Charles Coristine thrived in pressure-packed environments when Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) hired him as a trader in the early 1990s. Twenty years later, he was suffering from severe burnout. He tried everything from meditation to enrolling in graduate school, but nothing seemed to cure his frustration. Then, he took a drastic step that changed his life. Despite having no industry experience, Coristine bought a struggling snack company for $250,000. He just sold it for $750 million.
Coristine's adventures in the highly competitive snack industry started by chance. It began in 2011 when Coristine met the then-owner of LesserEvil, a healthy snack company he was trying to sell. Coristine told CNBC's "How I Made It." that he was intrigued by the challenge of doing something new and thought the name LesserEvil was "synchronistic" with a "healthy, mindful lifestyle." Unfortunately, LesserEvil's balance sheets were anything but healthy.
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LesserEvil's annual revenues were less than $1 million, and the company was losing money. The former owner openly admitted to Coristine that his company was "flatlining" when he approached him about buying it. All things considered, the deal looked like an absolute loser. However, Coristine's experience as a trader told him there was upside potential. So, he bought LesserEvil for $250,000 and an agreement to make an additional $100,000 payment at a future date.
"I didn't know anyone in food … to ask whether I was crazy or not, but that's probably good," he told CNBC. "If I had done a lot of research and looked into it, I would have realized that the probability of success was pretty low." Fortunately, Corstine did have a few things going for him. He'd just earned his MBA from Cornell and still had contacts in the world of finance.
When Corstine got down to brass tacks, it became clear why LesserEvil was struggling financially. Although the company's mission to provide healthy popcorn was admirable, its branding was ineffective. CNBC reported the company was spending about 20% of its revenue on co-packers who would produce and ship its products. Both of those things would have to change for Coristine to make money.
If that wasn't enough of a challenge, Coristine needed a capital infusion because he'd exhausted his savings to buy the business. He told CNBC he raised money through friends, family, and an old contact in the banking industry to finance moving LesserEvil into a 5,000 square foot warehouse. The next step was taking more control over his production. Coristine stocked his factory with second-hand equipment purchased at auction.
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Chief Operating Officer Scott Strife said they "made friends with welders down the street," who retrofitted the machinery to suit Lesser Evil's operation. When the carpet company next door moved out, they knocked down the walls and added 2,000 square feet to their operation. This allowed them to have a fully in-house production capability. In 2014, Coristine took the advice of the company nutritionist and switched to coconut oil to fry the popcorn.
The new popcorn was healthier, had a long shelf-life, and most importantly, tasted good. Next, they rebranded and launched their new popcorn using a laughing Buddha as its new logo. The Buddha Bowl, as it was called, brought in $2 million in revenue in 2014. Coristine told CNBC that the Buddha Bowl accounted for 1/3 of the company's revenue. This led to a major deal with Kroger (NYSE: KR) in 2015.
LesserEvil moved from strength to strength by completing its rebrand and raising another $3 million in capital. By 2023, the company was bringing in $103.3 million in revenue and had become an established player in the healthy snack industry. In April, Hershey (NYSE: HSY) announced it had reached an agreement to buy LesserEvil from Coristine for $750 million.
He will stay on as CEO, but the scale of his accomplishment is mind-blowing. The deal is still on hold pending regulatory approval. However, that is not expected to be a major hurdle and if all goes according to plan, the transaction will become official later on this year.
Today, LesserEvil has 350 employees, and Coristine couldn't be happier. A little over a decade ago, he was a burned-out trader. Now, he's the CEO of a growing company, and it all started with him diving headfirst into an industry he knew nothing about. He accomplished his mission of lowering his stress level and building a company that could last. "It feels joyous, so it doesn't feel like work," Coristine told CNBC.
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