Business Spotlight: Four team up with Shirley’s Gourmet Popcorn Company

The Royal Connections Business Spotlight is a monthly feature about businesses owned by EMU alumni featured in the university’s  interactive business directory.

On a prominent corner in downtown Harrisonburg, with lovely smells wafting out to attract customers, stands Shirley’s Gourmet Popcorn Company. All four co-owners have strong ties to Eastern Mennonite University: Wayne Witmer and his wife Luisa Showalter Witmer are 1988 and 1989 graduates respectively, while Lisa Roeschley earned her MA in Education in 2001 and husband Rob was a faculty member from 1993-2008.

The business is also managed by Melody Kratz Riddle ’98 and includes among its 15 other employees several current EMU students, including the Roeschley’s son Eli, a first-year, as well as classmate Andrea Troyer, sophomore Wyatt Bollinger, juniors Josh Holsapple and Colin Longenecker, and senior Tunika Akpala.

The Harrisonburg store won the Franchise of the Year award at the annual Shirley’s PopCon gathering in July 2018.

In the works at the Harrisonburg location is an expanded fundraiser program, which helps area church groups, clubs, sports teams and other organizations to reach fundraising goals. The business is also engaging in corporate marketing.

“Our popcorn is a fun, tasty and unique way of recognizing clients, vendors and employees who make sales goals,” Lisa Roeschley said. “We can work with you in the store to create a personalized assortment that will please just about anyone.”

The first Shirley’s Popcorn store got its start in 2009 in Bluffton, Ohio, under the ownership of Bluffton University graduates Pete and Kim Suter. Both Rob and Lisa are also Bluffton graduates (1988 and 1989, respectively).

Harrisonburg became the sixth location in August 2016.

Just as the Bluffton store—and its owners—inspired the founding of the Harrisonburg location, the Harrisonburg location—and its owners—did the same for the seventh store.

 Kate Steury Leaman ’14 and her husband Jonathan ‘13 were living in Harrisonburg when they attended the grand opening of Shirley’s. They eventually moved back to Kate’s hometown in Goshen, Indiana, to open the newest store.

How did you become a business owner?

The vision for a Shirley’s in Harrisonburg started with the Roeschleys, who often visited Bluffton. They began a tradition of going to the store to purchase popcorn before hitting the road back to Harrisonburg.

Knowing that Shirley’s had expanded to other locations in Ohio, Rob somewhat jokingly suggested to Lisa that they open a Shirley’s in Harrisonburg. As talks became more serious, Rob met with Wayne, the president of Harman Construction, to discuss build-out costs at the prospective downtown location. As Wayne began to learn more about the endeavor, he asked Rob if business partners might be part of the equation. Suddenly, some concerns about opening a small business were lessened by the possibility of partnership, Rob said.

The two couples then took a quick trip to Ohio to visit a couple of Shirley’s stores, and realized that they had common perspectives on life, faith and business goals. The rest is history, as it is often said, but Lisa says they look back through the process and see how God’s hand was involved from the start.

“Wayne’s business experience and expertise have been invaluable, as is the commitment of Luisa,” Rob said. “Having another couple as business partners strengthened the benefits of additional emotional, financial and spiritual support. It truly has given us better life balance because as owners, we rely on each other to provide leadership to the store when it’s time to be away for family events or vacations.”

How did your EMU education impact your choice of career and choice of business?

Wayne was a business major and Luisa’s degree was in special education. Their EMU experience helped shape perspectives on serving people through whatever God chooses for them to do. Wayne ended up in leadership at Harman Construction and feels that EMU helped him to form his philosophy that a business deal is only good if both sides benefit.

The Shirley’s model includes a great emphasis on building relationships, exceeding people’s expectations and providing “pure happiness” with the product. These are also practices which fit nicely with the values emphasized by EMU.

How do your values affect your business practice?

The Witmers and Roeschleys share the perspective that you do what is right by the customer, even when it hurts. “Popcorn can be a fickle snack and it doesn’t always pop the same way,” Rob said. “Sometimes instead of allowing customers to eat the popcorn, it simply has to be thrown out because the quality does not meet the standard.”

Maintaining a high standard of quality is essential, Wayne said. “There are times when we must ‘eat’ the cost of throwing out a batch. However, we believe that if we consistently meet the three emphases of building relationships, exceeding expectations and providing happiness, then the word will spread.”

What are some of your best business insights?

• Be completely honest with your employees, your customers and yourself. The quickest path to failure is to be a person who can’t be trusted.
• Empower employees to do their job without too much interference. Unleash their potential.
• Know your costs and your margins and have good reporting systems. You cannot operate effectively if you don’t understand your numbers.
• Understand why and how what you do brings value to your community. If you can’t answer that question satisfactorily, then do something else.