Latest news with #Build-a-Bear
Yahoo
28-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Build-A-Bear's CEO started her career working at a McDonald's drive-thru. Now she leads a $486 million toy empire
Your local McDonald's could be an incubator for the next generation of C-suite executives. Billionaire Amazon founder Jeff Bezos famously credits his teenage experience flipping burgers as a short-order line cook in the 1980s with instilling many of the management lessons he's still serving up across his businesses today. He's not alone. From former Vice President Kamala Harris to playwright Lin-Manuel Miranda to pop icon Pink, an estimated one in eight Americans have worked at McDonald's in their lifetime, according to the fast-food chain. And Build-a-Bear Workshop chief executive Sharon Price John is part of that figure. As a teenager in Tennessee, she fondly recalls her time behind the drive-thru window coordinating orders and hand delivering burgers and french fries to customers. 'I was a master, and I loved it because I had the headphones,' John tells Fortune. 'So in the drive-thru, you get to order everybody around, so that was definitely about my speed.' After her stint at McDonald's, the future executive tested out a variety of jobs in her hometown of Fayetteville, honing her floral arrangement skills at a local florist, selling tickets at a theater, waitressing at a restaurant, and more. '[I] learned a lot that I still use to this day, believe it or not,' she says. Her hustle continued after college as a young University of Tennessee graduate eyeing a prestigious ad agency job in New York City. John told Fortune that in order to net her big break, she dedicated a week of vacation time from her ad agency job in Knoxville to fly to Manhattan and schedule 15 interviews–three per day–with top agencies. John booked one final interview on the Friday of that week with ad titan DDB Needham–and was offered the job on the spot. 'There's a lesson in there about how beneficial it is sometimes to not know your odds,' she says. 'When you don't know that your odds are ridiculously impossible, you believe in the possibility, and with that very belief, you actually tip your odds in your own favor.' For John, the odds have been good. Now, a toy industry veteran, the 61-year-old worked her way up the corporate ladder with stints at Mattel and Hasbro before she accepted the top position at one of the most iconic plush toy brands: Build-a-Bear. When John arrived at the retailer in 2013, she was immediately tasked with a tall order: Maneuvering a $49 million profit loss after the retail apocalypse of the 2010s killed Build-a-Bear's brick-and-mortar business. 'The world had changed leading up to me coming in 2013, and there really wasn't a going back,' John told Fortune. Orchestrating a massive turnaround wasn't new to John. After netting a role working on the Barbie brand for Mattel, John was offered the opportunity to move to Paris in the '90s. 'I was literally sent over there with no budget, no people, no plan,' John recalls. 'You kind of learn how to bootstrap under those circumstances.' John applied this mindset to Build-a-Bear, writing in the company's 2013 annual report that her top goals included optimizing the company's real estate, resetting the consumer value equation, and rationalizing expenses. It paid off. In 2015, just two years into her journey, Build-a-Bear recorded $377.7 million in revenue, according to financial filings. A BMO Capital Markets toy analyst even hailed John's leadership as 'a breath of fresh air' after the company's stock price rose 220% between the fiscal years of 2013-2015, and proclaimed she achieved 'the holy grail of retail.' Over her decade of leadership, John has built up the business by targeting teens and adults, demographics that Build-a-Bear says now make up 40% of its customers. The company has tried to tap into nostalgia with plush toys collaborations with Pokémon, Harry Potter, and the new Wicked movie, and has introduced an online store–the Bear Cave–that only customers aged 18 and up can access. In March, Build-a-Bear reported its fourth year of consecutive growth with $496.4 million in revenue. But there may be trouble on the horizon with impending tariff increases from the Trump administration. During a fourth-quarter earnings call, the company said it is monitoring the current geopolitical climate, but still has high expectations for its 2025 revenue. 'While we acknowledge some uncertainty, we believe we have the plans in place to again deliver record revenue and solid profits for the coming year,' John told investors. Through the company's ebbs and flows, John is still enthusiastic about 'learning and leaning in,' something she credits as crucial to her success as a CEO. To show her appreciation for colleagues, John carves out an hour of her schedule every Friday to write thank-you notes, a practice she believes 'helps the momentum' of her business. 'It only takes a few seconds to text somebody,' John tells Fortune. John emphasizes that future leaders should hold themselves accountable, too. 'There is a complete misnomer that everything you do must be perfect for you to excel, and that is not the case,' John says. 'Hold yourself accountable to doing a good job and being present and in the moment.' This story was originally featured on
Yahoo
04-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Pittsburgh Pirates Home Opener: What you need to know
Pittsburgh Pirates Home Opener: What you need to know It's always a special day in Pittsburgh when baseball is back! The Pirates are just hours away from being back in play for the 25th year at PNC Park against the New York Yankees. And there are some big changes fans will see this year. Advertisement From scoreboard upgrades to reimagining the riverwalk experience in the outfield to upgrading the concourse. There are also new food experiences, including Polish cannonballs, a burnt almond torte and a fried chicken sandwich on a croissant. Fans will also notice a new and improved team store, featuring more throwback clothing, and for the kids, a Build-a-Bear pirate parrot. Officials with the Pirates say it's a great opportunity for the fans. 'The goal is to have a connection and a connection with the fan. To have an experience they remember and that's heartwarming to them,' said Terry Walcutt, General Manager of Fanatics. Advertisement Some things to keep in mind if you're coming down today: The game starts at 4:12 p.m. Fans will be able to enter PNC Park at 2 p.m. with the pregame scheduled to begin at 3:35 p.m. If you get there early, a block party on Federal Street starts at 1 p.m. The ceremonial first pitch will be thrown out by Pittsburgh native, Marc Fogel, who was welcomed back to the U.S. in February after being detained in a Russian prison. Download the FREE WPXI News app for breaking news alerts. Follow Channel 11 News on Facebook and Twitter. | Watch WPXI NOW
Yahoo
27-01-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
6 Cheap Stocks with Great Five-Year Returns
January 27, 2024 (Maple Hill Syndicate) For years, my mentor, David Dreman (Trades, Portfolio), invested in Westinghouse Electric Co. The stock was cheap, often selling for about nine times the company's per-share earnings. The stock price marched up nicely, yet the stock stayed cheap, because earnings were rising as fast as the stock price. That's a value investor's dream. Today, Westinghouse is in the dust bin of history, and Dreman is mostly retired. But I long to find today's version of what I call the Westinghouse Effect. Here are a few possible candidates. These six stocks are relatively cheap, and have achieved total returns of more than 500% over the five years through January 23. Core Natural Core Natural Resources Inc. (NYSE:CNR), a coal company of all things, has returned 951% over the past five years. Core was formed January 15 of this year by the merger of Consol Energy Inc. and Arch Resources Inc. The 951% figure cited above is for shareholders who originally held Consol. Arch shareholders didn't do badly either: They got between a double and a triple. The great investor Charlie Munger once said that value investors run the risk of holding a melting ice cube. You can make an argument that coal companies are just that. My view is different. Although coal is a highly polluting fuel, it is an important one, and probably for the next decade a necessary one. I like Core's balance sheet. It has more than two dollars in cash for every dollar of debt. Debt is only 13% of the company's net worth. The stock sells for seven times earnings. Build-a-Bear Maybe your young kids had a birthday party sometimes at Build-a-Bear, a store where they can choose a stuffed animal, fill it at a stuffing machine, and buy clothes for it too. Five years ago, Build-a-Bear was in tough shape, and bankruptcy rumors flew. The pandemic had hit the company hard. People stopped going to malls, and all 400 of its stores were closed for a while. Yet, Build-a-Bear Workshop Inc. (NYSE:BBW) has achieved a five-year return of 817%. It's an example of the wisdom in mutual-fund legend John Templeton's admonition to buy at the point of maximum pain. Dillard's Who says department stores are dinosaurs? You can't prove it by Dillard's Inc. (NYSE:DDS). Its shares have provided a 752% return in the past five years, when most department-store stocks have been flat to down. About a month ago, Fortune magazine ran a feature on the company by Phil Wahba, which pointed out that Dillard's stock has beaten Tesla, Apple and Microsoft over the past four years. He called the chain old fashioned, but noted that service is good and the stores intelligently located. The company's service territory is the South and Southwest, the faster-growing part of the U.S. I've recommended the stock several times in this column over the years. Cooper Group Mr. Cooper Group Inc. (NASDAQ:COOP) is a mortgage lender and mortgage servicer based in Coppell, Texas. Its five year return: 684%. It's the largest mortgage servicer in the U.S., and that's significant because income from servicing is steadier than that from mortgage origination. The company had a major breach in 2023. Hackers stole personal information on some 15 million customers, including Social Security numbers and bank account numbers. Litigation stemming from the breach is still in progress. Nonetheless, six of the eight analysts who follow the stock recommend it. Abercrombie & Fitch Up 632% in the past five years is Abercrombie & Fitch Co. (NYSE:ANF), which sells clothing to teens and young adults. It's shown a profit in 14 of the past 15 years (the exception being pandemic-scarred fiscal 2021). Revenue and earnings growth has accelerated lately. Profit margins have usually been slender (as is typical of clothing retailers) but have improved lately. I like the stock, and have recommended it in this column several times. Riley Exploration The smallest stock I'll discuss today is Riley Exploration Permian Inc. (REPX). As its name suggests, it produces oil and gas in west Texas and eastern New Mexico, home of the Permian Basin. It has very little revenue until 2021, but now is up to $407 million revenue in the past four quarters. The stock chart shows a jagged pattern, with a five-year return of 512%. I'd consider the stock speculative. But I like the valuation, which is six times recent earnings and less than five times estimated earnings for 2025. Disclosure: I currently have no positions in the stocks discussed today, personally or for clients. John Dorfman is chairman of Dorfman Value Investments in Boston, Massachusetts. His firm or clients may own or trade the stocks discussed here. He can be reached at jdorfman@ This article first appeared on GuruFocus.
