Ari Weinzweig, co-founding partner of Zingerman’s Community of Businesses, spoke with Ron Tanner, SFA vice president of education, government and industry relations, about how the family of 13 small food-related companies in Ann Arbor, Mich., has been impacted by the pandemic. The interview was part of SFA’s Working with Buyers webinar series.
Tanner: How do you manage each of the 13 businesses during this difficult time?
Weinzweig: We have managing partners at each company make the best decisions for their specific business. The best part is that people here know how to run meetings, collaborate, and even disagree. We have been having a lot more meetings, but things are changing quicker than they ever have, so that makes sense.
Tanner: How have you handled staff reductions?
Weinzweig: We’ve been able to keep well over half of our employees. For the ones that have been furloughed, The Bakehouse is offering free loaves of bread a couple times a week and our coffee operation is putting together coffee packages as well.
Tanner: How do you keep current staff motivated?
Weinzweig: People motivate themselves; you can’t do it for them. The things that we do when we aren’t in a pandemic are even more important now. Especially providing hope. People do better when they have hope.
Tanner: Are you experiencing any supply chain issues?
Weinzweig: I haven’t heard of any supply chain issues within our businesses. In fact, things traveling by ground are coming faster because the roads are clear.
Tanner: How has your mail order business changed?
Weinzweig: The mail order business is one sector that’s doing really well. We’re estimating we have double the orders we typically do this time of year.
Tanner: How have other parts of your business pivoted to adapt to the change?
Weinzweig: We’re working on building up our virtual training, and our home baking school has started to do virtual classes. We’ve also started Zing Share, where one item from each of the businesses are placed in a box for customers to order and pick up so they don’t have to go to multiple places.
Tanner: How has the community pitched in to help employees or others?
Weinzweig: We’re in a great community. We’ve built a lot of connections, both locally in Ann Arbor and all over the world. We’ve had customers ask how they can help, so we set up an option for people to go online and buy sandwiches to be delivered at hospitals.
Tanner: What do you think the future looks like for Zingerman’s?
Weinzweig: Who knows what’s going to happen. Our planning cycle isn’t currently looking too far ahead. We’re kind of assuming four difference scenarios can happen: things stay the same for another year or so, we are able to open soon and grow the business back up, we open soon and then have to close again shortly after due to a second wave of the virus, or we close for a few months permanently until all this is over.
Tanner: When you do start to think about reopening, how will you go about it?
Weinzweig: We’re starting to talk about how we would open, but since Michigan has stay-at-home orders until the end of the month, nothing is happening yet. We’re looking at how other restaurants are opening, and the Independent Restaurant Coalition has a lot of resources online.
Tanner: What have you learned from this experience?
Weinzweig: I try to learn as much as I can every day. This isn’t necessarily going to be economically, socially, emotionally easy, but we’re here and going to do the best we can to keep learning, growing, and be kind to people.
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