enterprising women
І STUMM SISTERS
The Girls of Swirl—Courtney, Celie and Sibyl Stumm Pinkberry Yogurt
Sophisticated Woman | October 2012
WRITTEN BY AMY BOUTON
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FOR THE STUMM SISTERS—Courtney, Celie and Sibyl—their collective passion since as far back as they can remember consists of three things; family, friends and food. “We have always had fun together as a family,” Courtney says. “We ate dinner around the table as a family every night, and our parents encouraged us to try whatever we wanted to try, they did not force us down any certain path.” In their current business endeavor, the award-winning Pinkberry Yogurt, the impact of their cohesive, positive upbringing is pervasive on every level. “Our mission every day at Pinkberry is to refresh everyone,” Celie notes. “We want to reset someone’s day and surprise and delight them when they come into one of our stores.” The women recall as teens enjoying yogurt near their uptown home nearly every day after school. “We had a yogurt club,” Courtney remembers. “We made such great memories.” As adults, the girls still loved to grab yogurt on occasion with their parents, but their favorite uptown shop was a casualty of Hurricane Katrina. One evening they found themselves having to drive out to Metairie for yogurt, and that is when they decided it was time to bring their favorite dessert back to their own neighborhood. “We immediately thought, ‘Why not make something happen here?’” Celie recalled a wonderful yogurt she’d had on a recent trip to
Los Angeles, and she was determined to introduce her family to the product she loved so much. At the time, Pinkberry was just beginning to franchise, but in much bigger markets than New Orleans. Determined to introduce her family to the flavors she could not forget, she led the rest of the Stumms to New York to try it out. “We were literally on our way to Pinkberry in New York when Pinkberry executives called to invite us out to Los Angeles to discuss a New Orleans location. In the end, we were the second new market to open outside of New York and Los Angeles.” With a product they all believed in and a partnership with a company whose values were in sync with their own, the first Pinkberry location in New Orleans was opened in April of 2010. “We wanted to bring a worthy product to our hometown,” Celie says. “We knew that bringing in an outside product was a risk, and still we believe so much in this one, we felt we could not pass up the opportunity to share it. In short, if we did not do Pinkberry, we were not going to do frozen yogurt.” With additional locations now on Canal Street, their most recent here on the Northshore, and one slated to open in Harahan, the sisters are fully immersed in the metropolitan area. “We are local, and we are out in the community every day where we strive to be a partner,” Sibyl says. “What we enjoy most is enjoying our city and spending time