The new dress code for snack execs: ditch the tie, bring the stretchy pants

Gerhard Pleuhs with fellow Krispy Kreme director Marissa Andrada in London. (Gerhard Pleuhs)
Gerhard Pleuhs with fellow Krispy Kreme director Marissa Andrada in London. (Gerhard Pleuhs)

Summary

For food-company directors, part of the gig is sampling—a lot—of America’s sandwiches, doughnuts and pretzel bites.

Corporate directors have hefty responsibilities at quarterly board meetings. They oversee strategy, governance, executive compensation—real serious stuff. But those elite few serving on food-company boards truly bite into their work.

In the name of due diligence, for instance, directors munch throughout the board meetings of J & J Snack Foods, the company behind the SuperPretzel, ICEE frozen treats and Dippin’ Dots.

In any discussion, at least one director inevitably excuses themself from the long conference-room table to fetch more snacks, and no one takes offense, according to director Roy Jackson.

“Somebody’s doing a presentation and it is like, you know, sorry. I’ve got to have a pretzel bite or churro," he says.

To attract inflation-weary diners, restaurants are relying on promotions such as limited-time dishes and expanded menus. Packaged food and snack brands are using new offerings to entice shoppers.

With quarterly meetings now under way, boards have lots of eating to do.

The product sampling allows food-company directors—typically corporate executives or former ones—to give feedback on current fare as well as items not yet released.

By the time the board does a tasting, a new snack or dish has typically undergone extensive vetting and consumer testing, making it potentially ready for market. However, the directors’ input can sometimes lead to changes before the product launches.

Regardless, it is no slim task to try all this food.

Forget about that diet

At Gerhard Pleuhs’ first Panera Brands board meeting last November, directors feasted on many of the 21 new or revamped menu items—including four new sandwiches, salads galore and “Bacon Mac & Cheese."

“It was a lot of food," he says. “And you have to hold yourself back, you don’t eat the entire sandwich, just a bite."

To add to the hardship duty, Pleuhs is also on the board at Krispy Kreme, where he and fellow directors kick off every meeting with piping hot glazed doughnuts, and discuss new frostings and fillings.

Once, Pleuhs floated a New Year’s tradition from his home country of Germany—slipping a mustard-filled doughnut or two into boxes of standard jam-filled doughnuts. Whoever gets the savory surprise has good luck for the year.

“They just said, ‘interesting,’" he recalls with a laugh. “Which basically means, ‘What a bad idea.’"

For Joseph Boehm, chair of the Potbelly board, a director seat required culinary candor from the start. “When I was being interviewed for the board, in each of my first three meetings with the nominating committee, they asked me what my favorite sandwich was," he says.

His answer: an Italian sandwich with hot peppers. If Boehm isn’t eating that, he’ll opt for lighter fare—a salad or the Mediterranean on a flatbread per a fellow director’s recommendation.

Before Potbelly put their steakhouse beef sandwich on the menu, Boehm and other directors gave their input. “The horseradish aioli was there, but the board said it could use some extra kick," Boehm recalls. Management agreed

Noodles & Co.’s board sampled a new pasta and parmesan-crusted chicken dish months before its menu debut. The elite group of seven was impressed. The chicken to penne noodles ratio was on point. The mozzarella cheese and crushed tomato marinara sauce was excellent.

There was just one note: The melted cheese should sit atop rather than below the chicken. Despite some initial concerns about baking it that way, it turned out to be a fairly simple adjustment, and the cheese-topped version is what appeared on the menu in September.

“The board said, ‘You know what, the standard of identity, if you will, at an Italian restaurant for chicken parm is having the red sauce and the cheese melted on top?’" says Noodles & Co.board member and Chief Executive Drew Madsen. “The board was right."

“We try to be careful to position it that we’re not looking for approval so much as we are saying, ‘Here’s the opportunity we see,’" Madsen adds. “But folks will have opinions."

‘Fatter and juicer’

Randy DeWitt, a board member at Tex-Mex restaurant company Chuy’s, makes a quarterly 200-mile trip from Dallas to Austin for two-day meetings. By dinner on day one, directors are ready to taste and critique.

Recently, the board sampled chicken flautas before their menu reintroduction. DeWitt praised the improved offering as a “little fatter and juicer," a departure from the typical “super thin like a cigar shape" version.

During these confabs, chefs might parade out five or six Chuy’s dishes, challenging even the most disciplined appetites. “Sometimes you’re lucky if you can even take a bite of the last one because you’ve overeaten," DeWitt says.

“But we’re professionals," he adds. “Most of us curb our appetites to the point where we’re able to actually get through the entire tasting."

Jackson, the J & J Snack Foods board member, has honed his tasting strategy: start sweet, transition to salty snacks and then pivot to a midday frozen treat for an energy boost.

He sampled a new pretzel version—the super pretzel in stick form rather than twisted—before it launched this past September. “It’s pretty easy to eat and hold and it tastes fantastic," he says.

The real temptation, though, is those pretzel bites, the cheese-filled ones, served warm with mustard options at board meetings. “It’s easy to overindulge."

Write to Jennifer Williams at jennifer.williams@wsj.com

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