G-Momma's Cookies
By: Collin Curry
Published in Alabama Publisher
Winter 2016 Issue
Whether it’s cakes, pies, brownies or just food in general, everyone believes in their heart of hearts that their grandmothers’ recipes are the best. Not everyone acts on that belief though. Robert Armstrong did.
For Armstrong, it was his Gammy Momma’s cookies (pronounced Gah-mee). He recalls family get-togethers when everyone would crawl all over each other to get to his grandmother’s cookies.
“We were at a Christmas get-together, and we were eating the cookies, and my dad just made the comment, ‘Momma, you ought to market these cookies because these things are good,’” said Armstrong. “I thought to myself, that is a good idea; I think that would work.”
Armstrong said he promised his grandmother when he was younger that he would make a million dollars off of her cookies.
Armstrong, originally from Selma, Alabama, graduated from the University of Alabama in 2008 and immediately started working a sales job in Birmingham. However, he said his heart was not quite in it. It was back home in Selma. So in May 2009 he quit his job in Birmingham and moved home to try his hand at entrepreneurship.
After exhausting several business ideas, Armstrong decided it was time to try selling his grandmother’s cookies. He spent a few weeks working with his grandmother, learning everything there was to know about how to bake her cookies. He found an old restaurant in Selma’s historic district, took a loan against his Toyota 4Runner for $8,000 and opened the Selma Good Company, LLC.
Armstrong said the early years were hard. He had to do everything, from inventory, delivery, marketing and baking, all on his own. He would sometimes have to bake from 3 in the morning to 11:30 at night to keep up with larger orders. Business was good and growing fast -- too fast, it turned out. Due to the small size of the operation, Armstrong had to close down shop and put everything on hold for a while until he could figure out what to do next.
In October 2013, Armstrong opened up shop again and re-launched the cookies under the name G-Momma’s in honor of his grandmother. G-Momma’s bakes two types of cookies: the chocolate chip with pecans, which Armstrong said was his grandmother’s go-to cookie for family gatherings, and the buddascotch oatmeal. He had to outsource the baking to a bakery in Pennsylvania, but Armstrong said this was a necessary step to get the wider distribution and brand exposure the company needed. He is currently working on bringing the baking back to Selma.
Armstrong said that the driving force behind starting Selma Good and G-Momma’s Cookies is to help revive Selma.
Selma, best-known for its involvement in the Civil Rights Movement, is in the Black Belt of Alabama, a rural area that includes some of the poorest counties in the country. Armstrong said that his home town has suffered an economic decline over the past 40 years, and a big reason why is that people do not move back to Selma after college due to a lack of opportunity.
“Everybody leaves Selma and moves to places like Birmingham, Atlanta and Nashville,” Armstrong said.
Armstrong said he knows Selma has potential. He said that it has always been a passion of his to see his hometown come alive and to reach that potential.
“Everyone who leaves loves this place,” Armstrong said. “We need people to come back, we need them to see that they do not have to move to a big city to be successful and to have a successful business.”
G-Momma’s is a good example. When Armstrong started the company, his grandmother’s cookies were available only in three stores in Alabama. Now G-Momma’s Southern Style Bite Size Cookies are in 35 stores around the state, as well as 253 Wal-Marts and 700 Cracker Barrels all across the United States. Armstrong hopes that Selma Good and G-Momma’s Cookies can help bring Selma back.
“I believe that we have the best cookies you will find in a package,” said Armstrong. “But it is really all about elevating the image of Selma and honoring my grandmother.”
By: Collin Curry
Published in Alabama Publisher
Winter 2016 Issue
Whether it’s cakes, pies, brownies or just food in general, everyone believes in their heart of hearts that their grandmothers’ recipes are the best. Not everyone acts on that belief though. Robert Armstrong did.
For Armstrong, it was his Gammy Momma’s cookies (pronounced Gah-mee). He recalls family get-togethers when everyone would crawl all over each other to get to his grandmother’s cookies.
“We were at a Christmas get-together, and we were eating the cookies, and my dad just made the comment, ‘Momma, you ought to market these cookies because these things are good,’” said Armstrong. “I thought to myself, that is a good idea; I think that would work.”
Armstrong said he promised his grandmother when he was younger that he would make a million dollars off of her cookies.
Armstrong, originally from Selma, Alabama, graduated from the University of Alabama in 2008 and immediately started working a sales job in Birmingham. However, he said his heart was not quite in it. It was back home in Selma. So in May 2009 he quit his job in Birmingham and moved home to try his hand at entrepreneurship.
After exhausting several business ideas, Armstrong decided it was time to try selling his grandmother’s cookies. He spent a few weeks working with his grandmother, learning everything there was to know about how to bake her cookies. He found an old restaurant in Selma’s historic district, took a loan against his Toyota 4Runner for $8,000 and opened the Selma Good Company, LLC.
Armstrong said the early years were hard. He had to do everything, from inventory, delivery, marketing and baking, all on his own. He would sometimes have to bake from 3 in the morning to 11:30 at night to keep up with larger orders. Business was good and growing fast -- too fast, it turned out. Due to the small size of the operation, Armstrong had to close down shop and put everything on hold for a while until he could figure out what to do next.
In October 2013, Armstrong opened up shop again and re-launched the cookies under the name G-Momma’s in honor of his grandmother. G-Momma’s bakes two types of cookies: the chocolate chip with pecans, which Armstrong said was his grandmother’s go-to cookie for family gatherings, and the buddascotch oatmeal. He had to outsource the baking to a bakery in Pennsylvania, but Armstrong said this was a necessary step to get the wider distribution and brand exposure the company needed. He is currently working on bringing the baking back to Selma.
Armstrong said that the driving force behind starting Selma Good and G-Momma’s Cookies is to help revive Selma.
Selma, best-known for its involvement in the Civil Rights Movement, is in the Black Belt of Alabama, a rural area that includes some of the poorest counties in the country. Armstrong said that his home town has suffered an economic decline over the past 40 years, and a big reason why is that people do not move back to Selma after college due to a lack of opportunity.
“Everybody leaves Selma and moves to places like Birmingham, Atlanta and Nashville,” Armstrong said.
Armstrong said he knows Selma has potential. He said that it has always been a passion of his to see his hometown come alive and to reach that potential.
“Everyone who leaves loves this place,” Armstrong said. “We need people to come back, we need them to see that they do not have to move to a big city to be successful and to have a successful business.”
G-Momma’s is a good example. When Armstrong started the company, his grandmother’s cookies were available only in three stores in Alabama. Now G-Momma’s Southern Style Bite Size Cookies are in 35 stores around the state, as well as 253 Wal-Marts and 700 Cracker Barrels all across the United States. Armstrong hopes that Selma Good and G-Momma’s Cookies can help bring Selma back.
“I believe that we have the best cookies you will find in a package,” said Armstrong. “But it is really all about elevating the image of Selma and honoring my grandmother.”
Revival Coffee Company
By: Collin Curry
Published in Alabama Publisher
Winter 2016 Issue
Revival Coffee Company is a small batch coffee roaster with a purpose. That purpose, according to the company’s founder Ryan Bergeron, is to see people’s lives redeemed.
Operating out of Selma, Alabama, Revival Coffee Company was founded in October 2014, and it was a long, winding road that led Bergeron to the coffee industry. Bergeron was working a sales job in Anniston, unhappy sitting in a cubicle eight hours a day, and he decided to move his family back to Selma, his hometown. In Selma he started working in construction, but Bergeron said he still did not feel fulfilled. He felt a spiritual calling to do more.
“I was unhappy where I was, and I started praying for freedom,” Bergeron said.
He started putting in job applications wherever and whenever he could, but he could not land any jobs. He said he was always turned down, for some crazy reason or another.
“I was not feeling led in any direction,” Bergeron said. “So I told God that I would wait for him to bring something to me.”
Eventually Bergeron’s patience paid off. Early in 2014, a friend came to him with an idea for a new business in Selma. He said he prayed about it and eventually took steps toward opening a local coffee-roasting company.
Bergeron said he dove in headfirst and started researching his newly acquired trade.
“I knew next to nothing about the coffee business,” Bergeron said, “but I found out that I had a distant relative in Louisiana who had been roasting for 30 years.”
Bergeron went to Louisiana to learn under his relative before he even purchased a roaster. He knew that learning to roast was not enough. So he signed up to learn more about cupping at a coffee cupping and roasting school in Vermont.
Unfortunately, the course he signed up for was cancelled. Bergeron said that he knew that these were very important skills to learn, so he called the school to see if he could still enroll in the course.
“They allowed me to come up for one-on-one training, and I ended up training with Mane Alves, who is one of the top cuppers in the world and an international coffee tasting judge.”
He said that on one of the last days of his training, Alves told him he did not usually train people one-on-one and that he did not know what had compelled him to do it.
“When he told me that I remembered thinking, ‘Jesus looks after fools and drunks, and I am a fool,’” Bergeron said.
Bergeron was also able to train with a roaster in New York who had built his company from the ground up as well.
He said he had some trouble trying to think of a name.
“It had been a long time since I had to be creative,” Bergeron said. “I was lying in bed one night, praying, and this thought popped into my head: ‘Revival Coffee, awakening a nation.’”
He said that the name works on two different levels.
“Coffee revives people in the morning,” said Bergeron, with a chuckle, “and it fits with my heart and what I want to do with this company, reviving and waking up a community.”
That purpose of reviving his community and redeeming lives is at the heart of Bergeron’s business.
Revival Coffee Company roasts five different blends of coffee: the Integrity Blend, the Redemption Blend, the Restoration Blend, the Revival Blend and the Salvation Blend. For each blend, 10% of the profits go to a specific mission or charity. Bergeron said many coffee roasters do something similar. They donate proceeds to areas where their coffee comes from, which usually is somewhere in the developing world.
“I love that, but this country has a lot of issues that need awareness brought to them,” he said.
Bergeron wants to help with local issues, so Revival Coffee Company partners with ministries and charities on a more local level.
He said that owning a roasting company is definitely not what he expected in life.
“It was a big change going from working construction to owning a coffee company,” Bergeron said.
He said that he sometimes prays about what Revival Coffee Company was all about.
“I feel [God] spoke to my heart and said, ‘It’s all for good.’ And I am dedicated to running Revival Coffee Company in that way.”
By: Collin Curry
Published in Alabama Publisher
Winter 2016 Issue
Revival Coffee Company is a small batch coffee roaster with a purpose. That purpose, according to the company’s founder Ryan Bergeron, is to see people’s lives redeemed.
Operating out of Selma, Alabama, Revival Coffee Company was founded in October 2014, and it was a long, winding road that led Bergeron to the coffee industry. Bergeron was working a sales job in Anniston, unhappy sitting in a cubicle eight hours a day, and he decided to move his family back to Selma, his hometown. In Selma he started working in construction, but Bergeron said he still did not feel fulfilled. He felt a spiritual calling to do more.
“I was unhappy where I was, and I started praying for freedom,” Bergeron said.
He started putting in job applications wherever and whenever he could, but he could not land any jobs. He said he was always turned down, for some crazy reason or another.
“I was not feeling led in any direction,” Bergeron said. “So I told God that I would wait for him to bring something to me.”
Eventually Bergeron’s patience paid off. Early in 2014, a friend came to him with an idea for a new business in Selma. He said he prayed about it and eventually took steps toward opening a local coffee-roasting company.
Bergeron said he dove in headfirst and started researching his newly acquired trade.
“I knew next to nothing about the coffee business,” Bergeron said, “but I found out that I had a distant relative in Louisiana who had been roasting for 30 years.”
Bergeron went to Louisiana to learn under his relative before he even purchased a roaster. He knew that learning to roast was not enough. So he signed up to learn more about cupping at a coffee cupping and roasting school in Vermont.
Unfortunately, the course he signed up for was cancelled. Bergeron said that he knew that these were very important skills to learn, so he called the school to see if he could still enroll in the course.
“They allowed me to come up for one-on-one training, and I ended up training with Mane Alves, who is one of the top cuppers in the world and an international coffee tasting judge.”
He said that on one of the last days of his training, Alves told him he did not usually train people one-on-one and that he did not know what had compelled him to do it.
“When he told me that I remembered thinking, ‘Jesus looks after fools and drunks, and I am a fool,’” Bergeron said.
Bergeron was also able to train with a roaster in New York who had built his company from the ground up as well.
He said he had some trouble trying to think of a name.
“It had been a long time since I had to be creative,” Bergeron said. “I was lying in bed one night, praying, and this thought popped into my head: ‘Revival Coffee, awakening a nation.’”
He said that the name works on two different levels.
“Coffee revives people in the morning,” said Bergeron, with a chuckle, “and it fits with my heart and what I want to do with this company, reviving and waking up a community.”
That purpose of reviving his community and redeeming lives is at the heart of Bergeron’s business.
Revival Coffee Company roasts five different blends of coffee: the Integrity Blend, the Redemption Blend, the Restoration Blend, the Revival Blend and the Salvation Blend. For each blend, 10% of the profits go to a specific mission or charity. Bergeron said many coffee roasters do something similar. They donate proceeds to areas where their coffee comes from, which usually is somewhere in the developing world.
“I love that, but this country has a lot of issues that need awareness brought to them,” he said.
Bergeron wants to help with local issues, so Revival Coffee Company partners with ministries and charities on a more local level.
He said that owning a roasting company is definitely not what he expected in life.
“It was a big change going from working construction to owning a coffee company,” Bergeron said.
He said that he sometimes prays about what Revival Coffee Company was all about.
“I feel [God] spoke to my heart and said, ‘It’s all for good.’ And I am dedicated to running Revival Coffee Company in that way.”
Alaga Syrup
By: Collin Curry
Published in Alabama Publisher
Winter 2016 Issue
The origin tale behind the founding of the Whitfield Food Company and its Alaga brand syrup is almost as sweet as the syrup itself.
“It is a love story at its roots,” said Chris Ragusa, the company’s vice president of sales.
According to the story, a Georgia man named Louis Broughton Whitfield created a tasty cane-flavored syrup and entered it in a contest at the Georgia State Fair. Ragusa said that at the same time Whitfield was winning a blue ribbon for his syrup, he was also falling in love with a girl from Montgomery, Alabama, named Willie Vandiver. Vandiver convinced Whitfield to take his syrup to market.
“They were later married, and in 1906 they founded the Alabama-Georgia Syrup Company to commemorate their union,” Ragusa said. “The name they chose for their blue ribbon winning syrup was Alaga, a combination of the abbreviations for Alabama and Georgia.”
That’s how one of the oldest consumer product manufacturers in Alabama was born. Ragusa said that the company still honors the Whitfield love story today, through their logo.
“We still commemorate that union by including their clasped hands, a blue ribbon, a fan of wheat signifying the many uses of Alaga and the name they created on the label of our Alaga Original Cane Flavored Syrup,” he said.
The Whitfield Food Company has now been in operation for 110 years and is still based out of Montgomery. According to the Alaga Syrup website, the company started out in a small 70-foot by 100-foot building with just two other employees. Now the company employs around 150 people and occupies almost 27 acres.
Ragusa said that over the 110 years, business grew quickly and sales soared, resulting in expansions to new plants in Birmingham and Dallas, Texas.
A key factor in the success of the company was its famous spokespersons. Celebrities from Willie Mays and Hank Aaron to Nat King Cole and Bear Bryant have served as spokespersons for the company at some point in time.
“Having famous spokespeople was a large part of our history and marketing and is a source of great pride,” Ragusa said. “The Whitfield family had relationships that were remarkable with famous people of that time.”
He said the history of the Alaga Syrup is deep in those relationships and that private jets and exotic trips were not uncommon.
Eventually, Ragusa said, the company stopped using high-profile spokespeople mainly as a cost-cutting measure as syrup sales dropped and consumer tastes changed. As vice president of sales, Ragusa manages marketing and advertising among other aspects of the company. He said he has considered revisiting the use of famous spokespeople.
“I have reached out to a few agents to gauge interest and feasibility of some of the many home-grown celebrities and athletically talented individuals in Alabama,” Ragusa said. “As of today we do not have anyone under contract, but the future is bright, and the options are plentiful.”
Ragusa said that over the past 25 years, the co-packaging side of the company has overtaken the syrup side in revenue. The company has major contracts with PepsiCo producing the Gatorade and Tropicana brands, Campbell’s V8 Splash, and Nestle Sweet Leaf Teas, and Ragusa said this side of the business is the driving force behind the company’s success today. Whitfield Food Company has received several prestigious awards for their expertise and efficiency in the co-packaging department, including Co-packer of the Year for PepsiCo in two out of the last five years.
Ragusa said that while the co-packaging side of the business has become more prominent recently, he wants to convey that the company still produces syrups of the highest quality and taste.
“All of our products are 100 percent produced in Alabama,” Ragusa said. “Alaga will always be, just like our motto says, ‘Alaga -- The Sweetness of the South.’”
By: Collin Curry
Published in Alabama Publisher
Winter 2016 Issue
The origin tale behind the founding of the Whitfield Food Company and its Alaga brand syrup is almost as sweet as the syrup itself.
“It is a love story at its roots,” said Chris Ragusa, the company’s vice president of sales.
According to the story, a Georgia man named Louis Broughton Whitfield created a tasty cane-flavored syrup and entered it in a contest at the Georgia State Fair. Ragusa said that at the same time Whitfield was winning a blue ribbon for his syrup, he was also falling in love with a girl from Montgomery, Alabama, named Willie Vandiver. Vandiver convinced Whitfield to take his syrup to market.
“They were later married, and in 1906 they founded the Alabama-Georgia Syrup Company to commemorate their union,” Ragusa said. “The name they chose for their blue ribbon winning syrup was Alaga, a combination of the abbreviations for Alabama and Georgia.”
That’s how one of the oldest consumer product manufacturers in Alabama was born. Ragusa said that the company still honors the Whitfield love story today, through their logo.
“We still commemorate that union by including their clasped hands, a blue ribbon, a fan of wheat signifying the many uses of Alaga and the name they created on the label of our Alaga Original Cane Flavored Syrup,” he said.
The Whitfield Food Company has now been in operation for 110 years and is still based out of Montgomery. According to the Alaga Syrup website, the company started out in a small 70-foot by 100-foot building with just two other employees. Now the company employs around 150 people and occupies almost 27 acres.
Ragusa said that over the 110 years, business grew quickly and sales soared, resulting in expansions to new plants in Birmingham and Dallas, Texas.
A key factor in the success of the company was its famous spokespersons. Celebrities from Willie Mays and Hank Aaron to Nat King Cole and Bear Bryant have served as spokespersons for the company at some point in time.
“Having famous spokespeople was a large part of our history and marketing and is a source of great pride,” Ragusa said. “The Whitfield family had relationships that were remarkable with famous people of that time.”
He said the history of the Alaga Syrup is deep in those relationships and that private jets and exotic trips were not uncommon.
Eventually, Ragusa said, the company stopped using high-profile spokespeople mainly as a cost-cutting measure as syrup sales dropped and consumer tastes changed. As vice president of sales, Ragusa manages marketing and advertising among other aspects of the company. He said he has considered revisiting the use of famous spokespeople.
“I have reached out to a few agents to gauge interest and feasibility of some of the many home-grown celebrities and athletically talented individuals in Alabama,” Ragusa said. “As of today we do not have anyone under contract, but the future is bright, and the options are plentiful.”
Ragusa said that over the past 25 years, the co-packaging side of the company has overtaken the syrup side in revenue. The company has major contracts with PepsiCo producing the Gatorade and Tropicana brands, Campbell’s V8 Splash, and Nestle Sweet Leaf Teas, and Ragusa said this side of the business is the driving force behind the company’s success today. Whitfield Food Company has received several prestigious awards for their expertise and efficiency in the co-packaging department, including Co-packer of the Year for PepsiCo in two out of the last five years.
Ragusa said that while the co-packaging side of the business has become more prominent recently, he wants to convey that the company still produces syrups of the highest quality and taste.
“All of our products are 100 percent produced in Alabama,” Ragusa said. “Alaga will always be, just like our motto says, ‘Alaga -- The Sweetness of the South.’”
Bamawise
By: Collin Curry
Published in Alabama Publisher
Winter 2016 Issue
When Jeff Gentry quit his job at Atlanta Foods International, it was because he saw the quality and potential of the products from his home state of Alabama. He started Bamawise in Birmingham in 2013 to strive for this potential.
“He served an area in the Southeast, and he saw the need of more access to the market for Alabama products,” said Becky Denny, a vice president for the company. “Jeff really recognized the quality of products in the state and decided that we wanted to represent these people.”
Bamawise started off distributing from a small pool of vendors and now offers 30 different products from a variety of producers, all Alabama based. The wares vary from Holmstead Fines chutney and Chuck’s Choice beef jerky in Birmingham to Cake by Donna in Fairhope and Mook Mills Cheese Straws in Tuscumbia.
Bamawise does not just distribute for these small producers, it helps them with every aspect of their business.
“We work with our producers on everything from the recipe stage, through packaging, distribution, as well as marketing and design,” said Denny. “We are essentially with them every step of the way.”
Denny said that because of how closely Bamawise works with their producers, they are able to provide important business consultation for them.
“We want to help them so that they are able to compete on a national scale,” she said.
Bamawise’s sole focus on local producers is truly unique in the world of grocery distribution. Denny, who has a background in retail distribution but not the food industry, said that she is excited by what Bamawise is doing for Alabama.
“The economic impact that we are able to make on the state is mind boggling,” she said. “There is no one else doing things this way. We are really kind of changing the game.”
Denny said the distribution model that Gentry and his partners developed was one of a kind, and it works because the demand from Alabama retailers for local products is high. She says that people want to buy local products because they want to help their neighbors, and they can see the quality.
“We make it easy for retailers to come and get their local products from one place,” she said. “We are in a unique position, in that we are able to walk in and deliver the entire local section at a grocery store.”
She said that this model helps the small producers, the retailers who want to sell local products and the customers who want to buy local.
Tim Denny, who is in charge of identifying new producers, said that many times producers are being referred to Bamawise by their local grocery stores.
“I receive calls and emails from producers almost every day,” Denny said. “I make sure to spend time and speak to every one of them so we can assess their needs and see what Bamawise can do to help them.”
Tim Denny reiterated that the key to Bamawise’s success is that it is local.
“People want local products,” he said. “If you are locally based, it gives you an automatic advantage, especially in this industry.”
Customers can find Bamawise products at numerous grocery stores and retailers across the state, as well as on their website, Bamawise.com. Bamawise also offers gift baskets filled with a variety of their products.
By: Collin Curry
Published in Alabama Publisher
Winter 2016 Issue
When Jeff Gentry quit his job at Atlanta Foods International, it was because he saw the quality and potential of the products from his home state of Alabama. He started Bamawise in Birmingham in 2013 to strive for this potential.
“He served an area in the Southeast, and he saw the need of more access to the market for Alabama products,” said Becky Denny, a vice president for the company. “Jeff really recognized the quality of products in the state and decided that we wanted to represent these people.”
Bamawise started off distributing from a small pool of vendors and now offers 30 different products from a variety of producers, all Alabama based. The wares vary from Holmstead Fines chutney and Chuck’s Choice beef jerky in Birmingham to Cake by Donna in Fairhope and Mook Mills Cheese Straws in Tuscumbia.
Bamawise does not just distribute for these small producers, it helps them with every aspect of their business.
“We work with our producers on everything from the recipe stage, through packaging, distribution, as well as marketing and design,” said Denny. “We are essentially with them every step of the way.”
Denny said that because of how closely Bamawise works with their producers, they are able to provide important business consultation for them.
“We want to help them so that they are able to compete on a national scale,” she said.
Bamawise’s sole focus on local producers is truly unique in the world of grocery distribution. Denny, who has a background in retail distribution but not the food industry, said that she is excited by what Bamawise is doing for Alabama.
“The economic impact that we are able to make on the state is mind boggling,” she said. “There is no one else doing things this way. We are really kind of changing the game.”
Denny said the distribution model that Gentry and his partners developed was one of a kind, and it works because the demand from Alabama retailers for local products is high. She says that people want to buy local products because they want to help their neighbors, and they can see the quality.
“We make it easy for retailers to come and get their local products from one place,” she said. “We are in a unique position, in that we are able to walk in and deliver the entire local section at a grocery store.”
She said that this model helps the small producers, the retailers who want to sell local products and the customers who want to buy local.
Tim Denny, who is in charge of identifying new producers, said that many times producers are being referred to Bamawise by their local grocery stores.
“I receive calls and emails from producers almost every day,” Denny said. “I make sure to spend time and speak to every one of them so we can assess their needs and see what Bamawise can do to help them.”
Tim Denny reiterated that the key to Bamawise’s success is that it is local.
“People want local products,” he said. “If you are locally based, it gives you an automatic advantage, especially in this industry.”
Customers can find Bamawise products at numerous grocery stores and retailers across the state, as well as on their website, Bamawise.com. Bamawise also offers gift baskets filled with a variety of their products.