they had, you know, but I think there's more elasticity in some decisions than we and there's more flexibility in in certain things, and I thought it was so You're Black and white. But I think as leaders, you know, you feel that pressure and you feel the weight sometimes you need to understand that, hey, these these things are more flexible when we Yeah. When they when they when you're employees came back, was was there just a sensitivity to the instability at that point -- Yeah. -- was did that intersect with the culture a little bit and make the culture challenging? Or did you find when people came back their so ready to work. The culture was easy. Yeah. We we had we had a restructuring. Yeah. We went to an ERP thank god in two thousand nineteen, and we had this incredible data platform. And we were able to put territories in the zones and and route logistically things by zip code. And so we could then tear our structure down and build it back up. And we built it different, and we knew that route people through the building back process, which is the always the greatest process, as you learn so much. Is that we figured out that the route person could handle could handle more responsibility. And and and if you can trust your your frontline boots on the ground person to handle more responsibility, educating the right way, you get your service levels go so much and we really figure that out. When we dug into the base person who really is in front of the And we really started working hard on structuring their days right. Man, our slevels went through the roof. And their sales on their routes got better, they ended up making more money. And now their routes are better. Their routes are bigger than they were pre so, I mean, the the adversity, the challenge I mean, the world changing thing that was COVID for you allowed you guys the opportunity to actually be better on the other side. It did. And I wish I would've known it. Yeah. You know? But the that's the part where I'm saying the the the if you you you could learn from the from the hard stuff Yeah. And the hard stuff was the layoff -- Yeah. -- because those are families. Yeah. Yeah. But the but the build back with a lot of those people back, now they're in a better place. Yeah. And we had to take some hard steps, but that's the beauty of it. But, yeah, when they first came and we were like, hey, welcome back. Yeah. Businesses aren't coming back to the break room. Mhmm. I know that they're gonna back eventually, but we're we're gonna be here ready. There was probably a lot of doubt, you know. Do you have a do you have a lesson or are any kind of advice that you can share just this community related to maybe what you maybe one of the biggest things you learned from that moment. Yeah. It can be really simple or I think there are I think you're are not smart as a leader if you aren't willing to change over time. But I do think, though, if you build a business on a pillar -- Yeah. -- you know, on a core, you know, like us, it was that people got together to do business in the and that we were gonna serve them while they were doing business. Mhmm. I wish I ever reminded myself that the power of that, like us, like, this is so much better face to face than -- Yeah. -- digital. Right? But there is a place for digital. But I wish I would remind myself we built our business on a really strong platform that isn't gonna evaporate -- Yeah. -- that it does need to be changed and molded over time, but it's not so gray. Yeah. Yeah. Grain white, you know or white and black. There is some gray. Yeah. Yeah. But yeah. I think the biggest lesson was was, you know, that we didn't overreact, that we were prudent, and through the hard times, you just have to be just completely. You know, we follow the revenue line. Yeah. Yeah. Well, man, I I I've really actually love this time with you because we're usually kinda we're playing golf and we're not getting these good conversations all the time. But You've got anything that you wanna kinda leave this time? Any kinda last words or anything like that? No. I'm proud of you, man. This is this is incredible. I think I I'm ready to watch this and learn from other people too. No. It's really cool. And I mean, the things that you shared, we're gonna be able to learn from, man. This this whole community is and -- Yeah. -- I appreciate you being transparent. I know that Parks Coffee just congratulations are in order. Thank you. You guys have recently gone through an acquisition with Cantene. I've heard wonderful things about Cantene. Mhmm. And so congratulations, man. Thank you. Yeah. That was that was really a great moment for my dad. Yeah. And my mom, getting to honor them, a lot of them take some chips off the table, which they've never done. Yeah. And, you know, I'm so proud of that. You know, we're they they acquired the brand. We're operating off Ledger, still still running the company. They gave us that chance, and that's great. They've been a great partner. I think there's gonna be awesome that come from Parks Coffee. Yeah. Since we are still we still own the roasting and manufacturing. Still roasting some good coffee. So roast still own that piece and they're -- Yeah. -- they are buying that from us and and I'm looking forward to really partnering with him. That's awesome. So, yeah, good things. Alright. Well, thank you, man, and welcome to the Excellence culture. Thank you. Appreciate it.