Catherine Clark turned her hobbybaking fresh, crunchy & wholesome breadinto a multi-million-dollar business. Labelling her face on every pack of bread sold, Clark became synonymous with her brown as a berry breadeventually being called the bread from Brownberry Ovens.
Early Beginnings
Married to Russell Clark (Harvard, 27), Clark was a housewife wanting to earn some money on her own. Based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Catherine was famous for her fluffy, tasteful & lightweight bread. She was in possession of a family recipe passed down to her from generationsand used it to good effect.
In 1946, Catherine and her husband took out a $7,000 mortgage on their homeand bought an oven, a mixer, a second-hand delivery truck and some space for a grocery store giving birth to Brownberry Ovens.
In 1946, Catherine and her husband took out a $7,000 mortgage on their homeand bought an oven, a mixer, a second-hand delivery truck and some space for a grocery store giving birth to Brownberry Ovens.
Catherines first batch of bread was distributed among friends and relatives their reaction in praising it was unanimous. With renewed confidence, the couple proceeded to sell the bread in and around Milwaukee, focusing their attention on working mothers, not having the time to bake their own bread for the family. The strategy worked wonderfully wellCatherine soon started having a hard time fulfilling the demands from her small kitchenand the pair decided to move to a bigger place.
With her newfound success, the pair also hired two baking assistants. They and Catherine would double up as sales agents at noon, making pit stops at grocery stores to sell their wares.
Her advertising genius
Catherine knew how to make tongues wag for her Brownberry Ovens bread. Keeping aside its distinctive flavour, she incorporated other elements in her ad campaign to make the overall product media-friendly.
By plastering her face on every pack of bread, she gave a human touch to the product. Housewives could relate with the homely face of Catherine and ordered the bread in droves.
Russell, by virtue of being a Harvard graduate, proved to be instrumental in spreading the word far and widehis promotional article titled The Brownberry Bread of Catherine Clark in the Harvard Business School bulletin, testified for the superior qualities of the Brownberry Ovens bread and its time-tested wheat milling process. This helped gain confidence of first-timers willing to try the bread.
On weekends, the pair would lock up their house and travel far across to neighbouring cities such as Oconomowoc, calling upon local grocers and persuading them to sell the bread in their stores.
Clarks previous experience at Schustersa major departmental storein Milwaukee surprisingly helped her in good stead, as she found it easier to negotiate her terms with store owners.
The sweet taste of success
Brownberry showed a profit in its first year itselfa grand total of $59. However, it was the rapid rate of growth which astonished most detractors sales doubled every year for the next five yearsallowing Catherine to open a new $400,000 bread-baking factory in Oconomowoc.
As the years passed by, Brownberry Ovens added six varieties of bread, crouton mix and several kinds of dough as part of its offerings. The Clarks expanded geographically to towns of Indiana, Michigan, Kentucky, Ohio and West Virginia.
When the company was finally sold to Peavey Co. in 1972, the company was worth $5.5 million, and most of it was owned by the Clarks themselves. Even after its eventual sell-off, Catherine earned a seat on the board of Peavey Co. and took active part in the companys expansion. The year after its merger, the entity purchased a 52,000 sq. ft. plant in Ohio, allowing it to practically double its production.
The merger also allowed Catherine to focus on other business venturesshe opened a vineyard in California and would spend time restoring a firehouse in San Francisco.
The legacy lives on
Catherine Clark is credited with bringing back the taste of good ol home-baked bread into mainstream culture. Her venture also provided employment to many housewives looking to earn extra bucks and feel rewarded. Catherine insisted on employing housewives, whom she regarded as having fine sixth sense when it came to baking.
Even after her retirement from Brownberry, Catherine kept the spirit of homemade bread alive through her writings. She was a regular contributor to a column, where she espoused the high nutritional value of wholesome bread and shared recipes.
Apart from pioneering the baking of wholesome bread at a mass level, Clark also gave back a lot to the city she started from; she served on the board of various committees of Wisconsin, promoting welfare, manufacturing and represented its industry in various forums. In 1979, Clark was awarded the Horatio Alger award for her rags-to-riches rise to the top.
An inspiration for millions of women across the country, Clark reinforced why wholesome food, abundant in nutrients, always stands tall amid the array of processed foods in the market.
Remember the Titans is a weekly ode to the inventors, geniuses, and business pioneers who left the world better than they got it. Check out stories of other Titans here.
Anant Gupta is a Business Intelligence Analyst at KPMG.