Changing careers is ‘crummy,’ but worth it for Granola co-founder
ROYAL OAK – Grand Valley State University graduates Suzanne Vier and Randy TenBrink reunited last March for dinner after not seeing each other for 15 years.
TenBrink, who lives on the west side of the state, brought along a homemade snack that received more compliments than the chef. Randy’s Granola had arrived, not long after they sat down for dinner, and it was good to the last crumb.
“Within five minutes of reconnecting, he took out a Wasabi Peas tin can, and said it’s his granola,” said Vier, who grew up in Royal Oak and graduated in 1990 from Dondero High School. “I took one taste of it and said ‘It’s too good to keep to yourself.’
“That night over dinner we decided to go into business together.”
Their first sale was May 28 and five months later, Randy’s Granola is in 40 stores in Michigan, Vier said.
Vier was so confident in the venture that she quit her career in human resources for a staffing agency in New York City to concentrate on marketing the healthy snack.
She returned to New York City last week, not just to visit friends, but to sell their product.
“I just delivered two more cases of granola — they’re loving it,” she said. “Granola is a big deal on the east coast. People are receptive and want to eat healthy.”
The early success may also get Vier a television commercial with Mutual of Omaha. She is among 75 people nationwide sharing her “aha moment” in a video contest the insurance company sponsors.
The top 10 vote-getters will have their “aha moments” included in Mutual of Omaha’s 2010 TV campaign. A link to the video and contest is on randysgranola.com.
“(Winning) would take the company to a whole new level,” Vier said. “To have a national reach so soon would be absolutely amazing for us. It’s extraordinarily exciting and I’m just so honored to participate.”
The two rented a vehicle to distribute Randy’s Granola in the first few months. “We called it the ‘Granola Mobile,’” Vier said, laughing.
Sales picked up so well that a distributor, Carmela Specialty Foods, is now getting the product to market, she said.
Westborn Market in Berkley, Hollywood Market in Royal Oak and the Townsend Hotel in Birmingham are among the stores that carry Randy’s Granola, Vier said.
“From last month we increased revenue and production by 25 percent,” she said.
Vier said she owes her business savvy to her mother, Patricia Vier, a single mother who ran a photography business out of the home.
“She turned her kitchen into a dark room, had a desk, an answering machine that was her photography (business) voice mail message,” Suzanne Vier said. “We’d pack up the car, go to photo shows. There were times I was the ‘assistant’ at real big weddings. I’d help carry the equipment, watched her meet with brides and grooms.
“She instilled in me the ability to do what you love and do it successfully.”
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