Weathering Economic Storms: Financial Lessons from a 40-Year Food Business Pioneer
(Listen on Apple or Spotify. Full transcript below.)
Ever wondered how to build a food business that not only survives but thrives through multiple economic downturns?
In our recent podcast episode, I had the privilege of interviewing culinary icon Ariane Daguin, founder of D'Artagnan, who transformed $15,000 into an industry-defining specialty meat company over four decades. Her journey offers invaluable wisdom for today's food entrepreneurs facing rising costs, supply chain challenges, and economic volatility.
From $15,000 to Food Industry Icon
When Ariane Daguin and her business partner launched D'Artagnan in 1985, they had just $15,000 between them — $7,500 from Ariane's savings and $7,500 borrowed from her partner's mother. By the time they opened their doors, they had just $30 left in their bank account.
"Between the deposit for the phone, the first listing of the refrigerator truck, the two months' rent... we basically ate our samples for a full year without paying ourselves a salary," Ariane recalled.
Yet despite these humble beginnings, D'Artagnan grew rapidly, pioneering high-quality, sustainable meats in America decades before "farm-to-table" became a household phrase. Their unwavering commitment to quality — pasture-raised animals without antibiotics or growth hormones — created the foundation for a company that would eventually define an entire category in the specialty food industry.
What can today's food entrepreneurs learn from this remarkable journey? Let's dive into the financial wisdom Ariane shared that remains relevant in today's challenging economic landscape.
Navigating the Cash Flow Tightrope: Lessons from the Early Years
For the first decade of D'Artagnan's existence, cash flow was a constant challenge. The business model created an inherent squeeze: farmers needed payment quickly, while restaurant customers typically paid in 30 days (which often stretched to 45 days or more).
This cash flow gap is all too familiar to specialty food producers today. In 2025, with higher interest rates and increased costs across the supply chain, the challenge has only intensified. How did Ariane manage this cash flow tightrope, and how can today's founders apply similar principles?
1. Develop a multi-pronged approach to cash flow management
Ariane's strategy combined several tactics:
Negotiate better terms when possible: As relationships with larger farmers developed, D'Artagnan was able to secure slightly better payment terms.
Incentivize prompt payment: Offering small discounts for COD (cash on delivery) payments helped accelerate cash flow from some customers.
Be transparent with suppliers: Clear communication about payment timelines helped build trust with farmers.
Implement strict receivables management: Ariane described having "an account receivable manager who was an ogre" — a necessary role to ensure timely payments from customers.
2. Build the right banking relationship
One of Ariane's most practical pieces of advice was about banking relationships:
"The trick with the banks is to go see the bank of your size, which means a small one at the beginning. And as you grow, you have to change banks to be able to get a bigger line of credit."
This often-overlooked strategy makes perfect sense — a small food business is better served by a financial institution that understands and caters to businesses of similar scale. As your company grows, your banking relationship should evolve alongside it.
To strengthen these critical banking relationships, Ariane emphasized:
Pay on time or early: "Pay on time all the time, if possible even before it's due so they see that you're serious."
Understand bank lending limitations: Banks typically limit lines of credit based on a percentage of inventory (especially for perishable goods) and receivables.
Build credibility over time: Consistent reliability helps secure better terms as you grow.
In today's environment, where many specialty food entrepreneurs face higher costs for ingredients, packaging, and transportation, these banking relationships have become even more critical. According to recent industry reports, food manufacturers are experiencing up to 12% increases in raw material costs in 2025, making access to adequate working capital essential for survival.
The Strategic Advantage of Controlled Growth
Perhaps the most counterintuitive aspect of D'Artagnan's success was Ariane's deliberate decision to control growth rather than expand as rapidly as possible. This approach ultimately led to the company's longevity while maintaining its reputation for exceptional quality.
"We had to actually control our growth because we didn't want the farmers and the ranchers to compromise the quality of the animals," Ariane explained. "Depending on their size, they had a max quantity that they could do without compromising the quality."
This strategic decision to prioritize quality over rapid expansion stands in stark contrast to the "growth at all costs" mentality often promoted in business today. However, for specialty food producers who differentiate on quality, Ariane's approach offers several advantages:
1. Selective Customer Relationships
By controlling growth, D'Artagnan could be selective about which clients to take on. "Because of that, we couldn't say yes to all the clients. And that helped also on the receivables," Ariane noted. This selectivity allowed them to prioritize customers who paid reliably and valued their quality standards.
2. Maintain Brand Integrity
Ariane was adamant about staying specialized rather than diversifying too broadly: "I wanted to stay specialized. I didn't want to go into fish, cheese, chocolate, all that stuff. I wanted people to respect us for what we were doing."
This focus allowed D'Artagnan to build an unmatched reputation in their niche. In today's crowded specialty food marketplace, where consumers face overwhelming choices, a clear brand identity built on unwavering quality standards can provide a significant competitive advantage.
3. Quality Control as a Sustainable Business Strategy
By 2005, twenty years into the business, Ariane's commitment to controlled growth created tension with her business partner, who "wanted to grow faster, he wanted to start to make serious money." This fundamental disagreement ultimately led to their split, with Ariane buying out her partner using a "shotgun clause."
Her decision to maintain control and continue prioritizing quality over rapid growth allowed D'Artagnan to thrive for another two decades. The company was eventually sold in 2022, after 37 successful years under Ariane's leadership.
Weathering Economic Volatility: Strategies for Today's Food Entrepreneurs
The current economic landscape presents unique challenges for specialty food entrepreneurs. Rising input costs, supply chain disruptions, and shifting consumer spending patterns have created significant headwinds. However, Ariane's experience navigating multiple economic cycles over four decades offers valuable perspective.
"In the 40 years of business, I've seen and I know and I am sure that this is life," Ariane reflected. "Whatever goes up goes down, whatever goes down goes back up."
How can food entrepreneurs navigate these cycles effectively?
1. Use Economic Downturns as Opportunities for Innovation
"It's important to try to see the opportunities when it does go down because sometimes it's a good way to fix things, maybe look at the expenses a little bit, reinvent yourself," Ariane advised.
Economic challenges can force beneficial operational improvements that might otherwise be overlooked during growth periods. Today's specialty food entrepreneurs can use this time to:
Conduct thorough cost analyses to identify inefficiencies
Renegotiate supplier contracts
Evaluate product lines and potentially discontinue underperforming items
Explore alternative ingredients or processing methods that maintain quality while controlling costs
2. Focus on Differentiation During Challenging Times
"At the end of the day, everybody has to eat," Ariane pointed out, suggesting that economic pressure creates opportunities for differentiation from competitors.
Industry data supports this perspective. Even during economic downturns, consumers continue to prioritize specialty food products that deliver exceptional quality and align with their values. According to recent market research, consumers say they're willing to pay more for food products with clear quality differentiation, even when tightening their overall budgets.
3. Build Community During Difficult Times
Throughout our conversation, Ariane emphasized the importance of community in building a resilient business. From the chefs who supported her early on to her current mentorship work through the Germinators program, relationships have been central to her success.
"I'm at the head of the Food and Beverage Committee, and I figure let's do something nice. You know, it's my turn to give," she explained, describing her current work mentoring food entrepreneurs.
For today's specialty food brands, investing in community — whether with suppliers, customers, or fellow entrepreneurs — can create resilience during challenging economic periods. These relationships often lead to collaborative problem-solving, resource sharing, and mutual support when it's needed most.
Building a Business That Stands the Test of Time
The most profound lesson from Ariane's journey is that building a food business that lasts requires more than just financial acumen — it demands unwavering commitment to quality, strategic patience, and the courage to make difficult decisions that prioritize long-term sustainability over short-term gains.
As Ariane now embarks on her newest venture, All For One, One For All Farm with her daughter, she continues to embody these principles while passing them on to the next generation of food entrepreneurs.
For specialty food founders navigating today's economic challenges, Ariane's story offers both practical guidance and inspiring proof that with the right approach, it's possible to build a business that not only survives economic storms but emerges stronger on the other side.
Want to hear more insights directly from Ariane Daguin? Listen to the full podcast episode for her complete story, including her journey from France to America, how she identified the market opportunity that would become D'Artagnan, and her current work mentoring food entrepreneurs through the Germinators program.
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Episode Timeline
00:00 Introduction to a Food Industry Icon
03:00 Economic Uncertainty and Founders' Concerns
05:53 Ariane De Guin: A Culinary Pioneer
10:06 Starting D'Artagnan: The Journey Begins
15:06 Building Relationships and Overcoming Challenges
20:48 Cash Flow Management in the Food Industry
30:04 Maintaining Quality and Specialization
33:58 The Shotgun Clause and Business Growth
37:46 New Ventures: All for One, One for All Farm
42:03 The Germinators: Mentorship and Support
45:55 Final Thoughts and Advice for Founders
Full Episode Transcript
You're listening to The Good Food CFO Podcast. I'm your host, Sarah Delevan, and with me as always is our producer, Chelsea Stier.
Hey, Chelsea.
Hey, Sarah.
Guess what?
What?
I am talking to a food industry icon today in this episode. That is so exciting. I know. I'm a little bit embarrassed because as soon as we recorded the episode, I took to Instagram and I was like, I'm just going to go ahead and say it. I interviewed a celebrity today for the podcast.
The guesses that came in for who I interviewed were amazing. We're talking like Martha Stewart, Jennifer Garner, Christina Tosi. I then went back to Instagram and I said, I appreciate how much confidence you all have in the Good Food, CFO podcast. Maybe we can begin manifesting some of these guests onto the show. But I had to kind of give a little bit more direction. This food industry icon is someone who created a business, the first of its kind.
here in the US in the mid-'80s. And as a buyer, someone who worked in the food industry sourcing ingredients, when it came into our inbox that she was interested in being on the show, we jumped right on it. So I'm not going to give any more away before we get a little bit further into the episode. But needless to say, I am excited. I was excited to talk to her, and I'm super excited for everybody to hear the episode today.
Yeah. And like you said, we'll tease that out a little bit longer. So, Sarah, to get things going today, I'd love to start with a review. Love that. Always. How does that sound? Okay, good. Okay. Now, I say review, but what I actually mean, Sarah, is a comment from YouTube. This comment was actually on our very recent episode that we did about economic uncertainty where we talking about, you know, cost rising and tariffs and stuff like that. And it's from Locke.
Jiranek, and they said, your videos and tools available on your website are invaluable. I'm having to go back to square one with my business down to what products I'm going to sell and how I'm going to sell it. Without you, I'm not sure where I'd turn to gain confidence and truly find the answers through the real numbers. Wow.
First and foremost, thank you, Locke, for commenting on YouTube, for giving us feedback, because as I've said before, means so much to us and is so valuable to the work that we're doing. And I'm also just so grateful that the tools are helpful. They're meant to be. And so the fact that founders can take them, use them, and gain confidence, that's exactly what we want to be happening. And so again, thank you, thank you, thank you for the comment, for the feedback.
I just can't say enough. Yeah. And Sarah, you nailed it on the head, right? It's comments like these, reviews on Apple that help us to reach that big hairy goal that we have, which is reaching a million food founders, right? So if you're listening and you want to tell us how you think we're doing and what you want to hear, make sure you leave a review wherever you listen.
Maybe you'll hear it on the podcast here one day. And Sarah, there's another reason I actually wanted to share this comment here on this episode today. It's been on my mind all afternoon. We had our BABOYOT member event, our quarterly event this afternoon and
As part of that event, we did hold an Ask Me Anything. I think it was basically every question that came from our founders today had to do with rising costs, tariffs, like how do they reprice their products? How should they strategize through this economic uncertainty or downturn or whatever you want to call it?
That tells me not only from this comment on our very recent YouTube episode, but then also hearing the founders today that they're feeling it. This is what is on their minds. Yeah. And I think on the consumer end, I don't know that the impact of tariffs that small brands in particular are feeling right now is really being felt just yet. Not as much as the founders are.
Yeah. Feeling it when they're literally just like seeing the costs rising of things they need to buy, knowing that costs are rising and like, don't need to buy it right now, but should I buy it now? Should I not? There's all of this anxiety and you hit on a key word, the strategy. What is the strategy for making it through this time? And as we said in the episode on tariffs and economic uncertainty, we don't want anyone to just shelter in place.
and just try to survive this, right? It's like, what can you do? How can you think about your business? How can you modify your business, strengthen your business, strengthen your cash flow and your cash situation now so that you can endure and potentially thrive in this economic time? And I'll go ahead and announce our guest today because I think she provides a lot of valuable insights as a founder who's been in business for over 40
years, right? Ariane Daguin, I pronounced her last name wrong and I apologize. She has such a beautiful French accent. I cannot do it justice, but she's the founder of D'Artagnan. And so as someone who has worked in the food industry, who's been a buyer, you know, had been a buyer for years, who also worked in restaurants, I'm so familiar with D'Artagnan. I'm familiar with Ariane and the work that she has done. She pioneered
a specialty meat company, the first of its kind, bringing foie gras and sustainably raised meats to the American market before anyone else. through this episode, she's not only sharing her journey, but she's also sharing insights into what it's like to be in business for so long. And I'm really excited for people to hear about that. Yeah. And I think you'll also hear…
what it was like coming up, she almost called it like coming up with a class of culinary chefs and people in the food industry that they were all almost like friends, right? Coming up together and what that community did for her and her business, I think is really special.
Yeah, and for people who aren't familiar, and we'll go into it obviously in the episode, but Ariane is a French-American entrepreneur. She's an author and she's literally a culinary pioneer who's renowned for her contributions to the gourmet food industry and sustainable farming. As I mentioned, she's the founder, really the co-founder of D'Artagnan. As I said, the pioneering specialty meat company that she built from just $15,000 into an industry-defining business over four decades.
She talks about her upbringing in Gascony, France where they lived to eat, not eat to live. And as she was talking about that, I was like, I'm from Scranton, Pennsylvania. I feel like I grew up the same way. My family definitely lived to eat. But her father was a Michelin star chef. She was surrounded by food, this high quality food from her childhood and identified a gap.
in the market, right? Identified a need and created a solution for it. And I think so many things that are going to resonate with founders listening today is her commitment to quality and sustainability, the pressures to grow fast and how she dealt with those and what that ultimately looked like. Toward the end of her business, she did recently sell, D'Artagnan. She talks about the economic ups and downs.
As we kind of teased a moment ago, over the course of 40 years, there are lots of ups and there are lots of downs. Just think back the last 20 years and everything that's happened with our economy. And then she also talks about mentorship and giving back. And one of the reasons that she wanted to be on the podcast was to speak to founders, to give information that she didn't have when she started.
inspire, to connect. So she's really in a place of giving and she has started a new farm, a new business with her daughter, which is really, really sweet to hear about. Yeah. And I have to say that after I listened to the episode, all the things that you talked about, right? Starting her business with $15,000, running it for 40 years, deliberately controlling growth.
right? So that she could maintain those standards, which also meant saying no to certain opportunities, right? All of that made me kind of sit up and go, wait a second, did we just do a Bobby Yacht episode? You know what we did. We really did. I think you're right. So yeah, I really loved listening to it. And I think that all of our founders out there will love listening to it as well. I hope so. I hope so. You ready to get to it? Yeah. Let's do it.
Hey there, it's Sarah. If you're enjoying the podcast, I want to invite you to become a BABOYOT member. It stands for building a business on your own terms and your membership directly supports the continued production of this podcast and helps us reach our goal of supporting 1 million food founders. As a member, you'll get access to our live coaching events, have your brand featured right here on the podcast, be the first to test our new tools and receive a 10 % discount on all of our tools and services when you choose an annual plan.
Join fellow successful founders at thegoodfoodcfo.com slash BABOYOT. That's spelled B-A-B-O-Y-O-T. Together, we're changing the way that food business is done. Now, back to the show.
Ariane, welcome to the podcast.
Thank you, thank you for having me.
My pleasure. I need to share with you right off the bat that I'm a former customer of D'Artagnan. Former? Well, because before I started doing what I do now, which is financial consulting for sustainable food businesses, I was a food sourcing manager for a large catering company in Los Angeles. So I was responsible for traveling to farms and finding the best of the best ingredients, making
seasonal menus, all those beautiful things. I had such a fun job. But whenever we needed duck or foie gras, there was only one place that I was allowed to go and I was introduced to D'Artagnan and by that you. And so you were a great resource for us then. So thank you for that. And it's quite a pleasure to meet you 10 years later.
Good, good. But does that mean you don't eat duck anymore?
I absolutely eat duck still. I just don't buy it in the quantities that I used to. But I want to talk about your roots in the food industry. It starts with your father, from what I understand, a Michelin-starred chef. Can you tell us a little bit about him and then your journey to starting your food business?
We're counting seven generations behind me, my father, his parents, his grandparents, and in the food business. It started as an inn in a total rural area of France called Gascony, southwest France, where we live to eat. We don't eat to live, we live to eat. In Gascony, when somebody knocks at the door...
you open the door, you don't say hello, you say, have you eaten? That's the first word, know, it's that kind of a culture. And to eat well, not to eat a lot, just to eat a lot, just to eat well. And because it's a very hilly region, there has always been a lot of polyculture where the women traditionally would take care of the poultry, the eggs, the gardening.
and the men were more in the fields with a big cattle or the big culture in the cereals, sunflowers, corn, wheat, stuff like that, and of course, vines, grapes, wine, and Armagnac. Armagnac is the big brandy of Gascony. So I was raised in that environment where everybody in the family was in the food business, whether it's
in the wine or in the farming or in the restaurant business and all around my childhood friends were the daughters and the sons of other restaurateurs of the region. So we ate very, very well. We were spoiled and had the best ingredients. My father had a list of small farmers who would come every day, deliver small quantities of things to him and
that he ordered or that he didn't order, but that was ready or ripe or that they cut in the woods, know, mushrooms or a wild boar or something, and they would bring it and of course he would take it and we would take care of it. And so from very, very young, I was in that environment. Helping the business was a small hotel restaurant, 32 rooms.
And the restaurant who got one star and then two stars, Michelin stars. And so with my brother and then after that my little sister, but she was much younger. But with my brother who was one year younger, we always had to help, you know. After homework or during vacation or on the weekends, we would help where was needed. Except I was helping where was needed. He had clearly a path of in.
kind of an internship where he would learn every facet of the business. It was clear from the beginning, it was never said loudly, but it was clear that he was gonna take over, not me. And I was the eldest, but on the other side at that time, the women would find a husband and follow the husband. And so it was more secure for a family with a business to bet on the...
on the son rather than the daughter. And I think this is key to what happened to me. Because somewhere, it didn't sit well with me. Somewhere subjectively and unconsciously. I always wanted to show my parents, my father in particular, but the whole family, that I was worth something, that I could do something on my own. And that's how I decided to cross.
the pond, go to America and make my life here. Also, my father was very important in the food industry in France and he was very well known and I didn't want him to put me in situation where people would say, yeah, she's there, but that's because her father had networking. And so I arrived here.
in 1977 as an au pair in Greenwich, Connecticut. During the school year, I became also assistant teacher at the Greenwich High of the French teacher. And he's the one and the whole community around him who helped me pass the SAT and the TOEFL, which are the exams to be able to go to university. I was accepted at Barnard College and
with the idea of becoming a journalist. I always loved to write. And I didn't doubt of anything except I was not that good in English and to write in English would have been another challenge. However, the challenge didn't come because I dropped out of Barnard College in the second year. I ran out of money. My parents, you know, in France, in Europe in general,
You don't pay for your studies for education. It's free. I mean, it's free Of course you pay your taxes, but it's it comes free and so they didn't understand the cost the of the whole thing here, so So I had that's another podcast I'm sure So
me either.
my god.
I had found a couple of part-time jobs, so that was nice, but not enough to be able to pay the tuition of the next year. And one of those part-time jobs was being at the store, manager of the store of charcuterie, a deli, a French deli called the Three Little Pigs, les Trois Petits Cochons. That was the first French charcuterie or deli in...
I don't know in America, but certainly in New York on 13th Street. so from there, that summer, my bosses, were two partners, they asked me if I wanted to stay full time and they would take care of the lawyer to transfer my visa from student to work permit to eventually a green card. I was only too happy to say yes because
I was in my element, food. knew what I was talking about. It was a time when with the French accent, people in front of you would think that you know better about food than they do. And I couldn't follow the studies anyway, so it was perfect. So I stayed there. Very fast, I wanted to develop the wholesale side of the business. It was only a retail store. So we started that.
And that went pretty well and for five years everything was fine. And then one day two guys came with foie gras in their hands. You know, the liver of the duck or goose that has been really fed, specially fed to get that big liver, which is a huge delicacy in Gascony. It's our specialty. Everybody loves foie gras. Any special occasion or no occasion at all, that's what we eat. And so...
I saw that with really big eyes. mean, it had been six years since I hadn't come home. And that was the first foie gras in America. It was historical, you know, it was really cool. I tried to convince my bosses to get into that business. They didn't want to, they refused. And so I left and started D'artagnan with a partner at the time. He was a good friend who...
I had met at International House, the dormitory of Columbia University. He had joined me at the Three Pigs for three years before that. And so it was time for us, you we were young, we didn't have any responsibilities, no families. So we decided, okay, it's time and let's go and do our own thing. And so we started D'Artagnan. We had $7,500 each.
I had that as a saving. He borrowed that from his mother. So $15,000 to start. The day we opened, we had $30 left in the bank account. know, between the deposit for the phone, the deposit for the first listing of the refrigerator truck, the rent, the two months rent. And at that time, I mean, it was, we're talking about 1985. So no internet, no core funding.
For me, no way to call the parents. So we basically, one, we ate our samples for a full year without paying ourselves a salary. But two, we grew really, really fast. So we had cash flow issues instantly because the farmers needed to be paid very fast and the restaurateurs notoriously pay you in 30 days, which means 45.
if that, you know, so yeah.
May I ask you a couple of questions about what it was like when you started? It sounds like, I know you had partner farms that you worked with, but was that the case in the first days of the business as well? Or were you raising animals?
No, we never raised animals ourselves. We had that relationship with this duck farm and the foie gras. And we were promoting all the little different parts of the duck, prepared or raw. We didn't have a USD establishment, but there was a guy who we had met by chance who had a place called Maxi Frost.
and he was doing chimichangas and stuff like that for the army. It was a USDA place, inspected establishment, and he gave us his lunch time. Every day, the two hours of lunch time in the middle, he gave them to us with all the equipment for free, for free. He said something to me that I'm now repeating nonstop, which is when I arrived, somebody held me.
now it's my turn. And that's what I'm doing today. When I arrived, somebody helped me, now it's my turn. And there were a lot of helping hands like that. I remember a chef from Robert Mesin from La Cremaière in Weshester County who gave me a check of $1,000, even though he didn't need to order anything. He said, what do you need for next week? No, no, just put it on my account.
My sous chef will call you with an order. Stuff like that, you know? And that's, for me, today, that is America. That totally represents what America is all about.
have a couple more questions because so many of the listeners of the podcast are starting businesses. They're in the very early stages. You mentioned a couple of things that are interesting to me. One is you had partners, partners meaning the farmers and those who are raising the dog and potentially the goose. Then it sounds like you were making the product. You were processing the animals, it sounds like.
Well, not killing the slaughterhouse. On the and foie gras, the slaughterhouse was at the farm. But very, very rapidly, we had other relationships with other farmers. We saw that we couldn't survive just on duck. So we went to look for good chickens in Amish County, in Berks County, Langaster County, Venison, wild boar, quail in Carolina, in the Carolinas.
I mean we had to, we wanted to specialize in meat protein but the good ones raised the right way. not just duck, I we couldn't.
What I'm hearing there too is like you were offering product that wasn't super mainstream. It's like you couldn't go to the grocery store certainly and get a lot of that product. And even as a restaurateur, I mean, I was doing food buying a decade ago, 10 years ago, and there was limited resources for high quality products like you were producing and aggregating in, you said 1985. So that's amazing.
I called it exotic. I hated that word, you know, because to me it was not exotic. mean, rabbit, quail, pheasant, squab, those are things that in Gascony are at the everyday table. But here it was called exotic, which put us in a corner and in a niche that was a little bit too niche for me. So I tried to get out of that exotic thing.
But they were farmers for rabbits, were farmers for squabs, I they were there and they were just very, very small.
Yeah. And so many founders who are creating, we've got founders who are from Finland and they're importing wild berries and using them in product. And that's just like one example of many things that are maybe not exotic, that's not the word that is used now, but like unique and misunderstood, unknown. And it's a big hurdle for people to get over. I'm curious, how did you
get out of that sort of exotic need.
With the retailers, never. With the consumers, it took a long time. With the restaurants and the chefs in the restaurants, it was very easy because we arrived at the right time, at the right place. They came out of the Culinary Institute of America, Johnson & Wales, French Culinary Institute, Peter Kemp School. They were, the first time, you had chefs who wanted to shine with
new ingredients, but quality ingredients. And they didn't want to stay in the basement anymore, like glorified dishwashers. They wanted to be in the dining room, showing their creativity through really good ingredients. And so, I mean, I have formed friendships from that time that are still today, you know, the likes of Tom Colicchio, Thomas Keller, Daniel Boulu, Eric Ripert, Danny Meyer.
We all started Charlie Palmer. We all started in the same time David Burke, you know all those guys
Yeah, really amazing. So you found your core customer and you had an audience to speak to and sort of it sounds like, the others sort of came along. You have that influence, right? As more as those chefs.
In 5 % they pushed us, they wanted better and better. Your chicken is what, 50 days old? Can't I have a chicken, a 90 days old chicken like in France? Could I have a chicken that really eats a variety of food instead of just the, you know, they pushed us to innovate and to get better and better.
I love that. And then the last thing I want to take a moment to talk about here was your mention of cash flow because that's another thing, right, that so many founders deal with today as well. You've got – in order to buy your product, you have to pay often right away, whether it's ingredients or the core packaging, whatever. And whomever you're selling it to has 30 days. Sometimes they have 90 days, which is absolutely insane.
But growth is often a major cause of cash flow problems. So how did you deal
It was very difficult the first 10 years, really difficult because we were always juggling like that and I think it's a mix of things where one, you beg, two, you know, please pay me on time, please pay me COD, two, you entice, you know, you say hey if you pay me COD I give you a little discount, three, you go see your bank.
But the banks, when you deal with such high perishability, they are not very... They're going to give you a little bit of cash flow, you know, but they're going to limit it to your inventory, as long as it's not 100 % of the inventory, because they know how perishable it is, and a percentage of the receivables. So they will.
I think the trick with the banks is to go see the bank of your size, which means a small one at the beginning. And as you grow, you have to change banks to be able to get a bigger line of credit and really pay on time all the time, know, if possible even before it's due so they see that you're serious and so you can...
grow like that little by little the relationship with the bank. mean that's that's primordial. That's something that you need to do regardless and even if you're even I think if you're if you're successful in getting all your clients to pay on time it's always good to have a good relationship with the bank always.
I agree. I love your advice about the bank size too and matching that. That's smart. Okay. So I detoured us a little bit, but I'm so glad I did because I think that that was really interesting to chat about. you, let's maybe say like, okay, we're 10 years in, cashflow was tight for 10 years. Do things change after 10 years? Does the model change? Like what else should we know about the years that...
No, it's a mixture of we started to grow, we started to have a little better terms with some of the farmers who were a little bigger. We started to have a better relationship with some of the bank. And we were very, very strict on the payments. mean, I had an account receivable manager who was an ogre, you know. And because our reputation grew,
Hahaha
I mean, it grew really fast, the reputation. We had to actually control our growth because we didn't want the farmers and the ranchers to compromise the quality of the animals. so depending on their size, they had a max quantity that they could do without compromising the quantity. We absolutely wanted pastured animals, no antibiotics, no growth hormones, growing the right way without stress.
And for that, you need a lot of space. And so because of that, we couldn't grow that fast. And I wanted to stay specialized. I didn't want to go into fish, cheese, chocolate, all that stuff. I wanted people to respect us for what we were doing. And I wanted to have a handle on the quality control that we could do. And so because of that, we couldn't say yes to all the clients. And that helped also on the receivables.
you know, so.
Yeah, I think this is another great spot to pause because we talk about that a lot here too, like that saying yes is not always the best thing to do, especially when it can stress your cash flow, can stress your supply chain, might require you to, know, do I need to give a little bit on my standards that I usually have so that I can generate, you know, I love to hear a founder say,
Our standards are the most important thing. We're not budging on that. And if we have to say no, that's okay, because it's the right thing for the business. And then also what you're saying about the product line and staying really specialized. think that's a tip that is really important for founders to hear too, because it can be scary when someone asks you for something and you say, don't carry that. We don't have that. We don't offer that. People can feel like, gosh, should we? Maybe we should do fish. Maybe we should do cheese. So I love that you're
your proof of success by having, seems like a very clear vision.
What you to burn? don't know.
It's probably also the reason why, the main reason why we had to split, my partner and I, and that was 20 years into it in 2005, because he wanted to grow faster, he wanted to start to make serious money. I felt we didn't have the brand recognition yet to do whatever he wanted to do that way.
So he wanted to sell the company. I didn't. And I ended up buying him out with something called the shotgun clothes. Wait, are you aware of that?
It well, okay. I know what a shotgun wedding is like very fast. So I'm assuming it's a very quick Down and dirty. It's about no
It's not about the format. Most of the time when you have two partners, a 50-50 relationship, one partner wants the other one out. So he puts an offer on the table. The other partner cannot say a flat no. Either you say, yes, I take the money, here is my 50%. Or you say, no, it's me.
In other words, you reverse the offer. And you reverse the offer with the same offer that the first one put on the table. So it's very good because it makes the business sound and whole. There is no possibility of destroying the business in the process of the dispute. But also the first to put the offer cannot put
too low of an offer because if the offer is too low, the other one is gonna reverse and that's that. So he has to put a fair offer on the table, which is what George did. He was backed at the time, I didn't know, but he was backed by investment bankers who were gonna flip the company after. And so he put the offer on the table and I was able to reverse it.
that was a little bit miraculous. I went to see a banker from a French bank, CIC, who at the time was here more to support French exporters from France rather than being a commercial bank and helping American companies, which we are. D'Artagnan is an American company. And that man, D'Artagnan,
the director of the bank, Serge Belanger, I knew because he was the director of the French-American Chamber of Commerce and they had given me a couple of awards over the years, you know, as a new company, startup, et cetera. And I think, I really think I was his good deed of his life, you know. He went that bad for us, for us, for me, because George was,
He went to Paris, he has permission to finance the buyout. He got it. So that's how I bought him out, Shotgun close, it's something to remember.
I will. Fascinating. And so then you went on, you carried on the business for how many years has it been, did you say?
So this year it's 40 years. Wow. Amazing.
Yeah. And still known for the being of the highest quality and sustainability. So I think it's amazing that sort of what you founded on is still how the business is seen today, which is really great.
Yes, I mean we haven't compromised and we still follow the same cahiers de charge, know, the same specifications. So granted today there are much more people who actually grow the right way, animals, animal proteins, but we have a lot of of events and I sold the company three years ago to an investment group in BestCorp who were holding Fortune Fish.
Fortune International that had fortune fish also. They totally understand the culture and I think they embrace it. it's a nice and healthy 40 years.
Nice. Good. And as I understand it, you are working with your daughter at All for One, One for All Farm.
Yes, yes. Well, thank you for mentioning it. This is my new venture. Lots of physical work. I started under the umbrella of a foundation, the D'Artagnan Foundation. I started this farm with Alix, All for One, One for All, in Goshen, New York, four years ago now. And it's very small, 14 acres. And we do too many things. But we do them to teach ourselves.
how to do it and also to teach the community around us. come, we have a little eatery where I make food exactly only what we grow. We have a little distillery where we distill and we make liquors with only our plants and our fruits. We planted two thousand different trees, fruit trees and fodder trees. We have sheep.
on the cover crop between two rows of trees. After the sheep, after three days, we move the sheep and the chickens and the ducks and the geese come in, disperse the compost, and it's permaculture, agroforestry, pasture rotation, know, all the buzzwords of today to try to capture carbon and water and health in the soil.
so that we don't need any pesticides and fertilizer and all that stuff. And so my favorite part, Alex, is really into the farming and the breeding of the sheep. have 11 babies, baby lambs, who were just born between Easter and this week. And I'm more into the processing, which is the cooking basically, making good stuff with the eggs, with the chickens.
with the vegetables, the fruits, having a full menu like that and especially every week with the new harvest and same thing on the distillery side. And we also have some workshops where we actually teach people how to pickle or ferment or cut up a chicken or what have you.
Amazing. I love that. It seems so beautiful. I saw a couple of photos online and I will. Yeah, I'm actually from the East Coast. I live in LA, but I'm from Pennsylvania and I have family in New York. I might. Well, my gosh, they're there. My aunt and my mother are wonderful green thumbs. They got it from my grandparents.
have to come and visit.
Next time you come and bring them
They both have beautiful gardens and vegetable gardens and flower gardens. So to come to a farm like yours and your daughters, they would be in heaven. There are those types of people who are always barefoot. Literally, they're just always out in the yard doing something. My mom's feet are always dirty. I always make fun of her, but she just loves it.
She would love it. We're open to the public every Friday, Saturday, Sunday.
Okay. Beautiful. Amazing. Well, there's one other thing I want to talk to you about, and that is the Germanators, because I know this is something that you're very passionate about and that you're actively working on. There's a mentorship component to this. Will you tell our listeners a little bit about this project?
This is something I started with that French American Chamber of Commerce. So I'm at the head of the Food and Beverage Committee and I figure let's do something nice. You know, it's my turn to give. And so we invented, we created the Germinators, which is basically a contest between startups in the food, food and hospitality business, whether American or French, but with some kind of a exchange, you know, some...
French American or American French something in the company. And so we do once a year, we do an event where we put in the same room a bunch of chefs, clients who do good food and they take products from the finalists that we have selected. The finalists in questions, know, the startups with their product or their service.
and they show it to the public and they give samples. The audience is mostly investment bankers, venture capitalists, retailers, importers, distributors, press. After everybody has tasted everything, then we sit down and the finalists, the 10, we try to limit it to 10 finalists, they pitch their...
start up their company. We have some judges in the front, we ask them a couple of questions and then at the end the judges decide, give the award for them the most likely to succeed in the group and the public does that also. we always have two winners except that really they are all winners in that case because they are the 10 of them have been exposed to
potential clients, potential co-packers, et cetera. And so it's a great venue and we try to make it coincide with the Fancy Food Show in New York because that's when a lot of international people from the industry are in New York. so, yeah.
Wonderful. Where can people learn more about the Germanators and what you're doing there?
So the website is FACC, like French American Chamber of Commerce, FACCGerminatorsallattached.com.
Okay, perfect. And we'll put a link to that in the show notes too. Thank you. Yeah, so people can link to it. Well, wonderful. Is there anything else we should chat about today before we go?
Thank you.
I don't know. You mentioned that you have people who are starting as listeners. I would like to tell them not to get desperate. We are in very volatile times right now, but things are going to calm down and whatever goes up goes down, whatever goes down goes back up. It's in the 40 years of business.
I've seen and I know and I am sure that this is life, know? This is life, constantly. So there is a bottom somewhere and then it's going to rebound.
Yeah.
It's also important to try to see the opportunities when it does go down because sometimes it's a good way to fix things, maybe look at the expenses a little bit, reinvent yourself. mean, this happened during COVID. It happened also in 2009 with the financial crisis. mean, there is always...
sometime in the life when it's going to happen and so it's important to not panic and to regenerate yourself and your business.
I think that's amazing advice. Thank you for sharing that. I completely agree. It is a little scary. it's, think, easy to... We had an episode about sheltering in place, sort of like, we just have to make it through this. But I think it can be an opportunity to grow and to change. And I love the advice that you're giving and things to consider.
To differentiate from your competitors because remember at the end of the day everybody Everybody has to eat
Yeah. Well, Ariane, this has been such a pleasure. Thank you so much. We'll put links to your social media because I now follow you on Instagram. cool. And to the FACC Germanators website. And I think all for one has a website as well, right, that we can link to.
alloneoneall.org
Yes. Perfect. All right. Well, thank you so much. I hope you have a wonderful day.
Thank you, thank you, see you soon at the farm.
Amazing.
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