This episode of ‘Celebrating Small Family Businesses’ features an interview with Kuder Consulting Group co-founder John Kuder, focusing on his family’s business origin story, particularly his grandfather’s journey.

Starting from a farming background in central Ohio, John’s grandfather attended Michigan State and worked his way through college. He built a real estate career in Long Beach, California, starting from an inherited property.

This entrepreneurial spirit later led him to observe the potential of turning the waste product of orange peels from the citrus industry into a valuable byproduct, ultimately pioneering in the citrus industry in Florida by building a plant to process and sell dried peel as cow food.

The narrative covers the transition from manufacturing to sales and the eventual contraction of the business, showcasing the innovation and adaptation across generations.

Visit our website at https://kuderconsultinggroup.com/

00:00 Introduction to the Family Business

00:53 The Birth of Kuder Consulting Group

02:04 The Family’s Early Days in Ohio

03:50 The Journey to California and the Real Estate Venture

06:31 The Citrus Industry and the Birth of a New Business

08:37 The Evolution and Challenges of the Family Business

Transcript
John:

Hi, and this episode of

John:

celebrating small family businesses.

John:

We're.

John:

Going to talk to each other about

John:

our own small family business.

John:

So that you get a little

John:

sense of our history and.

John:

And potentially some of the

John:

challenges that we've faced

John:

we'll, we'll see where it goes.

Connie:

Well, and this is

Connie:

John's um, about John's family,

Connie:

because we've already done mine.

Connie:

So if you haven't seen mine.

John:

Yes refer to another episode,

Connie:

Right.

John:

Where we talk about Connie's

John:

family business history, right?

Connie:

A little bit of it.

Connie:

We'll, we'll probably catch.

Connie:

This may be an ongoing thing

Connie:

because you know, we've had.

Connie:

A lot of time.

John:

A lot of years together,

Connie:

a lot of years together, and

Connie:

a lot of, a lot of years being alive.

Connie:

and in business.

Connie:

And a lot of family drama.

Connie:

Yeah.

Connie:

A lot of family drama.

John:

Okay,

Connie:

so, John?

John:

Yes, ma'am.

Connie:

Tell me about your family.

Connie:

How did you get involved with this whole

Connie:

thing to begin with and, and what, and

Connie:

maybe more the impetus, what was the

Connie:

impetus for Cooter Consulting Group?

Connie:

Because you're actually

Connie:

the key behind this.

Connie:

Okay.

Connie:

Let's go with that one first.

John:

That's an unexpected question.

John:

Thank you.

John:

Uh, Cooter consulting group is a reboot.

John:

So, um, I almost feel like I'm putting

John:

the cart before the horse, when we're

John:

going to talk about family business

John:

history, but the more recent history is

John:

had to close down the family business.

John:

I was the third generation

John:

and it wasn't sustainable.

John:

And the conditions that

John:

we had to work in and are.

John:

Assets and so forth.

John:

So it was re-invent and reboot.

John:

And so Kuder Consulting Group is intended.

John:

To the, the, the impetus behind it is

John:

to be able to help other people, other

John:

family businesses not do what we did.

John:

Not have the pain, the struggles and

John:

the, and the ultimate result of closing

John:

down the family business that we did.

Connie:

Well, so how

Connie:

did your family get in.

Connie:

Involved with this family business.

Connie:

I mean,

Connie:

Yeah.

Connie:

I mean,

John:

okay, now we're

John:

talking about my grandfather.

John:

Right.

John:

He was the one of three brothers that,

John:

um, that lived on a family farm in central

John:

Ohio outside Akron anyway, Akron, Ohio.

Connie:

It's pretty interesting that.

Connie:

That our families are only like

Connie:

three hours, two and a half

Connie:

hours apart from each other.

Connie:

Geographically.

John:

Yeah.

John:

And I don't really know

John:

much about the farm.

John:

I just know it was a farm in Ohio.

John:

I feel like when I talk about my

John:

family business, especially about

John:

my father, my grandfather, and often

John:

about, you know, before I got there.

John:

It's sort of like looking through

John:

a photo album of snapshots

John:

because what I have are snapshots.

John:

Little stories that I was told that

John:

give me a, just a glimpse of that

John:

moment, but I don't have any continuity

John:

between the snapshots sometimes.

John:

So, he was one of three

John:

brothers and his father.

John:

Uh, it must have done well

John:

because he has two other brothers.

John:

He was the youngest.

John:

His two older brothers.

John:

Their college was paid for.

John:

Wow.

John:

And they both blew it.

John:

They both flunked out.

John:

So when my grandfather came

John:

along, his father said, "I'm

John:

not paying for your college."

John:

Wow.

John:

Yeah.

John:

He'd been burned twice and he

John:

wasn't going to do it again.

John:

So the outcome of that was that he

John:

worked his way through college and.

John:

He waited tables.

John:

And he, yeah, he might've done

John:

some things that were less.

John:

Uh, savory.

John:

Savory.

John:

But, uh, but he, you know,

John:

he, yeah, he, he had to scrap.

John:

Uh, he had to get scrappy to pay his way.

John:

But I I'm guessing he valued

John:

it more because of that.

John:

And, , he went to Michigan State.

John:

So it was a, it was an

John:

agricultural university.

John:

You came from agriculture

John:

and then, you know, somehow.

John:

Later he was selling

John:

shovel handles, I believe.

John:

And he was dating my grandmother.

John:

His father asked him to go to

John:

California and investigate this piece

John:

of property that he'd somehow inherited.

John:

Again, the snapshot, I don't have

John:

the, I don't know where the property

John:

came from or anything else.

Connie:

Right.

John:

But he invited my grandmother

John:

to, to go with him on this trip.

John:

And she said, well, I couldn't do that

John:

unless we're married, you know, we're

John:

talking, you know, I don't know the 1910s

John:

or something, so totally appropriate.

John:

Right.

John:

And, uh, so they got married,

John:

but again, I only know that

John:

he, she said they did right.

John:

Boom, nothing about the wedding.

John:

Never heard a word.

John:

So they're married.

John:

They go to California.

John:

And he,

Connie:

and that's a big

Connie:

trip too, at that age.

John:

Oh, big.

John:

Big trip.

John:

Yeah.

John:

I don't know.

John:

I'm guessing it was, I don't

John:

know if it was train or car.

John:

I just don't know.

John:

Right.

John:

But, we know he had experience in sales.

John:

Okay.

John:

And, you know, some sort of, I'm guessing

John:

that it was traveling sales of some sort.

John:

And he went to Long Beach and it

John:

turned out this piece of property

John:

was an entire city block in the

John:

city of Long Beach, California.

John:

Whoa.

John:

Okay.

John:

And at that time it was vacant.

John:

It was a vacant lot.

John:

And I'd say it was, it

John:

was an undeveloped lot.

John:

It was not vacant.

John:

There was a tent city there.

John:

And again, you'd have to do some

John:

research that I haven't done

John:

about what the, what tent cities.

John:

You know what time exactly that was.

John:

But.

John:

It was.

John:

Um, not so different from

John:

a refugee camp, I suppose.

John:

Uh, and th the people

John:

were just camping out.

John:

I don't know, an empty lot.

John:

And, um, you know, making do with

John:

what they could, I think there

John:

was, it was probably during some

John:

sort of a recession or hard times.

John:

But a guy, an entrepreneur, had set

John:

himself up as the landlord there.

John:

And so he was keeping order and

John:

providing some sort of service.

John:

And charging rent to these people a small

John:

amount, but I assume, but it was rent.

John:

I mean, how much would you

John:

charge for a tent space, right?

John:

True..

John:

But my grandfather being the

John:

entrepreneurial minded person than

John:

he was , took this guy aside and

John:

said, okay, now we're partners.

John:

Because I own the land.

John:

Right.

John:

And I can.

John:

Go through some kind of

John:

process and kick everybody out.

John:

But, but what's the point?

John:

Let's.

John:

We're in the real estate business here.

John:

Right.

John:

And.

John:

So now you and I are partners and you

John:

stay, keep doing what you're doing.

John:

But I'm going to, you know, now as

John:

the owner, I get a percentage, I don't

John:

know what it was and that's how he.

John:

This is from my grandma.

John:

And that's how we got in

John:

the real estate business.

John:

Cool.

John:

Some sometime later he was, they were

John:

in the real estate business and then

John:

there was a bust, there was some kind

John:

of a recession or a real estate bust.

John:

And then he was out of the business.

John:

I don't know the details.

John:

Right.

John:

Timing wise.

John:

I don't know.

John:

But at some point while he was in

John:

California, he saw that someone had

John:

taken the orange peels that were the

John:

waste product from the or citrus industry.

John:

No.

John:

The squeeze, the orange

John:

juice, and they've got this.

John:

messy peel that's left behind.

John:

Well, because of the

John:

volatile oils in the peel.

John:

They could catch fire, believe it or not.

John:

If you put a big, big, big mound of

John:

them out somewhere, it would compost

John:

and the heat of the composting that

John:

was the heat was generated inside

John:

that it could eventually catch fire.

John:

And apparently it was pretty hot fire.

John:

So they needed to get rid of that.

John:

And the way they got rid of it was

John:

taking it out into the cow pastures.

John:

And spread it out and

John:

letting the cows eat it.

John:

Except that it, it was, that was

John:

ineffective to a degree because it

John:

only lasted so long and it rotted.

John:

All right.

John:

So somebody got the idea that,

John:

uh, dry to dry it, and they had

John:

this, these big rotary dryers.

John:

Uh, they, uh, I guess they

John:

had some excess capacity.

John:

They.

John:

We weren't using it for something else.

John:

And they, so they ran this through

John:

and, oh my gosh, it worked.

John:

So he, he observed this somehow.

John:

And, and made it turn

John:

that into a business.

John:

And so he came through Texas and built

John:

a plant there and then came to central

John:

Florida and built a plant drying

John:

the peel, chopping it up and bagging

John:

it and selling it for cow food.

John:

Oh, wow.

John:

And so that's how, and in

John:

the process, did research.

John:

Continuing to try to develop , the

John:

by-product industry or the, by the number

John:

of byproducts that were available from

John:

the citrus industry, peel oil, et cetera.

John:

And today, the one of the biggest

John:

byproducts is called d-limonene

John:

and it has many, many uses.

John:

And, you know, the story of

John:

d-limonene is another somebody,

John:

another family's story, right?

John:

But, he was a pioneer in the

John:

citrus industry in that regard.

John:

Although he's not credited publicly.

John:

, in terms of being, , you know, helping.

John:

Serve that industry in dealing with a,

John:

what was it initially, a waste product

John:

and turning it into a valuable byproduct.

John:

So over time, , the.

John:

Processors.

John:

They have a lot of equipment, you

John:

know, processing orange juice.

John:

Right?

John:

Squeezing.

John:

And, and so they've got

John:

boilers and they're generating

John:

steam and heat and all this.

John:

And so they figured out, well, we

John:

can just put that dryer right here

John:

next to all this other equipment

John:

we've already got all this stuff.

John:

You know, we'll just make the

John:

peel and you sell it for us.

John:

And so, you know, over a period of

John:

years, we were gradually pushed out

John:

of the manufacturing part of it.

John:

Right.

John:

And so we closed down, you know, it

John:

was a, it was a shrinkage and that's

John:

kinda my father's arc in the business.

John:

Is he, unfortunately, he was not, he was,

John:

he ran one of the plants for a while and

John:

his early career, but the majority of

John:

his career was seeing that contraction

John:

and that shift from the manufacturing and

John:

shipping rail cars, full of bags and stuff

John:

to just selling it for as, as being a

John:

sales agent, using the, all the contacts

John:

and the network that they had built up.

Connie:

And wasn't it

Connie:

shipped overseas too?

John:

Eventually.

John:

Corn.

John:

Corn is cheap here in the United States.

John:

And, we grow a lot of it and

John:

not so much in Europe, they don't

John:

have as much farm land in Europe.

John:

And so it's much more expensive.

John:

And apparently it was cheaper to

John:

ship the peel of the citrus pulp to

John:

Europe than to ship corn to Europe,

John:

or I don't know, but that's where

John:

most of it goes is what I was told.

Let us show you what you can do!
Legal
Privacy Policy Terms of Use Contact Us
Support
FAQ's Resources Guide
Company
Why Us? Solutions Blog
© 2023 Kuder Consulting Group. All rights reserved.