Roanoke College
Stephanie Stuckey
Pecan logs and an iconic brand: pivoting from law to manufacturing at mid-career By Gene Marrano “When an opportunity comes your way take it – providing you have the passion,” says Stephanie Stuckey. You may remember traveling by car across country, stopping at those roadside shops with the turquoise roofs – Stuckey’s. Home of the famous pecan log rolls and other pecan delights. Most of those stores are gone now but Stuckey’s lives on and in fact is making a comeback with a repurposing of how it goes to market. It’s a story about losing control of a family legacy, gaining it back and then moving ahead. It's also the story of Stephanie Stuckey, who bought back the company started by her grandfather W.S. Stuckey Senior in 1937 in Eastman, Georgia, and sold in 1964. Eventually the Stuckey’s roadside oasis chain grew to over 350 stores before going into decline. Then the family bought it back and Stephanie Stuckey is leading the charge. She told her story recently at Roanoke College. “A Journey in Entrepreneurial Innovation: Stuckey’s Leadership – Then and Now.” The Pi Lambda Phi fraternity and the college’s Center for Leadership and Entrepreneurial Innovation sponsored the event.
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Stephanie became the CEO of Stuckey’s after purchasing it in 2019, when “it was six figures in debt at that point and a complete dumpster fire,” she chuckles. The remaining 13 original Stuckey’s locations are not owned by the family but operate under a licensing deal. 68 stores in all operate that way, most a store within a convenience store that also sell Stuckey’s products by paying what she calls a modest fee. Still, it left the company in debt. Her goal: “to completely reinvent how we’re going to drive revenue and gross [sales] for this company.” Learning how to pivot – a big buzz word nowadays. Stephanie Stuckey didn’t set out to ride her family’s coattails. She received undergraduate and law degrees at the University of Georgia. Stuckey was a trial lawyer, was elected to seven terms as a Georgia State Representative, ran an environmental non-profit law firm, was Director of Sustainability for the City of Atlanta and taught law at her alma mater.