Carl Byrne, Byrne Dairy

*Note: The following text is the output of transcribing from an audio recording. Although the transcription is largely accurate, in some cases it is incomplete or inaccurate due to inaudible passages or transcription errors.

Bill Berthel: Joining me today on Driving Leadership is Carl Byrne, CEO and President of Byrne Dairy. He’s a third-generation co-owner. He owns the company with his brother Mark. They’ve been in business since 1933. 91 years here in Central New York. They do amazing work. They are a foundational part of the Central New York Community, business community and leadership. And Carl’s just a down-to-earth cool guy. We’re gonna have a great conversation. We’re gonna get a little bit of a plant tour, learn more about his business, but most important, learn some really great leadership tips. Come on, let’s go meet him. Carl, thank you for this time. I’m really looking forward to getting to know you better and to hear more about this iconic brand, and product of burned dairy. we were talking earlier that, it’s so iconic, like, we know the brown and yellow of the truck. we know, the insignia of that drawn cow. Like, remember it in grade school. Right. visiting the store and hoping we’re going to get ice cream, that mom and dad are going to buy us a half a gallon of ice cream, for dessert later. It’s been in our lives, in the Syracuse community for decades. It was your grandfather that started the business.

Carl Byrne: Exactly. And Matt Burns started the business in 1930.

Bill Berthel: 319 33. Wow. So, it’s 91 years.

Carl Byrne: Yeah.

Bill Berthel: Holy cow. What’s it like being in a family business like that?

Carl Byrne: Yeah. I enjoy it. It’s certainly something that when I wake up in the morning and, you know. Cause I still go to work every day, you know, I. After my family, you know, it’s the first thing I think of and I’m ready to go. there’s not a hesitation to let’s make some coffee, put some half and half in it and let’s go to work. So, there’s an enjoyment factor for sure.

Bill Berthel: Awesome. So, you and your brother are third generation owners, right?

Carl Byrne: Yeah, my brother Mark and I are.

Bill Berthel: Yeah. And you were explaining to me a little bit that Mark takes care of retail. He really has focus on the stores and the gas stations. You have a focus on manufacturing.

Carl Byrne: Yes. And we share a common board of directors and ownership. But as far as day-to-day duties, he runs the stores and selects the sites and makes all the marketing decisions. And that he has his own Team.

Bill Berthel: Ah.

Carl Byrne: His own COO. And then on the manufacturing side, I do all that, separately as well.

Bill Berthel: Awesome.

From a leadership perspective, how did each of you fall into those spaces? Was that natural? How do you guys figure out how to. How to kind of divide the organization to be successful between the two of you.

Carl Byrne: Well, fortunately for us, we’re not the first generation. We’re the third generation. So, when we came out of college in 1986, we both started at the same time. there were already family members here, but my dad knew that. He knew well enough to keep us separated. So, if he had a building where we made ice cream, he’d put a cousin or a brother. And at the time, there was an opportunity in Rochester to go into sales, and he sent me up there, and then he got my brother Mark running the warehouse, which, served all of the products for the store. So, there’s always been a, you know, let’s give him a little bit of physical separation so the family members aren’t on top of each other. And that’s kind of where it started, basically, from his experience.

Bill Berthel: So, walk back in history a little bit for me. What, got your grandfather started in this space, in this business?

Carl Byrne: So, he made, like a lot of other businessmen, he made a lot of money in the 1920s, not only in the tire business, he was originally in the tire business with his brother. They had sold tires to all throughout Central New York and beyond, but also to. The government. during the war, they had sold some tires. So, they made a fair amount of money in the twenties, came along, and they continued to expand their dealership, but they also expanded their investments in the stock market. And when that fell apart in 1929, they lost nearly everything, as well as a lot of other people. But they were able to maintain their main tire dealership, which is known as the Bern Square building in Syracuse. It’s still there, and in the basement of that building. A couple years later, in 1931, a couple of entrepreneurs came and said, hey, we’d like to rent out the basement of this building. And in that building, they started to put some dairy filling equipment. and they didn’t make it a year. They never opened. They got about halfway done. They couldn’t get the rest of the equipment, so they abandoned the leasing the equipment. And then about a year or so later, my grandfather Matt got a loan from Syracuse Savings Bank at the time. They lent him 20 grand to get some equipment in there, and that’s how he started bottling milk.

Bill Berthel: No kidding.

Carl Byrne: In the basement of that business. That was, still the tire center of Syracuse, it was called at the time.

Bill Berthel: Oh, that’s incredible. So, there was an opportunity there for him.

Carl Byrne: Yeah. And it wasn’t even his original plan. He just finished someone else’s idea.

Bill Berthel: I love that kind of entrepreneurial mindset and that adaptability.

What do you think you inherited from your family and your leadership? Like, what traits of your leadership do you think you bring into today’s business? Maybe it was watching your dad, maybe it was your relationship with your grandfather. What do you bring into your leadership?

Carl Byrne: Certainly, bring a strong interest in continuing the burn legacy. And you talk about the brand and all that passion that has been put into the business. I think from those learnings and those stories of my grandfather, who I never met, is that you can have a plan, but it doesn’t always work out according to plan, but you need to show up, you need to be there, you need to figure it out. you know, through the depression, I mean, they had no idea they were going to end up in the dairy business and it was someone else’s idea. So, if you go to work and you work hard, you treat your people fair, you know, you’re going to. Sometimes there’s a little luck involved too, in that case. But, you know, I think I’ve learned from everybody that, you know, you really need to lead by example and make sure that, you know, you do the next right thing. Those are very important things in business.

Bill Berthel: I love that. Show up and do the right thing. Yeah, yeah, show up and do the right thing. That’s really cool.

what advice would you have for leaders in our Central New York market? Or people that might be thinking about, leading in the future? Right. Maybe there’s some folks out there that are aspiring to be leaders or want to get more equipped to lead better. What would you tell them if they were here?

Carl Byrne: It depends on if they’ve ever held substantial leadership positions and if they can, they should lean on some of their own experiences and go with that. if they haven’t and they’re just working their way up, they’re going to need a mentor, you know, someone that they can call on the phone or get in front of or get some additional training. You know, we’re constantly doing that ourselves. They’ve got to be able to, you know, work on that skill set. It’s no different than the rest of life. Whether you’re in sports or whether you’re trying to raise a family, you’re going to need, you know, someone to lean on and someone to help you with that, so.

Bill Berthel: Well, that’s awesome. That’s great.

So, Carl, with the Syracuse area, what feels like we’re on the cusp of a revitalization. Right? Micron coming in, downtown getting restored. It feels like this area is on the cusp of some great growth. What are you guys doing to prepare for that? I think things could really get good fast here. What’s burn dairy doing to get ready for that?

Carl Byrne: Yeah, well, our best resources are people. we just got to make sure we’re in a position that we are the employer of choice without just saying that. So how do you back that up? And it’s some of the things we talked about before, but it’s also connecting with people and knowing who they are. So we have a connection program that we started a couple years ago, and top 50 managers have to go out and connect with someone that they don’t know in the business every week. And, ah, then what happens is after a while, we’re going to know more things about their family, more things about challenges they face outside of work, more things that are happening inside of work and things they’d like to see us doing or like to see us not doing. But there’s so much investment coming into the area that there is going to be, the talent’s going to be moving around some of them. More is going to be coming into the market. We’ll be bringing more up, sure. But some of the existing players are going to be, highly sought after. You know, as an owner, as a manager, as a leader, you better respect that. You know, you know, all the time. But especially now, you’re going to need to make sure, you know who your talented people are and that they’re, you know, that they’re given growth opportunities. Sure.

Bill Berthel: M. Yeah. I love that intentional, connection effort that’s happening in the organization. I think it’s brilliant. I think it’s brilliant.

So, can we go see the plant?

Carl Byrne: Absolutely.

Bill Berthel: I’d love to learn more about it and, see, it in action. If that’s allowed today.

Carl Byrne: Let’s take a walk. It’s right around the corner.

Bill Berthel: Beautiful.

Carl Byrne: Thank you.

Bill Berthel: So, we’re adjacent to. The lot. To the plant.

Carl Byrne: Yep.

Bill Berthel: Now, how long has this plant been here?

Carl Byrne: We built this plant. This is a greenfield facility. Built it in 2004.

Bill Berthel: Okay.

Carl Byrne: And, so we just, you know, celebrated our 20th anniversary over here.

Bill Berthel: Awesome. Awesome.

Carl Byrne: And it’s really been the catalyst for most of our growth. We built another new facility down in, Cortland in 2014.

Bill Berthel: Okay.

Carl Byrne: It’s a sister plant to this. It’s got 140 acres with it.

Bill Berthel: Oh, wow.

Carl Byrne: So, it sets it apart from. I can really expand that. We’re here. I’m on about 23 acres of land.

Bill Berthel: Okay.

Carl Byrne: And I have some room for growth, but I’m going to have a lot more opportunity between the two of them working together to serve customers.

Bill Berthel: Yes. And is this. I know we’re gonna see it, but this is, this is all milk bottling. Anything else going on here?

Carl Byrne: Milk and cream. okay, that’s about it. Organic milk. that’s all we really do.

Bill Berthel: So, you’re telling me a little bit about that the extended shelf life is all about the way it’s packaged.

Carl Byrne: Yeah.

Bill Berthel: No air, no bacteria.

Carl Byrne: It’s about the way it’s processed.

Bill Berthel: Okay.

Carl Byrne: And then, and the way it’s, filled.

Bill Berthel: Okay.

Carl Byrne: so as you, you say packaged.

Bill Berthel: Yeah.

Carl Byrne: So processing and filling are completely sterile.

Bill Berthel: And how much longer of a shelf life do you get than like my carton of milk in my fridge?

Carl Byrne: Yeah. So your extended shelf-life milk at home or your fresh milk at home, it’s going to have a couple weeks on it.

Bill Berthel: Right.

Carl Byrne: I’m going to put 70 to 80 days on the extended shelf-life product here. And I’m going to put 13 months on the aseptic, which is shelf-stable.

Bill Berthel: Wow.

Carl Byrne: product. So one of the things that has to happen with the product, the milk and cream, when it comes in here, and that’s what’s happening on the roof here mostly. This is all refrigeration equipment.

Bill Berthel: Okay.

Carl Byrne: So, you know, this plant handles hundreds of millions of pounds of product a year. So it’s got to be able to keep it all cold and it needs to be kept around 40 degrees.

Bill Berthel: Okay. Wow.

Carl Byrne: Before we fill it. And then after we fill it, if it’s aseptic, I store it, at room temperature in another facility. But the refrigerated product, gets stored at a refrigerated facility that we have over by the regional market.

Bill Berthel: That’s incredible. And these stainless-steel silos, that’s all, milk being held or produced.

Carl Byrne: Milk that’s coming in the big, coming in the big vertical stainless-steel silos is milk that’s coming in that, has not been processed yet. So you see these tankers over here?

Bill Berthel: Okay.

Carl Byrne: These are tankers that are going out to local farms to pick up the milk.

Bill Berthel: Yep.

Carl Byrne: And they’re coming back and they drive through these, doors over here and it’s pumped off into these big silver, stainless steel tanks.

Bill Berthel: So what’s the relationship with the farms? Those are independent farms that you contract with for their product?

Carl Byrne: Yep. And we have a handful of larger conventional farms that shipped us exclusively and have most of them are along route 20, you know, between, you know, Navarino and skinny atlas.

Bill Berthel: Yeah.

Carl Byrne: And, that milk in that area all comes to, you know, this plant. No kidding.

Bill Berthel: Okay.

Carl Byrne: Before this plant, it used to come to Oneida Street. So then in this room here, we have all the boilers. and that’s the other thing you need to have if you’re gonna, be sterile, is you have to have a lot of steam.

Bill Berthel: Oh, okay.

Carl Byrne: That’s how it’s all. That’s how the. Everything’s clean is the steam.

Bill Berthel: Steam. Okay.

Carl Byrne: So stuff I do here, less than 1% of the stuff that I make, it’s like one 10th of 1% is sold in the store. I’m shipping product all over the world.

Bill Berthel: Very cool.

Carl Byrne: They’re selling half gallons of milk.

Bill Berthel: So are some of these, like, private label?

Carl Byrne: Yeah, I do a lot of. I do a lot of different brands.

Bill Berthel: Yeah. Yep.

Carl Byrne: you know, brands for. This happens to be owned by, dairy farmers of America.

Bill Berthel: Okay.

Carl Byrne: These are rolls of paper that I put in the back of the machine.

Bill Berthel: Yeah.

Carl Byrne: And then, you know, the paper is sterilized and then formed into a tube, if you will. And then we cut it into these little squares and, you know, fold up the ends, and you got yourself a package of milk.

Bill Berthel: Almost like a juice box. Like a milk box.

Carl Byrne: Same type of machine. And that’s what’s happening here. That’s actually happening right in there. The paper’s, ah, formed into a tube, and it’s actually filled right there. this machine runs about 300 a minute.

Bill Berthel: It’s pretty fast.

Carl Byrne: Yep. This machine twitched the straw on it.

Bill Berthel: Yeah. The little blister pack.

Carl Byrne: Straws. Yeah. Look at that. You can take that home with you. So you don’t, you don’t say I never gave you anything.

Bill Berthel: There you go. That’s awesome. Thank you. Yeah.

Carl Byrne: And then there’s some cool machines in here, like this machine over here. It takes them from the one lane and puts them in, depending on the case pack, you know, it. Lanes. And this has got, you know, twelve lanes, I think, or nine lanes. It’s, a 27 pack. Just one. So it’s a nine by three lanes.

Bill Berthel: The rows of the bottom.

Carl Byrne: Yeah. Over here, you see the rows that are coming down?

Bill Berthel: Yep.

Carl Byrne: They call it a laner. That’s all it’s doing. It fills them up.

Bill Berthel: all right. So it waits for each lane to be full, moves it forward, and now these are going all over the world.

Carl Byrne: Yeah. This is probably, a fair amount of this milk’s going into the south where there’s a lot of lactose free people population. And, So, yeah, it’s probably. I think some of this is going down to Texas.

Bill Berthel: Yeah.

Carl Byrne: Yeah. All right, so this is where we have, this is where the product goes before it.

Bill Berthel: Oh, I could live in here. This is nice.

Carl Byrne: Yeah. Especially on a warm day.

Bill Berthel: Yeah. What is it, about 38 degrees in here?

Carl Byrne: Yeah, probably, probably, probably real close to that.

Bill Berthel: Yeah. Oh, wow.

Carl Byrne: So these palletizers. And then they’re, they’re putting this milk on these pallets and then we are shipping it, either to. Most likely to. We have a big warehouse here of magna, which is right at the old, Chrysler building. Magna powertrain.

Bill Berthel: Yes. Yeah.

Carl Byrne: And then we have a big refrigerated one over by the Syracuse, regional market next to. The Baltimore.

Bill Berthel: Yes, yes.

Carl Byrne: So this, this product is going in one of those two places. and then from there, the customer picks it up. That’s kind of the end of the journey for me here.

Bill Berthel: No, well, the warehouse. Yeah, yeah. They pick it up from there. Yeah.

Carl Byrne: And this is a customer we make for Modern Pantry. Marcel’s Modern Pantry. So some people have a really well-known name, like Dairy Pure. People have a more of a. They have a specific market. Like they’re serving a lot of this milk that they sell goes into the Caribbean where they don’t have refrigeration or dairy plants or cows or any of that.

Bill Berthel: Yes. Yeah, yeah.

Carl Byrne: That’s where this is going.

Bill Berthel: Very specific market. Yeah. Oh, Carl, this is really cool. Thank you.

Carl Byrne: Yeah. Great. And I’ll take you out. Take you back.

Bill Berthel: Thank you so much.