PBN 2021 Business Women Awards
Achievement Honoree: Kelly McShane, The Granny Squibb Co. LLC
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.
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 an opportunity in which the couple could work together. “We needed to trust the people we’d be working with and have a great story to build upon,” McShane said.
“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.’ ”
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.”
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.
McShane said the company was forced to quickly transition in the pandemic to beef up its online sales and home delivery services.
“Our sales did not meet our original targets for March and April [2020], 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.
