Rick (00:04): It takes a bit of a blend of art and science to get baking just right and having extra eyes, ears, and hands can make a big difference along the way. That's where Ab Maori, north America comes into play. We are the team behind industrial and artisan bakers that help optimize success. We'll discuss more on this episode of the Oven light. So let's get going. Flip the switch.

Rick (00:31): Alright everybody, it's that time again. It's time for the oven light, but hey, we can't go too much further. We have to flip the switch. The oven light is on. Let's get ready to go. Alright. Today we've got a great guest and not only is he a colleague, I call him a friend, maybe a bit of a mentor, and he's a guy that's been around the blocker over the years and he's got quite a history with Coca-Cola. Has been with AB Maui, north America for 16 years now, eight of which on the baking side from a sales perspective, eight on the side of AB biotech, which is outside of the baking business. It's yeast for all those other wonderful things that people consume, like beer, wine and spirits, and even nutritional products. And then plus Bioethanol. So this is my good friend and it's taken 20 some episodes to make it happen, but Mr. Greg Strauss, welcome to the program.

Gregg (01:31): Oh, thank you Rick. It is a pleasure to be here with you and look forward to certainly heard a bunch of your podcasts and look forward to having a conversation with you here this morning.

Rick (01:40): Thanks buddy. So we talked about AB biotech, you were part of the impetus to start it. I mean, you were kind of a one man band eight years ago, so we're talking 2015. You had a little bit of a shift changing from the bakery side to, as we like to call it, the non bakery side. Tell us about that.

Gregg (01:59): Well, you mentioned non bakery. It was funny. It shows you where the mindset was from our company because even the C E O called me the non bakery guy. So yes, when I first stepped out of the bakery sales role, the president at the time, mark Prendergast, I asked him, I said, so what's my position charter? And he goes, I don't know, Greg. Throw a bunch of stuff against the wall and see what sticks. I mean, we've matured. You think about the products that we've commercialized, it's somewhere in the neighborhood of 80 some odd products in the course of the last eight years. And it's a freestanding business. I mean, it is a profitable business in and of itself. It still tucks up underneath the ab Maori, a North American and global footprint. We utilize the manufacturing footprint of AB Maori, but we're the specially ingredients arm of that. And it's really come a long way. In fact, we just finished our fiscal year. It was a very profitable one in a large part driven by the kind of exciting work we do on genetically engineered bioethanol, but really come a way in a short amount of time.

Rick (03:01): So is it nice to get rid of maybe the naming that you're a startup? You kind of had that feel for a few years and now the business is maturing and it's in a different phase and it's in growth and there's new products and new excitement.

Gregg (03:14): It absolutely is, and I give you a lot of credit for giving legitimacy and kind of this larger than life look to it. So we went from non bakery to ab Maori specialty ingredients. And even though the company at a corporate level has been involved in wine making for a couple of decades and distilling for about three decades, it really was not a focus for North American. It was not. And so to start off and saying, Hey, we're AB Maori specialty ingredients sort of startup to something that's more legitimate. And you started that really with the ab biotech branding and it's been an evolution and we're, like I said earlier, a legitimate standalone company. I mean obviously strongly linked to AB Maori, it's now matured to a point where it is nice to be able to say, Hey, we're a company as opposed to just a startup. Our whole dialogue with customers has evolved and matured quite a bit as a consequence too. Let's

Rick (04:08): Park AB biotech just for a minute because I want to take a step back. Let's talk about your roots are actually in beverage and not even the alcohol kind, which is, I mean, certainly that's a fun part of life's enjoyment, but let's talk about Coca-Cola. You spent 16 years there. Tell us about that experience and one of the world's most iconic brands, anything across the board, Coca-Cola, Nike, so on and so forth. Tell us about that experience.

Gregg (04:33): I was there also, we're reaching that tipping point where I'm almost here as long as I was there, there for 16 and a half years, both on the parent company side, the Coca-Cola company. And so my job there was working with independent Coca-Cola bottlers in the upper Midwest to then moving over to the bottler distributor side, which at the time was called Coca-Cola Enterprises. And so I had a number of different roles there. Everything from key account management to running a key accounts department to ultimately running sales operations for the bi-state area. So I had all the trucks, the warehouses, all the salespeople, and I was very, very operational. And it was, yeah, I tell you what, it was a complete departure coming to AB Maori. I went from B to C to B two B. However, a lot of what I learned that was, I would call that really the foundational learning and doing the basics and then bringing that to a new company setting. And so that was my background. You're right.

Rick (05:30): So before we get into a couple hot pan questions, these are questions I ask. Yes. Just kind of off the cuff and looking for quick answers. But before we do that, I've got a couple of news and notes to share. Again, if you're listening, whether it's in your car, in the office, taking a run or a walk, if you've got a question for us or you want to send a question to Greg, email it to us at the oven light@abmaori.com and we'd be happy to get an answer back. Plus we can send you some swag maybe from Pinnacle Brewing or wine yeast or distilled spirits. So ah, there's a little incentive, right? Send Greg an interesting note if you've got a comment. Also, the oven light has been nominated for a couple signal awards. It's the second year of this national podcast awards programming, and we're a finalist on a couple areas. So I get a tip, tip of the cap to my friends Connor and Angela who make things happen from LP Creative. One is for editing, so strong editing, Connor. Thank you. And then the other is just for the programming and lifestyle and we're going up against the likes, if you can believe it. Team Coco and Conan O'Brien. So fun to be in that kind of class. But alright, back to the hot pan. Here we go. Greg, you ready? I'm ready. This is going to be Coca-Cola related, favorite Coca-Cola product and why?

Gregg (06:41): Right? So even though I consume Diet Coke far more than anything else of the Coca-Cola products, my all time favorite is Coca-Cola classic. The original recipe can't get the original bottle anymore, which was the six and a half ounce last returnable bottle. However you can get it in the eight ounce bottle and there's nothing more refreshing either on a hot day or after you've had a few too many fermented beverages the night before to get your day started. It's delicious, it's refreshing, and yeah, it's my go-to drink.

Rick (07:09): Awesome. Well I can tell you this, I don't think we want to go down the wormhole talking about Coca-Cola Classic and new Coke. Remember that in the eighties, everybody listening is like, what are you guys talking about? But for us in the room that are of a certain age, yeah, it was a big deal about how you don't change your brand Well

Gregg (07:24): To that point, and you're a big trivia guy. Here's a kind of a fun fact and figure in 1916, even though the company itself started in 1886 and has gone through everything from fountain to bottles and cans, it was really 1916 where the Coca-Cola company decided they needed a signature contour bottle. It's patented, it's trademarked, and nobody else can use it. Others have tried to emulate it. And what that was based on, a lot of people don't know this was on the cocoa bean that elongated sort of ribbed cocoa bean. Take a look at it, even an eight ounce bottle these days, you'll see them kind of promotionally coming out seasonally in the grocery store and think back on where that came from. But that was a signature trademark.

Rick (08:05): I think I'm channeling more of Albert here saying I was not aware of that. Thank you sir. Now that was Johnny Carson actually, but alright, so second hop hand question, fountain bottle or canned? You like the fountain drink out of the bottle or in the can? I do

Gregg (08:21): Enjoy the fountain drink. I like that effervescence bubbly on crushed ice. But again, if I'm taking something home now it's the eight ounce bottle.

Rick (08:29): Okay, I got you. And last one, crushed or cubed ice or no ice I guess?

Gregg (08:35): Absolutely crushed.

Rick (08:36): Okay. All right, cool. Alright Greg. Alright, we're off the Coca-Cola bit for a little bit. So let's talk about ab biotech again, but let's talk specifically about what's driving a lot of the interest in the business here in North America. Same thing globally is alcohol beverage, right? Things are cyclical, sometimes things are based on consumer trends and flavor likes and so on, so forth. So tell us a little bit about what's going on, new news and beer and wine and distilled spirits.

Gregg (09:06): You're right, that is where the company Ab Maori, our CEO, is placing a lot of focus and effort both from an investment standpoint in people in manufacturing. We've got a brand new plant in northern England that has just been commissioned with the intent of doing all the fermented beverages, yeast. It's interesting if you look at the evolution, and I alluded to that earlier, it is an area particularly in wine and distilling where the company did have that available. And so about a little over 20 years in wine making yeast produced out of Australia for the wine industry was more of availability as opposed to really a core focus for the company. And then distilling and I just came back from Scotland on vacation and one of the things that was quite remarkable is the look at how advanced that was. Well that comes from 30 years of servicing the scotch whiskey market.

Gregg (09:55): Literally it's about 65% of all scotch whiskey distilleries utilize ab Maori or AB biotech yeast. But it really was not a core focus for the company until recently. And I say recently, it's really in the last seven, eight years as we began to gain subtraction geographically. And so kind of bring it back here in the United States got a really neat platform. We just came back for example last month from Las Vegas where we launched a line of yeast for flavor into craft distilling and yeast for flavor is really neat concept. As the craft distilling business continues to grow, they're looking for variety. Consumers are variety seekers and we believe we have solutions for them in order to address it. And so when I say yeast for flavor, literally what you pick up is different aromas, even some different taste characteristics from the new make spirit.

Gregg (10:47): And so when we were showing, we had, I think it was what we were in the top 10% of all 220 exhibitors that were at the A D I, we were there at any given time. There were distillers lined up to look at what we had and it was pretty impressive. Banana split fruit cocktail, these are the type of aromas that would come out. So continued innovation in distilling is enabling us to really gain some ground here in North America. And you think about something like that, never had the focus before. I mean nine years ago really none of the AB biotech products existed in North America. Similarly in beer new news this year in May, we launched a line of brewers, yeast and nutrients into the craft segment. We showcased at the annual Craft Brewers conference. So we exhibited to probably well over 8,000 craft brewers, a lot of new news we've signed on a new distributor, country malt group supporting them in their endeavors. So a lot of focus on beverages for sure in North America.

Rick (11:42): That's awesome. Let me ask you this. So biotech has kind of evolved over eight years and certainly a lot of attention is going into beverage, but we don't talk that much about bioethanol even though it's driving a lot of the business and it may not get the acclaim. There's also animal nutrition hanging out there. What can you tell us about those?

Gregg (12:00): Sure. Actually from a North American standpoint, it's really, bioethanol is the single largest contributor to our profits here. And we do some pretty exciting things. If you think about the bioethanol space, the primarily corn to ethanol business in US and Canada, there are really sort of five major industry participants that service that market with yeast, with enzymes, with other products. We are in partnership with three of the five. We contract manufacture their yeast. We are also in close collaboration with their r and d departments. And so as they genetically engineer yeast to do different things, we're right there with them not only at the lab scale, but all the way through up and including the scale up in manufacturing and ultimately turning their products into active dry yeast. And I'll give you an example of some of the interesting genetic engineering that they do. They'll take a regular fermentation yeast that will ferment corn into ethanol and they'll say, well, what else can we bring into that that would be different, better and special for the ethanol producer?

Gregg (13:00): Well one is enzymes, because enzymes are needed to break down starches. And so literally we're manufacturing yeast that will express enzymes as part of the functionality also advanced to the point where they'll make yeast because of the genes that they spliced into the yeast. A more thermo tolerant ethanol plants can get really, really hot. And if you can give a yeast that extra oomph to keep it going and not expire before it does the full fermentation, that's a big benefit and overall yield improvement. So that's been an exciting area. Like I said, three of the five top industry participants. It's fun marrying the business with the science and then ultimately delivering that to the customer.

Rick (13:36): Well, you're talking a little bit about science, Greg, a big announcement here recently with the Bioethanol side and a group called V I B. Can you tell us a little bit more about that? So

Gregg (13:45): V I B in Brussels is they do a lot of different work in different industries. Our chief science officer, Dr. John Evans, has been working with them quite some time. That's more on the non-GM side, but it's strain selection of products that they've got where they're able to do not necessarily genetic engineering, but strain selection. Then ultimately natural breeding environments where they'll actually create organisms that will do the job more effectively, more yield, for example. So if the end customer is looking for higher alcohol production, they work together to produce an addition. If the average is say 15%, they're getting like 16, 17, 18% alcohol production. So pretty exciting stuff from an efficiency standpoint.

Rick (14:27): And then let me touch back on that animal animal nutrition side too. So yeast, if you don't know it or not, it is utilized in pet foods, used in livestock feed. Tell us why that's important, looking at that other category.

Gregg (14:39): Yeast is a big dietary supplement, particularly in the animal feed area. So both ruminants as well as mono gastrics. And for those of you in Rio Linda, a ruminant would be like a cow with four stomachs. Monogastric would be, chickens would be hogs for example.

Rick (14:56): Thank you for explaining that by the way. Yeah, I was going to phone a friend here

Gregg (15:00): And what the yeast does, what we do, we manufacture a couple different strains for other industry participants to deliver that. So we don't actually have people that go in and call on pet food houses or big feed houses. We do the consistent yeast that delivers the functionality in those animals. And so for example, in cows, what that does at that yeast mixed in with their diet enables them to better digest the food and ultimately become more healthy. Similarly on the chicken feed and hog feed, it's really more of a digestive good gut health and bio digestible for the animal.

Rick (15:31): Couple hot pan questions if you don't know Greg, but you know the last name Strauss sounds a little German to me, doesn't it? So here's a guy who's headed up the St. Louis German school, actually put his two kids who are now in college through the school. He is not wearing leader hose in today. At least you can't see that visually on the podcast. So thank you Greg for not doing that. So here's your first question. Favorite German beer? It is kind of octoberfest ish later timeframe. So what's your favorite German beer of all time?

Gregg (15:59): All time. Favorite beer. That's an easy answer is Steiner. It is still a family owned brewery. It was established in 1753. Wrap your minds around that one. And it is the most delicious, well-balanced lager that really in the world. And I'll give you a little fun story on that. So I had a friend who actually worked for the company, this is already going back 30 years and when I was in Germany, he arranged an opportunity for me to actually stay at the bed and breakfast that's on the Bosch Steiner campus. And so my wife and I were in a bed and breakfast on the property that overlooked the brewery and the next day they took us through for a brewery tour and it was one of those kind of bucket list type

Rick (16:39): Items. Serendipitous. That's pretty cool. So for those that are translating, I believe that's pronounced when you see it on the shelf. Warsteiner, right? It's okay. He's got better pronunciation here. Alright, second question. You have some flexibility in your answer. First or best concert or first or favorite album?

Gregg (16:57): Can I answer both those?

Rick (16:58): Yes, you can.

Gregg (16:59): Favorite album, e l o out of the blue Favorite song Mr. Blue Sky. Favorite concert was with you in 2016 at the Hollywood Bowl to see Jeff Lynn's e l o.

Rick (17:10): That was outstanding. That

Gregg (17:11): Is outstanding.

Rick (17:11): It was like a perfect concert. It was perfect night. Yeah, it was good. Let's open it up right here to Jeff Lynn. If he is listening to this podcast, will you please at least do one last tour for us? It would be awesome.

Gregg (17:23): Amen. Okay,

Rick (17:24): Here's the next question. Weather's starting to turn here, at least in St. Louis. And maybe for the listeners, wherever you are, leaves are starting to come down. It's almost the end of convertible season, getting your class of car out. Have you taken the Mustang out this fall? He's got a classic car.

Gregg (17:40): It is actually parked at my parents' house as we speak, but it is a classic car. It was my first, I had all used beaters when I was in high school and college in 1989 when I lived in North Carolina. I bought a Ford Mustang convertible. It's five speed, five liter, it is a hot, hot car. Give you an indication how little I've driven it over that time period. It's only got 29,000 miles on it. And so when I take it out, it is in. So

Rick (18:05): Have the stickers on the tires. I mean, come on dude.

Gregg (18:08): Wow. But that was the year, 1989 was the 25th anniversary of Mustang. And so there's actually a little silver emblem in the car itself that's got the 25 year Mustang emblem on it.

Rick (18:20): Alright, last of the hot pans. Is there somebody in business or celebrity or somebody like that that you kind of take some inspiration from or maybe use a little bit of a mantra for something that guides you?

Gregg (18:31): Yeah, do I have to just do one?

Rick (18:32): No, you can go. This is your forum. Go

Gregg (18:35): Greg. I'm going to first give my father accolades. He not only was in corporate America, a number of different companies, but he was also an entrepreneur ultimately and ultimately retired and sold his company. But he always said, and I remember this back as far as I can remember, job worth doing is a job worth doing, right? So either you do it or you don't and you're all in or you're not. No kind of halfway half-hearted doing anything. So I still remember that today more from a kind of leaders off, when you think about motivational speakers, leaders, business, thought leaders, Peter Drucker always comes to mind.

Rick (19:10): Father of marketing, right? Absolutely.

Gregg (19:12): One of my favorite quotes from him is the difference between management and leadership. And what he said is, management is doing things right. Leadership is doing the right things. Now that takes a moment for it to kind of sink in. If you're doing the things right versus doing the right things, you're empowering the people ultimately, right? And kind of close and completely unrelated. Different speaker of course, different background was Colin Powell and he was all about leadership is all about the people. Now we went on to say it's not about the organization, it's not about just paraphrasing, it's not about the strategy, it's not about the stuff you do. It's actually empowering people to ultimately do that. And you think about how powerful that is, you bring people on, you get 'em excited, you get 'em passionate. You know that firsthand. That's what you do at AB Morrison,

Rick (20:05): We talk about we're passionate about baking, obviously we're passionate about all the other stuff. We say partners in fermentation, which is really important for the ab biotech side. But boy, some great sage advice. I love the Drucker comments there because it's a little bit of a tweak and it's a little finessing, but boy, so powerful. So thanks for sharing that. Alright, so before we kind of get to the final chapter here, looking ahead, what do you see? I mean we're closing the books on 2023 here soon. Looking ahead. We've come in and out of Covid three years, which none of us are getting that time back. Boy, it probably changed how people think about the world, how they think about their purchases, all those sorts of things. What's in your crystal ball as you look ahead, not only for you and ab biotech, but just a larger view?

Gregg (20:54): Well, innovation's going to be the key, right? For everything. Innovate, innovate, innovate. And I say that because first bring it to our world, whether it's baking or ab, biotech, we have competitors, right? Competitors also manufacture good quality products. They compete in the same spaces we do. How are we going to differentiate ourselves and really come across as different, better and special? Well, at the core it's got to be the product functionality. It's got to be, we've got good people, we've got good account management, we've got good follow through, we've got great marketing, but at the end of it, we have got to have products that will differentiate ourselves versus our competitors.

Rick (21:32): Okay, that's a great one for sure. How about for your team? You've got a team that's been growing with AB biotech and you've got some really a strong personalities and intelligent, really capable people. So what do you see for your team as we head into the future too?

Gregg (21:49): It's a great team. It has been growing. I mean, you've been part of it from day one. I know you've spanned a number of different end use markets and have really been core to making AB biotech shine. You and I are the original members. If I look at more from a commercial standpoint, Brad Blumberg is the longest standing member that was right alongside with me. He came over from bakery customer service and really matured into a new role where he not only manages all of customer service for AB biotech, but he also has taken on key account sales roles. And so it's an area where it still has that entrepreneurial feel, but it's also an area where our team makes a difference. Every individual counts. There are only five of us on a commercial front. Emily Vander Plume is the newest addition she is, is our customer service lead.

Gregg (22:38): She ensures that we have a good quality interface with the customer. First point of contact. Last line of defense, Kevin Kaa has been with us for a few years. He's responsible for all commercial efforts in distilling, also happens to have come from a brewing background. Colin Harvin is our latest edition here, started right after the craft brewers conference and he's really hit the ground running. And so that team is coupled with the products that are coming out of our organization are really what's driving the business forward. And then additionally supporting is, I mentioned John Evans earlier, he and his team with the Global Strain Development Center right in St. Louis, a big part of making the Bioethanol world very, very successful for us. And then our newest edition from a finance standpoint is Kate Whitmeyer. She's got a big role where she supports from a finance standpoint, the broader business, but has really, really jumped on a latched on to this AB biotech partners in fermentation.

Rick (23:37): Awesome. And then you've got some very capable people over, they're part of the global team. They've certainly helped out. We hired a new marketers, one in the UK and one in the Netherlands, and they've been outstanding with their support. So kind of final question for you is we transition from team and looking ahead in that one question, why is it important to have fun in this job too, right? Isn't it fun to have, you got to have a little bit of fun and business too, don't you think?

Gregg (24:04): Absolutely. We spend too much time doing what we do. So the antithesis of that is if it were a drudgery and we're just a paycheck, you spent far too many hours doing that. I mean, what a miserable existence that would be. I've had friends in the past that say, oh yeah, it's a nine to five deal. Well, that's not who we are. And kind of getting back to the company, whether it's the parent company, AB Maori, or the business unit, the specialty business unit, AB biotech, it's all about passion. Passion for the industries that we service. And that comes through loud and clear. The passion coupled with the product innovation is what differentiates us really across all different industries.

Rick (24:40): And I have to close on this because if you know Greg or me, we have been linked as potential stepbrothers if you know the movie. So Greg, I got to ask you two questions. One is, did we just have a good podcast? Yep. Do you want to go have lunch now? Yep. Alright, so with that, I want to thank Greg Strauss for being on the program for us. It's been great. Thanks to our team at LP Creative for making it happen. And a couple reminders on the oven light. Again, if you've got a question for Greg or any guest or of me, send it to the oven light@abmaori.com. Again, if you haven't voted and you have a chance to go out and vote for the People's Choice for the Signal Awards, check that out and just support Ab Maori and the oven light. And we thank you for that. So for now, boy, the switch is off, the oven light is done for the day. Thanks so much. We'll see you next time. We hope you've enjoyed this episode of the Oven Light. Until next time, when we discuss more about the wonderful world of baking technology trends and more, the switch is officially off. Goodbye for now. See you next time.