Carman’s Muesli.

Saw another snippet of daytime TV the other day and they were interviewing Carolyn Creswell, who at 35 was one of the hot contenders for young Entrepreneur of the year.

Her story was that “in 1992, at eighteen years of age, Carolyn was making muesli part-time whilst studying at university. When she was told she would lose her job as the business was to be sold, she seized the opportunity and bought the tiny business herself - Carman’s was born.”

In essence, what happened was that the bosses came to her and said that they were letting her go to find another job as Business was so bad they were getting out of it.

She went home and complained to her parent’s that it wasn’t fair, as she loved her job and now it was gone. The next day she went back to work and told her bosses she wanted to buy the business from them. They just laughed at her and her inexperience and youth, saying how does she think she could succeed when they couldn’t’?

Anyway she persisted and she and another work mate put in a $ 1,000 each and bought it. Two years down the track Carolyn bought out her partner and now a total of 15 years down the track from when she first started it is an international business.

She comment that she was probably the only sales person in Woolworth’s history to breakdown in tears in their foyer after the got her first big contract to supply Larger stores and chains. Now as they say the rest is history and she is selling Breakfast Bars to Airlines as well as selling her Muesli to the world.

To quote again from their Web site, “Today, Carolyn still runs Carman's which is now a thriving Melbourne based company, wholesaling muesli, muesli bars and most recently, organic honey to thousands of outlets Australia-wide including the major Australian supermarket chains. She has recently started successfully exporting to Asia and the Pacific. Carman's muesli and bars are currently the top selling gourmet products in their category within Australia. Carman's is a small Australian company, which grew from a century old muesli recipe being made for family and friends. Today it is still blended with hand ground hazelnuts, cracked almonds and pecan pieces and is tossed with honey and sprinkled with cinnamon. We do not use any genetically modified ingredients, artificial colours or flavours. Made in Australia from the best ingredients we can find in Australia and around the world.”

Back to the interview on TV, Carolyn was asked what I considered to be the burning question.

What made her Muesli such a success in what would normally be seen to be an oversupplied commodity, with many, many competing brands on the market Place?

She commented that it was the different ingredients in the different muesli’s that made them different. With many of the better ones having more expensive nuts or more of them, to give them their own unique taste. She then said that the temptation then was when these things became more expensive to either cut them out or substitute with cheaper nuts. A thing that Carmen’s never did. Yes Carmen’s thus cost more than many other Mueslis on the market but this extra cost and nuts also gave it its own unique taste and market, and Muesli connoisseurs were prepared to pay a little extra for a whole lot more taste.

She also commented that she was committed to her product and was not prepared to compromise on quality for sales. Again I have not tried the product but if you wish to check them out, look up the web for:”Carman’s Fine Food.

For here my interest was in the reasons for her success.

1. She was committed to her product. Maybe obsessed may be more adequate? But certainly enthusiastic and personally and emotionally committed to it. Hence the tears when she got her first big breakthrough.
2. She not only dreamed about buying the business but did so, even if against normal wisdom of the time and despite her critics.
3. She pushed her product to the wider markets while not compromising the quality of her product.
4. Exposure was important but not at the expense of the product.
5. A quality product and not high profits was the goal.
6. As she was committed to it with no false time limits, she was able to allow it to expand in its appropriate time and not force it onto the market before conditions were right.
7. She had a superior product in a competitive market and thus was not prepared to compromise a quick dollar over a quality product.

What about our lives and goals?

Do we have a goal or aim for our lives? Are we prepared to put a bit of ourselves into the product, without compromising quality over quantity? Are we committed to the tasks we do, whatever they may be? Or do we just go with the flow and take shortcuts when we think we can get away with them? Again what say you? Walter