Ruler Of The Republic

BOB SUTHERLAND IS ALL ABOUT MICHIGAN

Feb. 19, 2016

Bob Sutherland, founder and CEO of Glen Arbor–based Cherry Republic, knows a thing or two about the great state of Michigan. He and his retail company have been selling cherry-related products for almost thirty years.

So for this, Northern Express’ "Made In Michigan" issue, we sat down with him to talk cherries, giving back, and the Mitten State.

Express: How and when did you start all this?

Sutherland: I started selling t-shirts in 1989, but really I started doing business when I was seven years old. I was selling Petoskey stones and had a little store. And that evolved into cherries and more. From the beginning I was selling to the tourists who visited.

Express: And what drove a seven-year-old to grow a business? Money?

Sutherland: I think more than anything I saw it as a creative expression. It was stuff I liked doing and clothes I liked to wear so I thought other people might. Then the food products"¦it really became like a quest to capture the essence of northern Michigan and in my own style, the style I saw from growing up here.

Express: And what about today?

Sutherland: And today we have four stores and at Christmas over 300 employees. Last year we grew 15 percent.

Express: You mentioned the "essence of northern Michigan." How important is Michigan to this brand and company you’ve built? Could Cherry Republic just as easily be a California company?

Sutherland: We have lots of conversations about that. Last year we were really close to doing store in Chicago but we nixed it because it just didn’t feel right. And we haven’t finished our plan in Michigan yet, so we’re not ready to jump. And I think there’s something special about Cherry Republic here. You have to come here to get our products; it makes our region unique. It’s not the same when it’s all the same stores and restaurants you can find anywhere. That’s one of the things we’ve done well in northern Michigan. We’ve created a unique culture partly with local foods. We feel like a part of that.

Express: What Michigan or northern Michigan brands do you admire and why?

Sutherland: Man I do"¦I admire American Spoon for how they have such a strong focus and great quality and name. How well they speak to their customers. I look at the entrepreneurialism of Black Star Farms and how they do so well with partnerships. Shorts, which for so long just said, "we’re not going any farther"¦. We just want to be great in Michigan. They’ve become a strong identity for Michigan breweries. Shinola is fun because we’re never in Michigan going to build things as cheap as others but we can sure build them better. They make me look at how there’s an opportunity to have "made in Michigan" to be known as super quality. Our future is that we’d like to make more things ourselves here. We’re finally getting our salsa- and jam-making settled where we can go and make the next thing. Might be candy or chocolate coverings. It would be fun to even one day sew our own clothes, all Michigan made.

Express: How important is giving back to you and to the company? Many people know that you give back one percent of all your sales to regional causes.

Sutherland: Gosh it’s just at our roots. Our number one value is "life, liberty, beaches and pie," and the pie stands for generosity. When someone comes to visit there’s that symbol of pie"¦we’re going to give you a slice of pie and treat you like family. And when you come into our stores you see generous samples and free gift boxes and cards. And then the next level of how much can you give back to the community. That’s personal. I look at how much Michigan has done for me and how it raised me. I just want to give back to see that we’re raising our kids in an even better environment. I look at the Heritage Trail here and other things we’ve done to make the region even more livable and have an even stronger quality of life. It feels good to know that when we make a dollar, almost all of that stays right here in Michigan, from our box company to the farmers to the factory employees. That’s what I love all these specialty food companies making things here. It’s so good when people support them. It doesn’t have to be just us; they’re all great. And that’s what we’re all trying to do. To create an economy that can stand alone.