In Good Companies
Season 6 Episode 8 - VO Script
Intro
[00:00:00] Ari Marin VO: I’m going to be honest here – today’s episode… It’s a special one.
It’s hard to even know where to start because… We’re really diving into a whole new world.
One where business is quite literally… Buzzing.
[00:01:22] Don Coenen: I apologize about all the grumbling and noise in the background. We run about a hundred semis a day through this facility, all refrigerated, and then the facility itself runs giant compressors that use the same amount of energy as a small city. So between the semi trucks and the engineering equipment running, it makes a background noise and hum.
Ari Marin VO: That voice belongs to Don Coenen. He’s the owner and CEO of Don’s Corporation, a multi-million dollar Cold Storage and logistics facility.
Not sure what that means?
[00:01:51] Don Coenen: Fair enough, fair enough. We're in the food distribution business. We work with only finished products. And so when you go into a refrigerated section of your grocery store, your chicken, your beef, your cheeses, anything refrigerated will go through a refrigerated distribution center, like say a Tyson Food will hold their product until a customer would need it, and we'll ship it directly to them.
Ari Marin VO: So – Don essentially operates a large food depot for grocery store chains. He sends trucks out on the roads through Arkansas and Missouri… He stores food before it’s redirected. He is an important link in the chain… And a very profitable one too.
When he opened his business, back in 2006, Don says: it was a bean field. He started with 3 semi trucks. But now? Don’s Cold Storage spans over five distribution centres. It’s open for business, 24/7, 365 days a year… And you ready for that next number? It’s worth four hundred and thirty five million in real estate. 4 - 3 - 5 million.
Needless to say, Don’s a busy man.
[00:02:03] Don Coenen: And uh– Hey, I apologize. I'm on something. I apologize, I should lock my door…
Ari Marin VO: But a very polite, busy man!
On this episode, Don takes some time out of his day to share the ins and outs of his business.
We dive into the heart of the food industry, and find out what it takes to get this kind of growth. Don will also speak about his never ending vision; and how he’s made it a reality. And you’ll see… What he’s built here, in Arkansas… It’s its own little world. But to get there.. Boy, that was a long road.
So are you ready for this story? Then buckle up. For the next 30 minutes, it’s Don’s World and we’re living in it.
[00:03:04] Don Coenen: The average person, they truly don't understand what they're capable of. I was building two facilities up in Missouri. My banker comes up to see if I'm really spending the money like I'm supposed to, and he looks around, he can't believe it. There's 200 trucks on the yard, 24 acres and two different facilities of business under the roof. And he goes, "I just had no idea." And I go, "Hey, if you're going to hang out with me, you're going to have to dream a little bigger."
[00:04:20] Ari Marin: You're listening to season six of in good companies from Cadence Bank, the podcast where we talk about the future of business to help you get where you want to go. Whether you're a budding entrepreneur or a seasoned leader, we're with you. Our priority is your success. I'm Ari Maran, and I'm your host.
Ari Marin VO: First things first, we have to get on Don's schedule, so we're getting a pretty early start.
2. A day in Don's life
[00:02:43] Don Coenen: I wake up very early. My brain's on fire as soon as I wake up. I try to calm myself down. I try to meditate out and be thankful, go through everything, and then I get up and I... By now it's about 6:00 A.M., and I'll go through my first round of emails, discard the junk that everybody gets, the unprioritized things, start gearing myself up for any items that have happened since I've gone to sleep.
As we come to life each morning for our day-to-day operation, that's how I start building that pace up and then get to work. And then it's just on as soon as you walk in the door. People are ready to go to it.
[00:03:30] Ari Marin: Are you a coffee drinker?
[00:03:31] Don Coenen: Heavy. And then as soon as the coffee's done, I go to the Monsters, and when that's done, I go to something else, and I'm highly caffeinated. But yeah.
[00:03:43] Ari Marin VO: By the time 9 am rolls around, Don has already had a full day. And it’s like that, all the time. No funny business.
[00:03:51] Don Coenen: It's a passion. It's a dream. It is very consuming when you pick a field that you have an affinity for and realize you're probably going to pass away before you see your dream finish. So that's what drives me. Every day, what can I get done today? How can I move the ball forward? How can I raise the tide of our corporation with partnership with our customers and employees to have a little bit better life for everybody?
[00:04:21] Ari Marin VO: I’m sure you’ve realised by now but… Don lives for his work. His thirst for business consumes everything. It’s something he got from where he grew up. Right here, in Northwest Arkansas.
3. Don's personal background & professional roots
[00:04:35] Ari Marin: Before we get into the business, I'd like to hear a little bit more about your story, given that you're the Don in Don's Cold Storage.
[00:04:40] Don Coenen: Oh, absolutely. There's nothing particularly miraculous about me. My father was a lifetime military chief master sergeant. And I come out, make it through high school, not a lot going on in the late '70s.
I'm based in Northwest Arkansas, the home of Walmart, Tyson, George's Food and Simmons, and we're a population of 450,000, and I start driving a truck from 19 to 25. There's a large transportation company called J.B. Hunt Transport. They hire me. I start becoming their night manager. He only has a few hundred trucks.
[00:05:41] Ari Marin VO: JB Hunt, it’s the fourth largest trucking company in the U.S. It was founded in the 60s, in Lowell, Arkansas. By the time Don was a young man, the business was expanding; it was making $ 600 million in revenue. That’s when Don got on board.
[00:05:43] Don Coenen: Mr. Hunt was a wonderful mentor, wonderful man. He had an extraordinary vision of things that reshaped the entire transportation industry, and I would do startup companies for him. I did not realize it, but it was actually teaching me how to start a company and to run a company and how to do things and the effort it took. So I spent about a decade with Mr. Hunt, and when Mr. Hunt retired, I went to the bank. I had a 1970 Camaro and a motorcycle and said, "Hey, I'm going to start my own trucking company." And that's all I had for collateral, and that guy was nice enough to lend me enough money to buy three semi trucks and trailers.
[00:06:30] Ari Marin: That's a great story. So it seems like where you grew up was a big business hub. Was there something in the water there?
[00:06:36] Don Coenen: You know, you wonder that. Yeah, totally.
[00:06:38] Ari Marin: Do you think it influences your thinking?
[00:06:40] Don Coenen: It does, and it shows you something that a lot of people have to learn how to rethink is the economy of scale. When you see a J.B. Hunt, a Tyson, a Walmart and just see the incredible scale they're able to do, it opens your mind to the possibility that you also can do that. The ability, the opportunities are there, and you have to every day wake up and believe it even when you don't feel like it.
[00:07:09] Ari Marin: I’m a firm believer myself that sometimes you need some examples to open that way of thinking. You can do it, then I can do it too.
[00:07:17] Ari Marin VO: So yeah – dreaming big, it’s always been Don’s mode of operation. It’s what still wakes him up at the crack of dawn. But it’s not the only thing. To start his company, Don did some strategic thinking too.
[00:07:32] Ari Marin: So you are clearly somebody with a clear vision. Somebody I can see as a strategist, right? So what's that process of coming up with a vision or coming up with a strategy?
[00:07:32] Don Coenen: I had two or three smaller businesses that didn't work out well, like a lot of people. It's so painful to learn from them. When I did the three startup companies for Mr. Hunt, they were painful. I knew what I was getting into. I felt I was well-prepared, but at the time, they were closing all the factories in America and moving them to Mexico in the early '80s. I could see it wasn't sustainable.
When I came right out of high school, I worked at a factory. It immediately closed down. And you see things that people don't need every day. And since I'm not overly educated, overly brilliant, I wanted to position myself into a field that people needed every day. And so when I looked around at things, the last thing to go down and the first thing to come back is the food industry. You have to eat twice a day. No matter what, every human being, there's more people every day.
I've been that guy. When I was a teenager, I worked at a King Pizza just so I could cook a sandwich to have something to eat the next day. It was like, "Oh, nobody picked that sandwich up." Well, nobody ordered it. I was taking it with me so I could make sure I could eat. And those things stick with you your whole life. I only buy a new TV every four or five years. I'm eating twice today. And so I picked that because I saw that as the most resilient industry that was out there. I did that economy of scale of need.
[00:09:00] Ari Marin VO: As we know, Don’s vision – and his strategy -- they would eventually pay off. But before that happened, he had to learn from experience. And it wasn’t all – straight forward
4. The Early Days of Don's Cold Storage
[00:09:07] Don Coenen: I think if people knew how difficult a new business is, they wouldn't do it, but I opened up my business. The only bank in America that went under in the first 2006 disaster was my bank. They called my bank loan. I don't have any money. I just opened it up. I've spent every dime. The company that had signed a letter of intent to use a facility got bought by another company. They didn't honor it.Don Coenen:
And so there were only seven of us, and it was rough. I would pull over and be ill because at that time, I'm still a regular human being, working for other people doing things. And I'm like, "How am I going to pay this back?" It was come to work at 4:00 A.M., do the billing. From then about 7:00, I was the shuttle truck driver. I'd go get some product, come back, and then I'd act like I was the president. People like, "How long have you been in this industry?" And I'm like, "Counting today, a week, two weeks." And everybody's like, "Hey, if you make it six months or a year, come see us." But the reality is I'm totally broke. I've remortgaged my house just to make payroll and pay some bills. I haven't paid myself in months. My partner hasn't taken any money.
[00:10:22] Ari Marin: So it wasn’t all smooth sailing?
[00:10:25] Don Coenen: No, it was a disaster. An absolute disaster.
[00:10:30] Ari Marin VO: So things were starting to look real bad. The competition was fierce, the bank was out… But for Don - there was no plan B. He just had to work harder at plan A.
[00:10:36] Don Coenen: I'm right down the street from a giant distribution center. It had to come offline, and I had a brand new facility empty, and I'm doing seven or eight loads a day, but I can do 100. They put 75 trucks on my yard, and then a miracle happened. My next bank comes through. Mr. Crossland brings the banker. Zach was actually working with me. The bank had called my whole note and goes, "Hey, if we sweep your checking account, business, personal, savings and trust, you could pay off all your debt." I go, "I would be completely broke. It cost, at that time, a million dollars a month to run this place. How am I going to operate?" And they go, "Oh, you'll figure it out."
And that day I transferred every dime of my money. I said, "Give me two or three days to think about it." I transferred all my money to Zach's Bank. They worked out the new deal, and it kept me alive. It was within 24 hours of getting chains put on the door, and makes my hair stand up on my arm to even say that out loud. That's how close it was.
[00:11:48] Ari Marin: Wow.
[00:11:49] Don Coenen: And then we just fought our way out of it. And my business partner, Mr. Crossland and I, we didn't take a single dime out of this company for the first 17 years.
[00:12:05] Ari Marin: For our listeners, was there any lesson that you learned from that experience that you'd like to share with them?
[00:12:12] Don Coenen: As a business person, I'm going to say the lesson I learned is you should keep money in multiple banks, unencumbered, so you can have some flexibility in times of trouble. We actually run, right now, I think I have $3.75 cents of equity for every $1 of debt. So that's how much it impacted us to not have money. And then that's shared through a couple of platforms, and then I have a couple of platforms that keep large reserves of our cash completely unencumbered, and that gives us the ability to react quickly on our feet.
[00:12:49] Ari Marin: I think there's also another, a larger lesson here in that it's a struggle, right? Success.
[00:12:55] Don Coenen: It's hard. It's hard. It takes years off your life.
[00:13:01] Ari Marin VO: That’s the thing. Don's story, it’s also about grit, you know? It’s about turning things around, and looking back years later to see just how far you’ve come.
[00:13:10] Don Coenen: Now we're cold storage. We're ambient temperature. We also have a 600,000 square foot cave, a cave. Drive the semis in, got a lake under it. We originally thought we would just be deep cold storage. And it was funny, my partner Chris, he actually drew the map 20 years ago, the format of what we were going to build. We were jotting out cold storages and dry storages, and we interlink them with our own shuttle and trailer leasing.
And I found that picture, and it looks exactly like what we build. And we've executed that vision three times now, working on the fourth one. It just grows exponentially at about 25% a year. And it is incredible. It's a dream come true, an absolute dream come true.
[00:14:06] Ari Marin VO: We'll get back to that “dream come true” in a minute. But first, let’s understand how Don got his head above water.
And here – let me just say this: there’s one simple thing you need to know about Don’s character. When something goes wrong, he doesn't back down; he doubles down.
So at this point in the story: Don has changed banks, now he's got the funds, he needs to build. And for that:
[00:14:20] Ari Marin: We get the first facility up. It's not doing well. I actually go to my partners and go, "I got to double the size of it." And they're like, "What?" And these are $50 million facilities to build, and at today's age, at today's dollar. But I'm very thankful. One of my partners, they have had great resources, used to applying wealth and real estate. The other one was a construction mogul. So we came together, and they believed in me. We doubled the size. We added the value. And we started just becoming an asset to our customers.
[00:15:00] Ari Marin VO: On top of going all in - they also built a different model for the business. One with a few more safety nets.
[00:15:09] Don Coenen: We just really structured on where we were needed, not where we felt like we wanted to be. And so that thought strategy is to always keep at least 60% equity freed up, and that way, if there's something happens disastrous, you can refinance and move on. We found a playbook that works. I hate to say it too loud on there, but you identify where the customer has weaknesses and pain points, and we're not so locked into any single vision that we don't make the adjustments.
Ari Marin VO: They did the same thing during Covid. That was a time of tremendous growth.
[00:15:44] Don Coenen: People don't realize how close we were to all starving. I mean, we would bring trucks in, ship them out, never a full load. These facilities, the average facility is 15 acres under roof, completely full. That's a lot of food. It's vertically stacked, 50 feet in the air. It's a lot of food.
At the end of Covid, these things were empty. I don't think anybody realizes how close we were to running out of food nationwide, but when Covid came, we kept feeding America. We were really proud of that. And that benchmark of we went from two ship to 24/7 when everybody else was doing the least they've ever done. And it just catapulted us, both our reputation, our work ethic, and our abilities to the next level.
We actually doubled in size during Covid, and because the need was so great, we took facilities that went under, and I was like, "I'll do it." A lot of people sat at the sidelines. Some people took that bull by the horn. And it comes back to that vision that you have to think big, you have to think big, you have to be bold at moments. And we continue to do that today, and it's so exciting, so fun.
[00:17:11] Ari Marin VO: Don has his mind on the money. And so of course, it shows up in his leadership. But that’s not all his company is.
Don’s Corporation – it's also a lifestyle.
I mean – you heard what his routine is like, right? Don eats, sleeps, and breathes business. And for his employees – it’s the same.
They spend most of their waking hours on site or on the road. So the team – it’s a community of people working and living together. And they live well. Don made sure of that.
[00:17:37] Ari Marin: What was it like to bring on new people?
[00:17:39] Don Coenen: You know, it was terrifying at first because you dream of it And as you bring those on you know, I would like people to take a moment like Ari at your age and everybody I'm dealing with through this.These are the best years of your life. You're giving whoever you're working with or for you the best years of your life. And, and I feel like I have an obligation to make sure that matters for the people that work for us.
[00:18:03] Ari Marin VO: If you’re part of Don’s World, hard work is met with some serious benefits.
[00:18:25] Don Coenen: It was terrifying at first because you dream of it. And as you bring those on, I would like people to take a moment, like Ari at your age, and everybody I'm dealing with through this, these are the best years of your life. You're giving whoever you're working with or for the best years of your life. And I feel like I have an obligation to make sure that matters for the people that work for us.
It's awesome. The working people in Southwest Missouri are incredible. The people in Northwest Arkansas are special, and it's just not that hard to find people that want to work hard. Things I'm real proud of, we bonus everybody every Christmas here in about two weeks. We had a meeting yesterday. How big are the bonuses for every single person that works here? And we bonus monthly, yearly. My partners wholeheartedly support me.
We give every employee free vision, free medical, free dental, free eye. If you work for me, you go to college, make straight A's, I pay for your college. I've had people become teachers, nurses. They don't have to stay here. If they want to apply themselves, I want to help. I had several people, we've been in business long enough that people would pass away, and times are always hard. So after about the third person, I pay for everybody's life insurance. Every employee has a $25,000 life insurance policy free by me. And that way, when they pass away, and we've had a couple since then, and their wives or mothers have said, "Hey, we would not have a dime if you wouldn't have done that for us."
[00:19:44] Ari Marin VO: Don also promotes from within. He wants to give his team good reasons to stay…
And invest their time, their skills and their energy into the business. He is a firm believer that we all have potential for greatness.
[00:19:51] Don Coenen: Both my best guys came from UPS, came down, one came down in a car with a tie-down strap holding his door, and now he's a multimillionaire just because of his investment back into the company.
And so we let people invest back into our company into a profit sharing type program for management, and that gives them security, if the company was ever bought, that they would be rich. And it's something I feel very strong about. I've worked at multiple places. I personally didn't like the way I was treated.
That's why I work for myself now. And I've tried hard to rectify the things I thought were unfair. And so I think it's important that people are able to work somewhere, be respected and make a good living. It means a lot to me.
I mean, I'm in the food industry. Everybody that works here eats food. They need to make enough money to buy food. So that's my thought process.
[00:20:56] Ari Marin: So you mentioned a bit of your culture at the office. Could you tell us more about what the culture at Don's Cold Storage is like?
[00:21:04] Don Coenen: We demand a lot, and we give a lot. Is it fair to say that? And so if I treat everybody like an adult. If you're hired for a job, you got to do the job. You can't do the job, you're not going to last too long around here. And so I'll have somebody quit and go, "Hey," or I'll fire them, and they'll be upset with me. I'm like, "Hey, I hired you because I needed you. You got yourself fired. Now I'm going to have to probably hire somebody worse than you. So thanks."
But we treat everybody like adult. If you rise to the top, you get promoted. We promote from within. We do very little outside hiring. As we've gotten larger and more specified, we've started a little bit more, but I answer my phone 24/7. My phone sits right next to my bed. If it rings, I answer it all. My upper management all do the same.
Every manager that's worked here has had weeks of 35 weeks, and they've had weeks of 90 hours, and we've had months of 90 hours. And these guys do it, they get rewarded well. Both my vice-presidents of Arkansas and Missouri both started as forklift drivers, but they're college educated. They're hard-working men. The one person that runs my trucking company was a fireman, came to work part-time and now drives a T-Rex. And people care. They care. They care about the growth.
[00:22:36] Ari Marin VO: When the work is hard – you need to focus on self-care. That’s how you increase your success further down the road.
This is something Don learnt over time. Just a few years ago... He had a personal reckoning.
[00:22:51] Don Coenen: I'm 63, I got massively overweight. One of my partners came to me in a bank, came to me and said, "Hey, you don't look so good." He said, "The greatest thing about Don's is you, your vision, your work ethic. The worst thing about Don's is you. If you die, we don't know if the culture will be able to be maintained." I took him serious.
I get my health serious so people had the confidence to invest in me, and I'm three pounds away in the last two years of losing 70 pounds. I have personal trainer that comes three times a week for a couple hours. And that's just the reality is that people tell you their expectations. You just choose not to hear them. Does that make sense?
And then I'm not going to be the problem in my own growth because I take it all serious. Take my health, take who I am serious, take my word serious, take our business, and I want to be a good steward.
[00:23:52] Ari Marin: That's amazing. So you mentioned earlier about the culture, and sometimes you've had to fire some employees, but when you're hiring employees, what types of qualities are you looking for?
[00:24:03] Don Coenen: It's so funny. We lose about five people a month, and we get about 700 applications. And so really typically, I will hire people that are good with people that I've hired multiple people from the restaurant industry. I like them because they're used to the odd shift, the long days, catering to a customer, understanding the value of good service. They work a lot harder than they get paid for. And so as you start picking through that, you see that guy that's just hungry to be something more. And those are the guys I'm looking for are the people that are hungry to be something more than they are today.
[00:24:43] Ari Marin: It sounds like from talking to you, some of your inspirations are the fact that you're helping feed people and then also taking care of your employees and then preventing food waste as well you mentioned.
[00:24:53] Don Coenen: I've just seen people, I see the elevator of the wealthy getting wealthier and the poor, even though wages are up, they're still getting poorer, and that gap, it needs to be addressed. People deserve a better life. We need a middle class. We need people that can do those things. And I am not embarrassed to be at the forefront of paying people a living wage, and I'm proud of it.
[00:25:21] Ari Marin: That's great.
[00:25:21] Don Coenen: Yeah, you need to be. I've been that guy. If I could say one thing about wealth, it is whoever you are at your worst moment of fear, of hunger, of injustice, that's your baseline of who you are. You spend the rest of your life building up walls and moats and things to protect yourself to guard against that position in happening again. And as you look out, and you see the pain in people's faces, it sits ill with me a lot of times. And if I can help, I want to.
[00:25:54] Ari Marin VO: You get it right? Don wants to secure a better future for himself and the people he works with. So when it comes down to it, he says it plain and simple:
The work is demanding, you’ve got to have passion for it… And it’s not for the faint of hearts. But it is rewarding.
[00:26:01] Don Coenen: We work unlimited overtime, which is an oddity. And so what we'll do is like, "Hey, if you want to work here," people are like, "Hey, I need to make more money." I'm like, "It's unlimited. You can work as much as you want." The people that want to work and make, I sincerely have truck drivers and forklift drivers that make, my highest paid forklift driver made $99,000 last year as a forklift driver. A lot of my shuttle drivers and OTR, over the road, drivers are in the $150,000 range. So if you want to work, it's there. And then when you want to cry uncle and say, "Hey, we need to hire some more people," I'll hire more people. But I understand what it's like.
And here's a fun caveat on our over the road trucks, the drivers pick out the color, they take ownership in them. We stripe, we color match every truck. Every one's a show truck. And it is just awesome to see the fleet rolling out
[00:27:01] SFX: Music here bed in
[00:27:01] Don Coenen: Twenty of your semis roll out, and they're all just the best looking things you've ever seen. You can see our color match. And the drivers, the pride that they have. One's like, "Hey, I want an orange one." So we got him an orange semi, striped it in orange.
It is just insane. They put their names on them. We let them set up if they want sleepers or bunk beds, but we check every option that they... They're living in those trucks. We get our customers call and say, "Hey, we're going to a new customer. We request specifically that you use your personal semis." And that's pretty fun. You know what I mean? That you have that reputation when you see our equipment go by, I have a lot of people call me up, "Hey, I was in Texas, saw one of your trucks. Hey, I was in Florida. We were in Utah, and five of them were all backed in, filled every bay of the fuel stop. Every one of them was a show truck." And somebody didn't even work for us said, "Might be the prettiest sight I've ever seen." And every of them was Don's semi in the fuel bay. Every one of them were just beautiful show trucks. And I really get excited about flying the company flag.
[00:28:09] Ari Marin: I have to ask what's the most beautiful one, and what makes it beautiful?
[00:28:13] Don Coenen: Well, it's always the next one. But yeah, what we do is we get the nicest Aero Package Pete, and then they've got what's called legendary colors. And so we get two-tone, like say red and silver, red and black, and then the trailer, which is white, but the Don's is in red, silver, and black. And so they match perfect. And then the stripe on the tractor reverses it. And then the drivers, we wash them every week, regardless, go into polish shops, and they're just insane to look. If you'll send me an email, I'll send you some pictures.
[00:28:53] SFX: Music Bed Out
[00:28:53] Ari Marin VO: I'll hold you to that promise Don.
Whether we’re talking about his fleet of trucks or his business vision; Don’s imagination knows no limits.
And you know – that’s what I like about this story. This season, we’ve been talking about the future of work. And what that means for technology, culture, leadership…
But for many companies out there, the future of work is also something more personal.
It’s the questions Don is asking himself all the time: how can I push the envelope further? How do I sustain my people? Which is why – I want to hear where he’s going next.
[00:28:59] Ari Marin: What are some of your goals for the business? I know you're still in expansion mode, but are there any other?
[00:29:03] Don Coenen: We'd like to build another four or five more of these, and then probably become a publicly held company.
[00:29:09] Ari Marin: Oh, wow.
[00:29:09] Don Coenen: And the reason is just the sheer amount of debt that myself being first generation, I mean you build 10 of these, that's a half billion dollars. I am a high school graduate. My dad was a chief master sergeant in the military. None of those guys on Forbes 500.
When I try to grow very methodically to stay in control, but it is too slow. I'm aging faster than the vision. And so while I've got great people behind me, I think that's the answer, to become a publicly held company, relieve some of that debt, roll them out faster and service that.
[00:29:47] Ari Marin VO: And in the meantime…
[00:29:49] Don Coenen: We've already got a great plan for the future. We're poised. I would imagine in the next 10 years to double in size again. I think it's accelerating. Everything we're doing, we're getting better at the design. Mr. Crossland designs and builds buildings, and our format's very good now. And what used to take two or three years, we do in one. The whole pace is accelerating. We've got customers reaching out for more. My banker Zach's sitting over here. He just needs to lend me a billion dollars, and I'll get it rolled out.
And that does sound funny, but I had another bank at one time, I asked for $400 million, and I only had one facility, and they laughed at me and said, "Hey, you're never that guy." Well, now we're valued around $400 plus million. And they were like, "Hey, can we do anything for you?" I'm like, "That boat already sailed."
So we're going to get there. It just needs more. It's always more. It's always more. I don't know if that answered your question or not.
[00:30:49] Ari Marin: it definitely does.
[00:30:51] Ari Marin VO: Don’s plan is also to explore new locations. He knows the potential of less populated areas – and he is ready to take on new markets. The question is not: what place. But what pace.
[00:30:56] Don Coenen: We're building in the same size scale, actually the two largest facilities in just north of Dallas right now. Yeah. So the dry one's done. The cold one, we break ground on in January. Then we're kicking off to Nashville, Tennessee's already on the line, and then we're going to Boise, Idaho after that.
And then we could be a larger corporation now. But Mr. Crossland and I have the control of it at this point, and we don't want to dilute control. So it actually, it's painful that I can't roll them all out at once. I'd like to roll the whole program out and really show people what we can do. But we're in essence a wagon wheel. So we've got facilities in the hub where things are manufactured and needed. The wagon wheel is the customer or ports for export. We pick the products up that continue on for the manu- There's no end to it with good service.
[00:31:53] Ari Marin: Any plans to expand outside of the US?
[00:31:59] Don Coenen: Yeah, we've been offered. Things people don't realize, in India, 80% of all food rots before it can get to the consumer. It is a big deal, but there's plenty of room in America for me right now.
[00:32:10] Ari Marin VO: You heard it here folks – for the foreseeable, Don’s Cold Storage is going to continue feeding America. We can keep our cool.
And if there’s one thing you take away from this episode, let it be Don’s dedication to the dream.
His willingness to build the company up, day after day, no matter what the future holds. Because, guess what:
[00:32:27] Don Coenen: The future's coming anyway. I'm 63. You're going to be 63 someday. Everybody listening to this is going to be 63. I'm the oldest person in my company. All my management's in their late 30s, early 40s. My two sons are in their 20s. They're coming on. They're better men than me. Every manager at this company is a better person, better man and woman than I am. And I've recognized I don't have to be an expert at everything.
The future's coming anyway. Do the things today, lay that brick. You look at the corporation now, it's massive, but it was really laid one brick at a time. It was one solid good decision at a time. It was being true to yourself, being consistent. And that consistency builds the reputation that people believe in you. So I've learned people get the reputation they deserve. And so your reputation, your word does carry weight through your life, and the future's coming anyway. Try to build it. Be a bricklayer. Make your day a little bit better every day. And at 63, you're like, "Wow, I did a lot." And that's where I'm at now. I did a lot.
[00:33:39] SFX: Outro Music In
[00:33:39] Ari Marin VO: Yeah, Don really did a lot. His success story is a testament to his dreams and ambitions. And there’s a lot we can learn from it.
Don grew up in a region where companies could blow up. He was inspired by big names: Walmart, JB Hunt, Tyson’s… In his early years, he found mentorship in them. That was – before he went into business himself.
When he started his company, he found investors who understood his vision. Who believed in it. His strategy was simple: go big or go home. And when opportunities are sparse, create new ones.
With the right financial support, he was able to build beyond anyone’s expectations.
And Don didn’t do it just for profit. He did it because work is the place we spend most of our lives. It’s the thing that gives us purpose…
Above all else, Don wanted to share his passion every day. He created a culture where the tide raises all ships – where he can feed the people who feed the people.
And so Don’s Corporation: it’s way more than a food distribution center. It’s a company that promotes Don’s most profound conviction: we all have the means to achieve something great.
[00:33:41] Don Coenen: I think everybody gets four or five opportunities in their life to do something great, but they don't believe in themself enough to take advantage of that opportunity. And I'm always telling my children, I'm like, "Hey." They're like, "Hey, you don't seem to be afraid of anything." Honestly, I'm scared all the time because of the debt being first generation, the hundreds and hundreds of employees that we have to feed every day. But I can be brave for 15 minutes. I can be brave to take advantage of that opportunity and believe in myself. And then you can build off that 15 minutes to other opportunities. So if you can't be brave all the time, be brave for 15 minutes.
[00:33:41] Ari Marin VO: That’s the word from Don Coenen today. I want to thank him for being brave. And speaking with us for… Well, more than 15 minutes… It was a privilege to hear his story of grit, and get a peak inside Don’s Cold Storage. We hope it inspired you too.
We’ll see you next week, for the last episode of Season 6 before the new year! I know, know, it’s sad to leave when we’re… In Good Companies. (had to make that one!) Anyways – we’re not quite done with the future of work yet so – stick around! There’s a couple more business tales we’d like to tell.
You can listen to us on Apple, Spotify… and even on YouTube now!
[00:33:41] Ari Marin: On the Cadence Bank channel. We're posting full episodes and some exciting new bonus content to find us search cadence bank, or click the link in our show notes.
In Good Companies is a podcast from Cadence Bank, Member FDIC, Equal Opportunity Lender. Our production team is Natalie Barron and Eydie Pengelly. Our executive producer is Danielle Kernell. This podcast is made in collaboration with the team at Lower Street. Writing and production from Lise Lovati. Sound design and mixing by Ben Crannell.