"We had some differences of opinion - all by me," he says.
Then, browsing in a water bed store at 17th and Walnut in 1971, he heard about a pretzel-making company that was in bankruptcy. He bought it for $72,100. Then, the business had been making $400,000 in annual sales, Shreiber says. "We're $600 million now."
Behind the Shreiber mystique: Since going public in 1986, J&J Snack Foods has made Forbes magazine's list of the "200 Best Small Companies" seven times. Its 36-year growth streak is amazing on its face - and even more amazing when you consider that Shreiber's company put up great numbers even at the height of the low-carb craze.
His secret? "I always had a decent work ethic," he says, "which is a gift."
Understatement of the century:
To say that Shrieber works hard is like saying that Donald Trump is somewhat ambitious. And Shreiber expects the same drive from his management team, which he grooms to run "not quite with a military precision," he says, "but maybe with a military gung-ho attitude that we can't, and won't, lose."
For instance: In the Pennsauken pretzel factory, there's an assembly line of dough-handling equipment known as "the dream line" because employees said the boss must be dreaming when he asked them to double the line's speed while halving the number of workers overseeing the machinery. Eventually, they pulled it off by installing electronic eyes to synchronize the works.
"Needless to say, I drive people," Shreiber says. "We had to go through the carbs thing. Now there is no carbs issue. I gotta drive my people harder so they don't lay down and relax."
