UB MBA Graduates Play Important Role in Strategic Growth of Perry's Ice Cream

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Business isn't always smooth in the ice cream industry. Over the past 20 years, nearly 1,200 companies have closed their doors, leaving just over 400 firms to compete for space in America's freezer.

To survive and grow in this competitive market, Perry's Ice Cream Co. of Akron, N.Y., boasts an evolving selection of nearly 100 different flavors -- and a management roster of eight MBAs from the University at Buffalo School of Management.

Leading the charges is company president and CEO, Robert Denning. Prior to assuming the helm of the 83-year-old family-owned business in 2000, Denning groomed himself for the position by completing UB's challenging Executive MBA (EMBA) program. Under Denning's leadership, Perry's has launched an aggressive plan to gain greater market share by developing new products, expanding its market reach and by "professionalizing" the company's management systems and processes.

Denning projects $80 million in sales for the company next year, a growth of $15 million since he took over the CEO's role in 2000. His goal is to develop Perry's Ice Cream into one of the nation's top brands.

"As a fourth-generation family firm in the later stages of its entrepreneurial origins, we're challenged to advance and upgrade our management systems and enhance our overall spirit of professionalism," says Denning, 36, who began his career at Perry's more than 20 years ago and recently held the vice president of administration and director of human resources positions at the company.

"My MBA has given me a fresh set of eyes to evaluate the company's place in the market and direct its future," Denning says. "Symbolically, it has helped us see ourselves as a professional enterprise, complete with professional people."

According to Denning, five to 10 years ago an MBA degree was optional for senior-level managers at Perry's. Experience in the ice-cream industry was valued more than management savvy for those seeking employment or promotion with the company.

That attitude has changed.

Today, five members of the company's nine-person executive team possess UB MBA degrees, including Denning's EMBA classmates Larry LaDuca, vice president of sales, and Scott Terhaar, director of finance.

Other UB MBAs on the executive team include Dave Merrell, vice president of human resources, and Kris Ryan, director of marketing. Rounding out the company's UB MBA roster are Laura Corser, brand manager; Jodi Wiechec, human resource generalist, and Kevin Thomson, manufacturing team leader, who was hired a month ago.

Denning and his team sometimes joke about the "infiltration" of UB MBAs at Perry's, but they say it's played an important role in the company's continued growth and success. "Our MBA talent gives us the ability to quickly respond to marketplace opportunities," Denning explains. "There's a clear awareness of the desirability of an MBA degree at Perry's."

V.P. of human resources Merrell points to his own hiring two years ago as an example of Perry's new management philosophy in action.

"I was hired to be a business leader and an HR leader," he says. "An MBA degree produces a well-rounded individual who possesses many skills. That's important in a team-based organization like Perry's."

Brand manager Corser is helping Perry's branch out into the entertainment-product category through the development and distribution of about 250 interactive ice-cream vending machines in Western New York. She says the recent change in Perry's company culture is empowering.

"We're trusted to make our own decisions," Corser explains. "It helps that we all speak the same MBA language because it produces a consistency in our performance."

Soon the company will launch a new "Pastry Shoppe Line" in the ice-cream dessert category, which it will market as "Bakery fresh desserts by the half gallon." A strategy to market Perry's Ice Cream in the short run, based on marketplace demographics, includes expanding sales and distribution in the Albany/Hudson Valley region while expanding growth in Ohio, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

The company also has identified growth opportunities in the Washington, D.C. area as a potential outlet for its ice cream products in the next two to three years. In addition, the company recently formed "ice cream partnerships" to distribute the Ben & Jerry's, Friendly's, Häagen-Dazs, and Nestlé brands in upstate New York, which accounts for 25 percent of Perry's annual sales. Denning implemented that strategy after hearing a UB professor lecture on the value of diversification.

"There's an obvious correlation between our UB MBA learnings and the success of the company over the past half decade," Denning says. "We hope to continue to use UB as a resource."

As yet, there are no plans for a "UB MBA" ice cream flavor at Perry's, but Denning says he can envision a flavor with "a lot of different ingredients," symbolic of the company's collection of UB MBA grads, as well as the variety of business skills he and other Perry's managers learned while at UB.