A WALL Street man has left his high-paying job and poured his savings into a snack company which now makes over $100 million a year.
In 2011, Charles Coristine, 52, a former Morgan Stanley employee, decided to reinvent himself after feeling burnt out.
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He had spent almost 20 years on Wall Street and felt it was time to switch things up, per CNBC.
Amid his need for change, Coristine met the owner of the snack company LesserEvil which makes healthy and clean popcorn, cheese balls, puffs, and other snacks, per its website.
Coristine said he enjoyed the company’s name because it was “synchronistic” with a healthy lifestyle, he said, per the outlet.
In November 2011, the former finance man bought the healthy snack company for $250,000 plus a further payment of $100,000, according to documents seen by CNBC.
Though it seemed like the right move at first, he soon realized there were some downfalls.
Not only did he have no food industry experience, but the company was also losing money and bringing in less than $1 million in annual revenue, the company estimated.
However, over the last 13 years, Coristine has been able to turn the business around.
As CEO and president of the company, the annual gross sales in 2023 reached $103.3 million which includes $82.9 million in net sales.
He was also able to get the company’s product into major retailers and corner stores around the US, promoting the business.
“I didn’t know anyone in food … to ask whether I was crazy or not, but that’s probably good,” Coristine told CNBC.
“If I had done a lot of research and looked into it, I would have realized that the probability of success was pretty low.”
‘SCRAPPY’ REINVENTION
The company had a bumpy start when Coristine purchased it in 2011.
He decided to pursue an MBC at Cornell University Graduate School in 2012 and then started work as LesserEvil’s CEO.
When he first graduated, he decided his first step would be to hire a graduate school friend, Andrew Strife, as COO and CFO.
What is LesserEvil?
LesserEvil is a healthy popcorn and snack comany that started in Danbury, Conneticut in 2004
Former Morgan Stanley employee Charles Coristine bought the company in 2011. He is still the CEO and president.
LesserEvil is known for its clean, healthy snacks that range from popcorn to puffs, to corn rings, and more.
“We’re focused on being the best version of ourselves and contributing to a more wholesome world – beyond just snacks,” the company’s mission read.
“It wasn’t always easy, but our mission was always clear: use the company to build our people, minimize our footprint, and delight our customers with clean, organic snacks at a great value.”
They worked out of the company’s office in Wilton, Connecticut — 34 miles west of New Haven — to entirely rebrand LesserEvil’ and get it back on its feet.
Coristine had poured his savings into the business and once it ran out, the team raised money and they were able to get more financing from the bank.
With their newfound case, the business moved to a 5,000-square-foot factory in Danbury in 2012.
They then filled it with equipment they bought at auctions.
“Everything was scrappy and needed to be reinvented as we went along,” Strife told the outlet.
The team befriended welders who helped put popcorn shoots onto the machinery, Strife recalled.
They also painted the factory black with a yellow LesserEvil logo.
Coristine said some drivers pulled up to the factory and asked, “Is this a strip club?”
CHANGING THE RECIPE
In 2014, they expanded even further, adding 2,000 square feet and a production line to the factory.
The same year, Coristine’s nutritionist suggested a change to their healthy snack recipe.
They told the CEO to use coconut oil to pop the popcorn, however, this suggestion had Coristine skeptical about freshness so he self-tested the recipe.
“We put it on the top of a fridge, which gets really hot [and left it for] for three months,” he said.
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After the experimental period, he found that the oil stayed fresh and he liked the taste.
The suggestion launched a new logo and product called the Buddha Bowl which brought in about $2 million in 2014, per the company.
After Kroger started to stock LesserEvil in 2015, the company was able to move into a massive 20,000-square-foot space by 2017, Strife said.
In 2018, the company received about $3 million in funding from sustainable food and agriculture investment firm InvestEco.
The money allowed the team to add production lines to the new factory and update the packaging again so each product has its own guru.
After owning the company for eight years, Coristine was able to start paying himself a salary that year.
‘DOESN’T FEEL LIKE WORK’
LesserEvil continues to flourish under Coristine’s guidance.
As of the first half of 2024, the company brought in $62 million in new sales, per the outlet.
The company has grown to 280 employees and the CEO hopes to keep that number growing and launch new healthy products.
He also said he wants LessEvil to “be a brand that could be around for a long time.”
Coristine said he was much happier since leaving the stress of Wall Street.
“It feels joyous, so it doesn’t feel like work,” he said, talking about LesserEvil.
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