A Tribute To Mothers - May 9, 2010 - Segment Two

Callers Karen Caplan and her sister, Jackie Caplan Wiggins, talk about lessons learned working with their mother at the company she founded, Freida’s. Freida’s is a produce company that markets and distributes unusual fruits and vegetables to supermarkets and food service distributors across the United States, and they were also the produce company who originated bringing kiwi fruit to the US. Jackie started at the company in 1983, and although she worked summers and winters growing up, she had no intention of going into the family business when she went off to college. However, it proved to be a natural evolution for Jackie because it was something she loved doing, and when she came to work for the company, it came as a surprise to her family. On the other hand, Karen got her start in 1977, well before Jackie was with the company. Karen worked with her mom, Freida, for over 30 years, but the biggest challenge for her early on was making sure that her mom got credit for everything that she did. The three women work together everyday and can all bounce ideas off each other, having no problem with one person making a suggestion to make another person’s idea better. As Jackie notes, one of the things they’ve always tried to do is keep business at business and personal at home. By not mixing the two in their day-to-day, it allows them to be much stronger as business owners, and when they’re home, they’re still family.

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