How I Saved My Company After My Co-Founder (My Father) Died
Nicole Bernard Dawes started Late July Snacks in 2001, when she was pregnant and couldn’t find organic saltine crackers. Along with her father and mentor, Steve Bernard, who had previously founded Cape Cod Potato Chips, they built Late July into a national organic snack brand. Then tragedy and the recession threatened to pull it apart. Dawes explains how she and Late July made it through.
MY DAD WAS probably the greatest snack salesperson in history. In 2003, he came on board as the CEO and I was president. Very quickly, we went national in stores like Whole Foods and Wild Oats. From 2003 to 2008, we were chugging along with solid 20 to 30 percent revenue growth each year.
Then, in late 2008, my father was told he
