Kelley McShane experienced the small-state connectivity of doing business in Rhode Island in the midst of becoming a partner-owner of Providence-based The Granny Squibb Co. LLC. with her husband, Nick Carr.
The business transaction in 2018 had a decidedly intimate, laid-back feel that seems uniquely characteristic to the Ocean State, she said.
The couple’s downstairs neighbor, Robin Squibb, founded the organic iced tea company in 2007 based on her grandmother’s recipe. Squibb was looking for new partners to expand Granny Squibb’s New England presence.
McShane and Carr, a financial adviser, had been looking for a business opportunity where the couple could work together. But it had to be the right dynamic. “We needed to trust the people we’d be working with and have a great story to build upon,” said McShane.
“One day, Robin and Nick saw each other on the way inside [their apartment building] after she’d had a challenging day and she just said, ‘Do you want to buy an iced tea company?’ ” McShane said. “He later told me, we looked at each other and it just clicked. We knocked on her door and said, ‘Were you serious?’ She said, ‘Absolutely.’ ”
The discussion took place on the front stoop of their Providence apartment, said McShane – no corporate boardroom required. Soon they had a deal.
‘This kind of thing happens all the time here. It’s so Rhode Island and I love it.’
KELLEY MCSHANE, The Granny Squibb Co. partner-owner
McShane has lived in many other places, but the feeling of smallness is one of the things that she enjoys about doing business in Rhode Island, the feeling that key players and leaders are accessible.
Case in point: After McShane and Carr became partner-owners of Granny Squibb, they were talking one night as they headed to dinner at Providence’s Troop restaurant about how they needed to call Providence Mayor Jorge O. Elorza’s office the next day to ask a business question.
When they walked into the restaurant, Elorza coincidentally was sitting at a table alone and accessible.
“This kind of thing happens all the time here,” McShane said. “It’s so Rhode Island and I love it.”
McShane was born in Connecticut, raised in New Jersey and has lived, worked and attended college in places such as California, Vermont and New York City. But Rhode Island has been home for about a decade and she had no intentions of leaving.
Over the course of her career, she has followed her passions – whether designing and building fashion show stages in California or collaborating on fundraisers and events for Amos House in Providence.
“I fell in love with the organization,” she said of Amos House, where she was involved with Reunify, the group’s mother-child reunification initiative, which provides housing and training for mothers working to regain parental rights.
The Granny Squibb opportunity came with a built-in commitment to giving back that resonated with McShane.
The original Granny Squibb, Robin’s grandmother, made the legendary iced tea from her kitchen overlooking Narragansett Bay. The company has been a longtime supporter of Save The Bay Inc., nonprofit advocate for Narragansett Bay. A portion of the revenue from the Charlie’s Cranberry iced tea benefits Save The Bay.
Because the company is small – four full-timers and a half dozen part-timers – McShane said roles often overlap, but she typically deals with the “consumer-facing” part of the business, sharing the brand story, collaborating with other companies and partnering with nonprofits.
Since getting involved with Granny Squibb, McShane – who recently completed a financial-management certification from eCornell, Cornell University’s online platform – and Carr have more than doubled sales and places where the products are available. The drinks are now sold in cans, as well as glass bottles.
The iced tea is distributed in stores such as Whole Foods Market Inc. and Dave’s Fresh Marketplace Inc., and Granny Squibb has emphasized cultivating what McShane called a highly experiential, grassroots relationship with its consumer market, which included handing out samples at local farmers markets and festivals.
Carr and McShane also have focused on increasing sales in restaurants and bars, which proved successful until the coronavirus pandemic hit and forced the shutdown of more than 200 business accounts.
McShane said the company was forced to quickly transition to beefing up its online sales and home delivery services, both of which have seen explosive growth.
“Our sales did not meet our original targets for March and April, but considering we are amidst a surprise ... pandemic, I think we are doing pretty well,” she said.
The business also has ramped up charity outreach, donating tea to groups such as Family Service of Rhode Island Inc., first responders and others.
McShane said a decision to furlough one employee during the economic shutdown was “the hardest and most stressful decision of my entire professional career.”
That employee has since been recalled, and “we have come out the other side of this with our whole team intact,” she said.
