Alexandra Leonard got her start in the family business pouring ice cream sprinkles into a bin.
Not yet 21, her career at Stew Leonard”™s Inc. has already come full circle.
The daughter of CEO Stew Leonard Jr. spent the summer overhauling the grocery chain”™s candy department at its flagship store in Norwalk, along with three cousins likewise mulling joining the family business one day.
Siblings and chain proprietors Beth Leonard Hollis, Jill Leonard Tavello, Tom Leonard and Stew Leonard Jr. are a long ways from identifying an eventual successor from among their 13 children to run the company founded by their father Stew Leonard Sr. They aim to find out, however, having spent the past several years attempting to pique interest among that “G-3” group by giving them hands-on assignments in the stores.
The Leonard kin running the company today have one hard rule for the next generation ”“ they are encouraged to work at the company through college, but must find jobs on their own after graduation and work at another company for at least three years before rejoining Stew Leonard”™s.
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Stew Leonard Jr. said there will be no exceptions, even in any cases in which a junior family member makes a compelling case otherwise ”“ and in any cases where the senior generation may spot a potential superstar to run the company down the road.
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Leonard said he has no idea who that individual might be, and did not rule out the company hiring a professional CEO to run things when the current leadership roster has retired.
Alexandra”™s older sister Blake is the farthest along on a career path that could bring her back to the company ”“ her interest in the wine business was reinforced on a 2008 family trip to an Italian vineyard, and Blake is now working for E.& J. Gallo Winery in California.
“As nice as everyone is around that generation, they do get special treatment,” Leonard Jr. said. “They don”™t really understand what it is like to have a demanding boss.”
On the flip side, Leonard Jr. said he would have no problem with a junior family member taking an entry management job with another prominent grocer, whether Whole Foods which has a store a few miles from Stew Leonard”™s Norwalk headquarters; Wegman”™s, the Rochester, N.Y.-based chain that regularly joins Stew Leonard”™s on Fortune”™s annual “best places to work” rankings; or another.
“What I would say to them is, I hope I get competition for you,” Leonard said, possibly preparing to compete for a blood relative in the marketplace of sought-after employees. “That is a great problem for me to have.”
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Already, Tom Leonard”™s son T.J. Leonard has signaled interest in pursuing a career as a pilot instead, attending flight school at St. Louis University.
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In an interview, Alexandra Leonard and cousins Brittney Tavello and Jake Tavello surmised that anywhere from five to seven of the 13 cousins would pursue careers in the family business.
The candy internship came about after the relatives attended the Fancy Food Center at the Javits Center in New York City.
“We all got together and had a meeting, and really wanted to get to the bottom of why sales were down ”“ really tackle it,” said Will Hollis, a sophomore at St. Joseph”™s University outside Philadelphia, who also participated in the internship.
The fact-finding mission included trips to Dillon”™s, a well known candy retailer in New York City launched by the daughter of Ralph Lauren; and to Nassau Candy on Long Island, which Stew Leonard Jr. likened jokingly to a trip for the junior Leonards to Willy Wonka”™s chocolate factory.
Much like the fictional factory depicted in book and film, the cousins don”™t know what awaits around the next corner of their professional careers, but many of them are striking out anyway.
“I think because we have all been so involved that it”™s not as scary thinking about the future,” Alexandra Leonard said. “It is a big part of my life.”
