Creating a hit of her own - Paul Newman's daughter Nell Newman starts organic-foods division of Newman's Own Inc

Nation's Business, Dec, 1994 by Sharon Nelton

"I can't stay away from these damn things. They're very good."

So said one of my colleagues as he reached for yet another handful of the pretzels I had put out on the table outside my door. He was not alone. Other coworkers, helping themselves again and again, said the pretzels were "really crunchy" or "toasty" or "not too salty."

In other words, these pretzels were a big hit. Not bad for the second-generation family-business member who had to fight her famous dad--actor Paul Newman--to get them made. Like many a family-business father, he was resistant to a suggestion made by one of his offspring. Paul Newman is the co-founder and partner in Newman's Own, a company that makes salad dressings, pasta sauce, and salsa.

Four years ago, as Nell Newman recounts it, her father asked her during a telephone conversation if she had any ideas for new products. When she suggested he get into organic foods, she says, "he just grumbled on the other end of the phone." His impression was that such foods, which contain ingredients grown without artificial fertilizers or pesticides, didn't taste good.

Nell, who lives in California, set out to convince him otherwise. Not long after, when she went to her family's home in Connecticut for Thanksgiving, she prepared the traditional turkey dinner with all the trimmings. Unknown to Dad, however, all of the ingredients were organic. "When he finished wiping his plate clean, I said, 'So what did you think of your organic Thanksgiving dinner?'"

He liked it so much that he gave her the go-ahead to start a new division, Newman's Own Organics--The Second Generation. Nell, who had been working as a fund-raiser for a nonprofit environmental group, enlisted a friend, Peter Meehan, a former business owner, as her partner. They decided on pretzels as their first product because the pretzel market was burgeoning and because, Nell says, "Dad's a pretzel 'nut,' and I was raised on them." All of Newman's Own products, she says, "are ones that Dad enjoys."

Nell, who learned to cook under the tutelage of her mother, actress Joanne Woodward, formulated the recipe for the pretzels, and she and Meehan found a small Pennsylvania manufacturer to produce them with organic ingredients.

Introduced last year, the pretzels--salted and unsalted--are now sold throughout the country in natural-food stores and in such chains as Fresh Fields. Nell's younger sister, Melissa, also got into the act--designing the pretzels' packaging, which features a photograph of Nell and her dad in an "American Gothic" pose. The pitchfork-holding actor is identified as "Pa."

Nell, 35, expects her division to turn a profit soon and is working on developing new products. Following the tradition of Newman's Own, all after-tax profits from the organics division will go to charity. Since 1982, Newman's Own has donated more than $56 million to charitable causes.

That Nell's venture will generate hefty profits seems a good bet. As one of my co-workers asked, "How can we get these pretzels shipped in by the case?"

Sometimes it pays to listen to the kid. Just ask Paul Newman.