This week we talk to Jacky Magid, co-founder – alongside husband Ken Mahlab – of Charlie’s Fine Food Co., an Australian, family-owned cookie company. Jacky and Ken bought a bankrupt bakery in 2004 and have transformed it from a small local business into a thriving AUD$10 million company. Jacky is a former lawyer who grew up in a family that made things. After starting her career in the corporate world, she had a desire to build a business that did more than just make money but be a positive force for good in the world.
ISB: How did you manage to transform a bankrupt bakery into a thriving company?
JM: A lot of blood, sweat, tears and patience. It wasn’t an overnight success – we’ve made mistakes along the way, but we’ve always learnt from them. We took the time early on to understand the market and industry. We listened, we asked questions, and we haven’t let the fear of failure limit us.
From the beginning, we never took any of our customers, big or small, for granted. We’ve always focused on personal, friendly, and reliable customer service and this has become part of our DNA.
ISB: How do you ensure the quality of the ingredients in your products?
JM: We know that quality is important to our customers, so we don’t cut corners when it comes to sourcing our ingredients. We seek out local reliable suppliers and we just don’t compromise on quality or sustainability for example, we only use free range eggs. Our SQF certification requires us to have an approved supplier program which ensure our suppliers and ingredients meet a very high food safety standard.
ISB: How do you divide the key roles in the business as a husband-and-wife run company and what is your ethos in terms of looking after your team?
JM: After nearly killing one another in the first year, we put together an advisory board who acted more like counsellors initially, but they helped us to identify our strengths and weaknesses as managers and leaders and this led to more clearly defined swim lanes. Ken looks after the operations and finance, and I look after the sales, marketing, and product innovation.
We are very aligned on our ethics and values and the importance of seeking out great people and looking them after them. People spend a lot of time at work, and so the workplace needs to be a place that engages them, cares for them, inspires them and helps them to be their best high-performing self.
ISB: I know sustainability is very important to you – how does this manifest itself in your manufacturing and packaging processes?
JM: We’re on a mission at Charlie’s to leave the world in a better place. We have 141 solar panels generating over 50,000 kWhs of green energy a year.
We have invested in biodegradable shrink wrap and gloves in our bakery. We’re also very mindful of waste reduction – we’ve recently moved from buckets to pallecons which has substantially reduced our waste of plastic buckets – and we are consistently collaborating with our suppliers to provide more environmental solutions wherever possible.
Our new Mish Mash Cookies packaging is fully sustainable with 100 per cent certified home compostable film and recyclable box and PET tray. We also proudly support FareShare, donating five cents from every pack of Mish Mash box sold to support the work they do to they do to cook delicious, free meals from rescued and donated ingredients to improve the lives of Australians in need.
ISB: As a supporter of Stop Food Waste Day, how does Charlie’s raise awareness and encourage people to stop wasting food?
JM: We’re passionate about FareShare at Charlie’s. FareShare save surplus, quality food that may otherwise go to landfill, cutting food waste and fighting pollution. We support the great work of FareShare through not only donating funds from packs sold but also assisting to raise their profile through logo on pack, social media and website presence.
We also donate imperfect product to local non-profit organisations and charities.
ISB: What is your vision for Charlie’s in the next couple of years?
JM: To grow our consumer brand and be recognised as a premium household Aussie made brand of biscuits, cookies and snacks and to continue to innovate great tasting, exciting on-trend products for Australian consumers, and to take this to the world. We want to continue to manufacture in Australia, building greater efficiency as well as providing job opportunities locally. And finally, we are working hard to reduce our environmental footprint to hit our targets when it comes to energy usage, packaging waste, food waste and water consumption.
