Featured in the Memphis Business Journal

From food chemist to international coconut wholesaler, Carl Ledgerwood has come a long way from working the late shift during college at the Springfield, Mo., Kraft Foods plant.

After a 33-year career with Kraft, Ledgerwood had the opportunity to go back to work, running the only U.S. office for Franklin Baker, Inc., one of the world's largest wholesalers of desiccated coconut products.

"I've been in Memphis for 10 years working for Kraft, and this opportunity came along at the right time, just as I was retiring from Kraft, "says Ledgerwood, vice president and general manager of Franklin Baker,^® "And Kraft was selling the coconut business to Andorra Ventures."

Franklin Baker^®, named after a Philadelphia flour miller who sold flour to a Cuban who paid Baker in coconuts, now has two large plants in the Philippines, the largest producer of coconuts in the world.

With warehouses in California, New Jersey, and Chicago, Franklin Baker's sales office in Memphis is run by Ledgerwood, who says that 80% of the company's sales are handled in the Memphis office.

"We could estimate that we probably have 40% of the U.S. market for desiccated coconut," he says. "We also sell to Europe, Asia Pacific, Canada, Central and Latin America."

Travel is still a large part of the job, too, with Ledgerwood logging some 80,000 miles of travel last year.

"A lot of that was due to the sale," he says. "I will probably travel around 30,000 to 40,000 miles this year."

Travel has been a fixture for much of Ledgerwood's career. He worked on the first production of Kraft's Philadelphia Cream Cheese in Santiago, Chile, and dealt with McDonald's as the fast food empire began its expansion throughout Central and South America.

Franklin Baker's specialty is desiccated coconut: dried, preserved coconut which is sold to confectioners, bakers, candy makers, and a host of other food service users, including the makers of pina colada mix and Thai soups.

With a third-world country as its source for product, Franklin Baker uses a proprietary steam system to pasteurize all the coconuts it buys, which Ledgerwood says, at peak production can be 500,000 nuts a day in its facilities.

Out of Ledgerwood's Memphis office in the Koger Center on Germantown Parkway, he and five other employees are selling to some of the biggest names in the food business. Hershey's, Keebler, Kraft, Interstate Bakeries Corp. (parent of Hostess and Dolly Madison), Godiva, Kellog's, and the Girl Scouts of America are all customers.

"For some of the larger accounts that are located near ports, we can ship directly to them in shipping containers," he says. "They are floor loaded and contain about 55,000 pounds in each shipment."

Shipments of toasted, sweetened, creamed and spray dried coconut from Franklin Baker are sold to bakers and distributors around North America.

Steve Watson, who retired 10 years ago as senior manager of Kraft Food-service, worked with Ledgerwood at Kraft for 30 years.

"He really knows all facets of the business," Watson says. "And his technical skills make it possible for him to solve problems that others can't."

Watson says Ledgerwood's climb through the management ranks at Kraft was a result of his interaction with people.

"He's such a nice and intelligent man," he says. "He has a total commitment to his customers."

Ledgerwood never expected to end up in the coconut business.

"Never," he says. "With Kraft, I was always working in production, business management or sales, now here we're doing wire transfers and I'm doing a lot of things hands on. I feel like I could start up any business now."

Though the corporate support systems of Kraft are no longer a phone call away for regulatory or quality issues, Ledgerwood says Franklin Baker's Philippines operations have a tremendous support team for his office.

Officially starting operations during typhoon season in the Philippines was a challenge, too.

"We've had three typhoons there this year and there's been a lot of crop damage," he says. "Prices are at $1 per pound and that's up 15 to 20 cents from this time last year."

But demand is there and he's having a blast with career No. 2.

"Even my wife says, 'why do you get up so early for work? You never got up this early for Kraft,'" he says. "I like the international aspect of the business. We're going to continue to grow our operations and market share to make Franklin Baker the No. 1 name in desiccated coconut products."