Behind the Success Series: Andrew Herr

2075 Lookout Drive,North Mankato MN 56003

18 January, 2023

Description

Risk. Reward. Failures. Successes. All words to describe entrepreneurs. The road to fulfilling vision and dreams is rarely smooth. Some are out there waiting, not knowing how to even get started. While others have taken the leap but aren’t sure now just exactly how to land. One can read books or Google some answers. Or we could get it right from the horse’s…or in this case entrepreneur’s…mouth. Join us for “Behind the Success”- Lessons learned from entrepreneurs. Lisa Cownie will facilitate in-depth conversations with some of our region’s leading entrepreneurs, who will tell you success comes from lessons they have had to learn. Free with registration, but seats are limited. Presented by the South-Central Small Business Development Center Sponsored by Connect Business Magazine and Pioneer Bank Andrew Herr Executive at Taylor Holdings Andrew started his career as in intern at one of Glen Taylor’s food and agriculture companies. During his time as an intern, Andrew wrote a business plan creating a pet food ingredient company. The thesis was simple: baby boomers are going to become empty nesters and the most logical addition to the family will be a pet. Andrew and a few team members founded Rembrandt Petcare in January of 2007. The early years were tough but the team worked together and developed a sustainable and repeatable business. From 2007 to 2013, the company launched a number of innovative products that changed the way branding, marketing, innovation and R&D teams thought about formulating and designing pet food products. In 2014, Rembrandt Petcare merged with American Dehydrated Foods to form IsoNova. IsoNova changed the size and scale of the Rembrandt Petcare startup. Sales were now in excess of $100M and the company expanded to 13 locations. Their mission remained the same, but the vehicle was much larger. Over the next five years Andrew and team integrated International Dehydrated Foods, a food ingredient technology company, and a few other business partners. In 2019, Andrew and team took the rolled-up business to market. The goal was to find a partner that could take the technologies and talents of the team into international markets. Symrise A.G. quickly became the natural fit and the business was sold in October of 2019. Andrew stayed as an advisor but admittedly he is not a “big company” guy. He preferred to give way to his very talented team and the very talented people of Symrise. Andrew is very proud that four people from his team now hold global or general manager titles within Symrise. Excited to see its vision expanding across the globe, Andrew maintains close contact with the business. After the completion of the sale, Andrew and his wife Sara moved to Mankato with their three children. Andrew is now an executive at Taylor Holdings and has the pleasure of working with Glen Taylor on a daily basis. Glen is teaching Andrew how to transition from CEO to an investor in entrepreneurs. Andrew leads a small team that is focused on expanding Glen’s portfolio into new private markets.