He manufactures the world's best peanuts

Welcome to another CEO Wisdom Podcast. We have Marshall Rabal with us today, President and CEO at Hubbard Peanut Company. These are the most delicious peanuts I've ever laid eyes on. They're big. Also, they're based in Virginia, quite unique company, family-owned. Marshall's been CEO of that company, or at least at that company, for 18 years. That's a very long time. So Marshall, welcome to the podcast. Tell us a bit more about yourself and what you've been up to.

Yeah, well, thank you so much for having me, Charles. It's, it's great to connect. Yeah, Hubbard Peanut Company is a family-owned and operated business that my grandparents started from their home in Sedley, Virginia in 1954. My grandmother is credited as being the pioneer of the specialty peanut industry, which has actually become fairly synonymous with the Commonwealth of Virginia. It's one of the products that we do really well here, and she is credited with starting this category by only using the super extra large, the largest peanuts we can find that are grown in Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina, actually. And then she had a unique way of cooking them. As opposed to a dry roast, she would soak them in hot water and then fry them in oil. And also, we package them in nice cans so they kind of have, they have a gift quality nature about them. So we were kind of a top shelf peanut if there's such thing. Yeah.

Love it. And yeah, you started in sales and marketing, right? And only took the CEO role in 2025. How was that for you waiting 15 years to be the head honcho? Is it frustrating or was it deserved?

No, I mean, I honestly, I started a lot. I did not start exactly in sales and marketing. I started more learning the production line, putting cans in boxes, getting, learning how to cook peanuts with Vernon Parker early in the morning. I would work in shipping and warehousing, and then I answered the phones doing customer service during the season. So I really kind of got to learn a lot of different angles of the business. And then I went away and did my own thing for a little while and came back with with an idea to expand some sales and marketing initiatives. And I did that for about 10 years. But the beauty of it was I got to work with my mom and we, during that time, we really were needing to expand our operations. So together we were able to create a strategic plan to expand, which gave us the ability to buy a new building, a new facility where we do our additional shipping warehousing. We added another production line. Now we have an event space and retail space. So The last few years, it's been like really special to work with my mom to build that. And so I was, yeah, I mean, I always knew I wanted to come back to this area in this region. But, you know, I was never really rushed to have a title or anything because it was, it's always been more about the family, the business, the community in which we work. So the title was never something that was that important to me, but it does come with some different responsibilities, um, and that's been, that's been nice, and it's been very much a learning experience for me over the past year, right?

And you've done a lot of stuff in between, traveled the world, right? Japan, East Africa, India, LATAM, um, you've been a coach as well, right? You started Blackwater Outfitters, Homegrown Harvest Festival, like you seem to be a quite a creative person, right?

Yeah, well, you know, I'm from this little town in Virginia. It's about 8,000 people. Sedley is a village of a couple hundred. And I was always really curious about, you know, why I'm from this area, you know. And I think travel and, well, curiosity led me to travel. So my first jobs out of college were, I worked for the Japanese Ministry of Education in a small village in Japan, and I was teaching English, but really just kind of a a cultural ambassador, essentially, and taught American culture and English in this village in Japan for a couple of years, but was able to travel around Asia there. And I still was on this kick of— I actually had an entrepreneurial vision of starting a kind of an experiential learning school and program, but spoke to a mentor of mine and he was like, hey, see if there's anything out there like that. And I found this organization called Carpe Diem International Education, and I actually ended up leading college students on gap year programs. And that's what took me to East Africa and India and Central America. And so we did a lot of different development projects in those regions, and that opened my eyes to a lot, a lot of what was happening around the world, but also those same issues that were present in our community. And I was like, you know, We've got a business here that very much represents Tidewater Virginia, and we have the ability to use that business to be a catalyst for some good and change in the community. And so I experienced a lot abroad but came back home and was like, okay, well, we've got this great river system that is kind of our trail system. And so that's what led me to being a co-founder of Blackwater Outfitters Nottoway River Guides. It's like, hey, we need to get outside and appreciate this unique ecosystem we have. And so we started that. And then Homegrown Harvest Festival is a festival that— it's actually our 4th year coming up on that. And that's where we work with a lot of different chefs that have been using our product for years. But they come to our community and we do this live fire cooking. We bring other brands that are complementary to Hubs. So we've got good wine partners like Michael Shapps who is a great winemaker in Charlottesville and in the South of France. And then we've got a good beer partner, bourbon partner that are, that are close by in Virginia as well as a lot of different farms that are raising oysters and clams and pigs and lamb, all of these things that are close by our region. So we bring these chefs, these brands, and we have artists that come and play music for us for a couple of days and it's a fundraiser. For the food bank. So it's really a way to celebrate all of the great things that Virginia has to offer from a culinary perspective while raising money and trying to fight food insecurity at home. So it all kind of makes sense, like the, the kayaking and the canoeing promotes a healthy lifestyle, active living. The festival is about, you know, appreciating the region and the cuisine, the meroir, the terroir of of Tidewater and using that as a platform to combat food insecurity, health and wellness right here at home. So it all makes sense and being in the food business, you know, that's a basic need that must be met. And so you have to, you have to be fed before you can be educated. So you attack the first things first and then you go on to hopefully improving education, which then improves economic development and, and really community building. So that's kind of what my grandparents did. My mother did as well in our community. And I think we're just really trying to be intentional about integrating those efforts into our culture here at Hubbard Peanut Company.

And a family company, are you and your mom complementary? Because my dad's an entrepreneur as well. Doesn't have a business that is that scalable. He's a consultant, right? But even if he would, I wouldn't want to take it, right? Because I just want to make it on my own. I, I don't know, I'd probably help him hire the right CEO or something like that. Um, how do you not go crazy, um, while trying to preserve the family heritage?

That's a great question, and I think, um, It's like everybody on your team. I think if you recognize their strengths and let them do what they're good at and let them try to stay in their lane, and then you stay in your lane and you focus on what you're good at. My mom and I have a lot of similarities, but we're also different in a lot of the styles and our approach. And so she's really good at things where I felt like I might have been weak at and have learned from her where I've had some gaps. And I think that's just with team building in general. Is making sure that you're putting complementary pieces to the puzzle. And I was able to focus on what I did well and do well, and my mom was able to do the same. She has since retired, but she helped us build the executive team and the team that we have in place. And so a lot of credit, a lot of credit to her and the second-generation family my aunts and uncles as well for their continued dedication to our business and wanting to maintain the, the family heritage and legacy. So they've empowered me to, to be the, the face and the leader, but it really is, it's still very much a team effort where we are trying to keep moving this thing forward.

And tell me about the recent investment in physical infrastructure. I've seen the new installations, they're beautiful, right? Why do that was like the, the right investment?

Well, we were out of space and we knew that we wanted to get into chocolate production. Chocolate-covered peanuts was a fast-growing item for us, and we had a, a trusted partner that actually ended up selling their business. And when they did that, um, it ended up being valuable real estate. So the chocolate company closed that we were working with, and it actually turned into apartments. But so there was actually a void in the market, so we saw an opportunity to become a chocolate manufacturer for ourselves, but also for some of the other competitive, the other peanut products, other peanut companies in the area. Kind of a way that we could cooperate with one another. We compete in some regards, but we were able to decrease some of their costs and minimums. And so we saw an opportunity to fill the void in the chocolate market. So we bought this old grocery store, which is a really unique space, but it's been perfect for us because where we do our chocolate manufacturing was actually the meat department and the beer cooler. So it was already food production space with the right— the drains in the floors, the 3-compartment sinks, the right walls, and, and all the things you need for food manufacturing. And so we converted that. We converted like all the center aisles of the grocery store into our warehousing for shipping. We needed more space for that. We had been storing stuff off-site. So this allowed us to bring things in-house and it eliminated some of the logistical complications that we had. And then we had a deli and a bakery that we acquired with this grocery store, which gave us the ability to now have this place called the Hubs Vine, which is very much a community center. It's a 7,000-foot event space where we serve lunch every day, but we do private events and private parties. We've had fundraisers, we've had weddings, proms, all sorts of things here because we had that kitchen and the equipment. And so it's been a really nice kind of upcycle, if you will, of a building that may have sat empty for a long time. So we were able to repurpose this space in a way that I think has become really nice. And I would like to continue building this out. I think there's a lot of opportunities for this to be a unique campus and kind of an oasis in our community, but it's gonna— it takes some time and investment, continued investment. Um, but it, uh, you know, we needed— if we got to that inflection point of a business, right, where you either sell or you expand, um, or you just slowly die, you know. And we were like, well, we're— I didn't move back to slowly die. I moved back here to kind of keep it rolling. And so, um, that's what we're trying to do right now.

And so I guess you must have like a real passion for peanuts and what you're building, right? Like, premium category seems to be like where you're at, your potential gifts, right? You're not like Planters peanuts or small and industrial, right? Like, tell me a bit more about the core of your business and your ideal customer persona. Who buys you? Is it like, do you also have corporate clients? Tell me a bit more.

Yeah, well, that you hit on it exactly. So we are not kind of your everyday commodity peanut that you'll find at every convenience store or every grocery market in the country. We are a premium or an ultra-premium product. We really want people that appreciate nicer things, like even the packaging. We have a key that goes on the can that opens the lid. The can itself is printed metal. It's not cardboard with paper labels that some people use. It's a nicer presentation. It goes into a gift box with a gift card. It's intended to be used for people that really appreciate the best quality products that there are, but also it's a nice touchpoint and an inexpensive gift. If you've got a list of 100 people or 1,000 people, clients, customers, whatever, we, we really do focus on making gifting to large accounts and large customers a priority. We try to streamline that for the customer as much as we can. We allow people to put their own company logo on the cans and we'll co-brand or private label for companies that want to use us as thank you gifts, appreciation gifts. And so that's kind of a, you know, our target audience really are people that appreciate, you know, top shelf quality. Products, but also those that want to gift a lot. And we can, we can do that very easily for large customers. But it's, it's also, you asked about peanuts being and having a passion for peanuts. This region of southeastern Virginia, the economy is very much tied to it, not just our brand, but you have the farmers that are, it's critically important for their livelihood. We have the shellers, the blanchers, and then we're a brand, but there are so many different people, the truckers, there's so many different people that depend on this crop. And it really does represent our region of the world well. You know, I think that people argue what region in the world produces the highest quality wines or the best oysters or the best hams. You know, every region has dipped those. But I think it is inarguable that Tidewater Virginia has the best peanuts and the best peanut brands on the planet. And I think that is something that we as a region really do embrace. And part of this festival that I've created is to, is to kind of help tell that story by bringing like nice chefs to you to incorporate our product into cuisine in ways that highlight the peanut. And so, Yeah, it's, we can do a lot, but it's, you know, our target audience and target market are definitely people that are okay to pay for a direct consumer kind of product, but also have clients or customers or friends that they gift. So it's, yeah, I would say, you know, it's not the commodity every day. It's not the least expensive product on the market. It's people that can appreciate finer things.

What have been your latest marketing initiatives? I saw, or I think we talked about, a PGA golfer not so long ago, athletes, right? Tell me a bit more about that.

Yeah, well, the golf and tennis space are perfect. Uh, they're the right target demographic. If you look at the brands that sponsor the PGA Tour or, or, or the tennis, right, you see you see Rolex and Mercedes and you see brands that have this feeling about them of kind of this ultra-premium, right? And so those sports are good demographics for us, but our product also is a super nutrient-rich plant-based protein that is full of protein, fiber, arginine, niacin, folate. It's good for diabetics. It, it's good for your heart, good for your brain. So it's, it's good, it's good functional food to fuel athletes on the golf course, on the tennis courts, in between, in between points, in between, you know, on the back nine when you need a little pick-me-up, eat a handful of Hubs and, uh, it keeps bogeys off your card, right? And so that, those, um, those markets make a lot of sense as a functional product that goes well while you're participating in them, but also while you're viewing them or enjoying them with a beverage, you know? So peanuts go well with signature cocktails at these events. And so if we can have a presence in the concessions or in the corporate suites, that is kind of an ideal spot for our brand. And that's, yeah, the golf space and Mark Hubbard, he's been wearing our logo on his left sleeve. He is just an awesome human who is a lot of fun to work with. And he has helped us kind of navigate some of the relationships in the golf space, 'cause it's tough and we're a really small business from a revenue perspective compared to all the brands that you see on the PGA Tour or WTA or any of these other outlets. But we're just, we know that we fit well, the quality of the product, how we represent Peanuts as kind of the ultra-premium space. But also, like I said, the functionality of the product for athletes or for spectators or whoever. So it's just been a good space. And so for me, it's really, you know, about connecting people through food, music, and sports. I think those are the things like enjoying food together, great cuisine, having our peanuts on menus at nice restaurants, sports, golf and tennis, and music. We work well at music festivals when you're grabbing a beer, you can get some peanuts and go, you know, watch your favorite artist play music. So, and those are things that connect us as humans. And ultimately, that's kind of what my whole philosophy is, is how do we connect with one another? And I feel like you can always find a connection through food, music, and sports, and art in some regard. So that's like kind of what the baseline of the marketing efforts are.

Well, I think that's your play, right? Because I'm on Amazon here and I see like competitors, quote unquote, and they are all at lower price points and they're playing the same game, right? Like pricing. Um, I think you need to absolutely go premium. My first, uh, business was B2C as well, was a supplement, right? And I, I vowed not to ever go back in B2C because it's low ticket, right? But if I would ever go back, I would go 100% premium and luxury, right? Like I think that's the play to go. It's a clientele that has money, right? The margins are larger. Yes, the orders are smaller, but you also can use this audience to promote your product and really position yourself. Plus they're like less gonna be the complaining type, right? They can gift it to clients and so forth. I really love the play here, and I think the installation investment that you made is exactly this, right? So love what you're up to. Um, is Amazon even the right platform for you? I guess so, because like there's a lot of premium folks hanging out there too, right?

Yeah, and, and ultimately we were reluctant to put our brand on Amazon, but when— but everybody goes to Amazon to search for products the way that we went to Google, or we now go to claw to search for information. And so you go to Amazon, you type in a product, and what we were seeing— this is before we went on to Amazon, 10 years or so ago— um, well, if you're looking— sorry, we don't have hubs, but if, you know, see this product— and that what we, what we saw was that people were getting introduced to our competitors that were searching on our brand. And so we're like, well, we need to have a small presence there. And right now you'll see that we only sell a 2-pack of a few different flavors. On our website we do single cans, we do 2-packs, 4-packs, 10-packs, 20-packs. So we just have a presence on Amazon, so we are seen. And it is like, you're, you know, whether you're ultra premium or, or price sensitive, everybody is still shopping on Amazon. And I think if people are willing to pay what it costs to have a nicer product, they will, you know. Um, so that is, that's, we're leaning into it. We're not afraid that we're the most expensive because we, we, we feel like we have the highest quality and We pay some— we pay people to put keys on the can. We pay people to put the gift message in the box. So we're— we pay people to answer the phones as opposed to automating everything. So we, we have— we want the customer experience to be premium throughout the entire process. And but that— so we can't be bashful about the price. We have to embrace it.

What about the chocolate-covered ones? Seems you're out of stock. Is it complex to manufacture these chocolate-covered ones? Uh, why are they out of stock? I'm sure they're very popular, but what, what does stop you from producing more today?

So what you'll, you'll see if you go directly to our website, we do offer a 4-pack that is shipped today using cold packs. Um, the standard chocolate-covered is out of stock basically March through October because it's really hot and they'll melt when we ship them.

Interesting.

But during the winter, during the holidays, when it's peak season for us, we ship a lot of them. And that's pretty much November through March. So we're very much a holiday gift for a lot of people. But we know that people love our chocolate-covered peanuts. So at least we have offered a 4-pack that will ship in the summertime. So we will, we do and will ship chocolate year-round now, but it is a little bit more expensive and you have to pay 2-day air. And one thing we've noticed is that nobody's complaining about spending a little bit more, more money because they want them. And so they're out of stock only as a non-ice pack option, right?

Right. No, I love that. Um, the packaging, uh, what percentage of the product cost is it? Is it 10%, 20%? Because it seems pretty premium. How much you pay for that fancy packaging?

Yeah, the packaging is very much an expense, right? So the packaging, the peanuts, the cook process, and then shipping, you know, that makes up the bulk of this D2C product. But there is a convenience factor. So yeah, packaging is gonna be more than 10%, honestly, because the can is a printed metal can. You've got a box, we've got a gift card, the key, you've got the outer case pack. So, um, packaging is, is definitely making up 30% of the cost because that's part of the experience, the unboxing of something, or the customization that we offer with that gift message. So you can send people individual gift messages, and that takes time for us to, to do, and and, uh, execute.

Love that. Um, the e-commerce pivot, when was it exactly, and are you still bullish on retail?

So we were— we've actually, uh, been a D2C brand since our inception. Before D2C was, um, thought of, my grandparents had a mail order business. And so once a year we would send catalogs out, and that's still what we do in the fall. We'll still send a catalog And interestingly enough, like some really old school customers will still like get an order form. Like these people are in their 80s and they'll, and they'll, they'll write an order and then send us a check. We still get some of that. But obviously, you know, that was one of the biggest things that happened in the '90s was the transition to e-com. And really early 2000s is when that took off. So we've been, we've been in that game. It was never a pivot for us. It's always just been you know, what our business model has been. And yeah, I think that I am going to continue to be bullish on it because as people become more and more accustomed to shipping products and the ease of it, the convenience of it, I think our target market is okay to spend a little bit more for the convenience of having something shipped directly to your house instead of having to go elsewhere to get it. And there is somewhat of an exclusivity about that that we need to maintain. We're a brand that we want you to be proud to have at your home when you have guests over. We're a brand that, you know, that goes well with your top-shelf bourbons or tequilas or whatever it is that you're enjoying or having at a dinner party. So yeah, I think D2C has been something we've done for over 70 years, and I think that we'll continue to lean on it.

What about retail? You spent some time at Whole Foods, uh, what percentage of your sales is it?

I did. I, I went and I worked at Whole Foods, um, 2012 to '14 to kind of learn the grocery business a little bit. And this was prior to the Amazon acquisition, and I really wanted to kind of get a better feel on what that was like because we, you know, we do have some retail partners that we love, mostly the mom-and-pop specialty markets. The gift markets are great for us, but we have— we're very proud to be a private label brand for Wegmans, which is a family-owned grocery business out of Rochester, New York. We work with The Fresh Market, which is an upscale specialty food market based in Greensboro, North Carolina. And we have a couple of other products like Orvis, and Orvis is a fly fishing and apparel company, but that's a great kind of demographic for us as well, and we're in their retail locations. So we have about 30% of our business is in wholesale markets where we work mostly though, that's still direct with those accounts. So we don't work with distributors as much. That's a little more challenging. You know, once you're working with distributors, yes, you get a lot of volume, but the margins are really, really thin. So we just happen to have a product that people want. And so they'll come to us and are okay to work directly with us, which we prefer because then we know who the customers are. Are, and we get to, you know, have that relationship, which is important to us. So yeah, I mean, we're about 30%, 35%, depending, wholesale as well. And, you know, Amazon— before the Amazon acquisition, I really loved the culture at Whole Foods. And that's one of the other things I wanted to learn. I needed— I wanted to go and work in a larger company so I could understand the workplace culture. I thought what John John Mackey was building from a Whole Foods, from a healthy planet, healthy community perspective. He wrote a book called Conscious Capitalism that I was really, that really resonated with me. And then they sold to Amazon, which is a little bit different than I think the original scope of what he was doing. But I still like really value his philosophies on that. And it resonated well with me. So I wanted to go and learn from that organization before coming back. To our business. So I was able to— I traveled a lot around the world, got a lot of different perspective, went and worked for a larger company that I respected and wanted to get to know that was relevant to our business. And then I came back to our business and have been trying to implement some of his original philosophies, honestly, into our culture. And so I'm really a believer in what he was building there at Whole Foods and have tried to implement a lot of those initiatives into Hubbert Peanut Company. Company.

I love it. Thanks for being on, Marshall. Where can people find out more about you?

Yeah, I mean, hubspeanuts.com is our website. We've got all sorts of information there. I'm Marshall at Hubs Peanuts. Uh, if anybody has any questions, uh, I'm on LinkedIn. Instagram is, um, @hubspeanuts. Facebook is Hubs Virginia Peanuts. So we're on all those channels, and I'd love to chat with you. And, and Charles, I really appreciate the opportunity to to chat with you. I'd love to learn more about your, your story and initiatives and endeavors as well. But, but thank you for, for the time and the opportunity.

My pleasure. So that was Marshall and Charles