Kevin Manion specializes in swooping in with new ideas and plenty of energy for his employer, whether it’s a distributor of wine and spirits, investment firm, produce grower or a national snacks brand.
“Having experience in other industries has been invaluable, as good ideas in one industry can be brilliant ideas in other industries,” said Manion, who is chief financial officer at Tustin-based wine and liquor distributor Young’s Market Co. “Plagiarism is often a good thing. That’s why I enjoy meeting other CFOs at the [Business Journal’s CFO of the Year Awards] dinner.”
Manion’s accomplishments over his 34-year career were recognized at the Jan. 28 event with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Hotel Irvine Jamboree Center. He kept the crowd of 800 laughing during his acceptance speech, but his work philosophy is to be more of a listener than a talker.
“As a numbers-based guy, I find that if I keep the relationship of one mouth and two ears in place, I can learn a great deal about nuances of our business,” Manion said. “The more people I [listened] to throughout the organization, the better ideas have bubbled up to the top. Therefore, we can do things that have much better results for the company, whether it’s one of our drivers or one of our merchandisers. Those people see a lot more things than I would ever see. You have to have an environment where they are comfortable to say, ‘Hey Kevin, let’s talk about this.’ ”
$3 Billion
Young’s Market is ranked No. 6 among private companies based in OC, with more than $3 billion in revenue from some 500 clients whose merchandise gets delivered throughout the Western U.S. It has about 450 employees here out of 2,450 companywide.
Manion joined the company in 2011. His accomplishments so far include updating an estate plan for the Underwood family, owners of the company, and making various moves to improve cash flow. Young’s has also trimmed interest costs by restructuring debt. Manion has played key roles in several other initiatives, including the acquisition of one business line; the launch of a startup; and the integration of a joint venture into existing infrastructure.
“As the CFO at Young’s, I spend a great deal of time with our CEO on both operational and strategic initiatives,” he said. “[Chris Underwood] is a terrific CEO because of his high level of curiosity, which forces me to stay abreast of all of our operational activities. Our culture at Young’s is ideal for cross-pollination of ideas. Because of my broad background, my day can range from working on expanding our distribution network, creating the next generation of tools for our delivery drivers to … working with our small suppliers on financial liquidity issues.”
Baseball
Manion’s journey up the financial industry ladder was not a straight shot.
“I played minor league professional baseball for one summer and saw that wasn’t for me,” he said. “It amounted to nothing.”
Baseball did, however, help him get a free ride to the University of Notre Dame in Indiana, where he earned a degree in accounting.
He started his career at accounting firm Arthur Andersen & Co., where he managed initial public offerings for privately held businesses. His next major step was joining Nestle USA, where he worked for five years, with the last two spent as head of finance of its Nestlé Water Company-Arrowhead/Poland Spring division in Greenwich, Conn.
Manion, after leaving Nestle in 1995, acquired Aimcor as a leveraged buyout with his friends from Arthur Andersen. The chemical distribution business had $500 million in revenues during his tenure as a CFO and co-owner. They sold it to Walter Industries Inc. for $425 million in 1998.
“We borrowed $100 million and [bought the] business, which we were able to grow nicely and quickly,” he said. “It turned out to be a good investment for all of us, and I was able to meet most of the protagonists from ‘Barbarians at the Gate’ during our sales process. … It was a very unique experience, as the exit transaction was now about my friends and I as individuals, rather (than) as an employee of some larger entity.”
Manion then joined Jay Walker, “a brilliant product idea guy” who co-founded Priceline.com, a company that sells remnant seats on airplanes, and NewSub Magazine Services LLC, which used the extra space on credit card bills to sell subscriptions to magazines.
New Sub
Manion took on numerous roles at NewSub, including chief financial officer, chief administrative officer and shareholder, but his specific duty as the company’s first CFO was to start an IPO process. The magazine subscription marketer was eventually sold to Time Inc. for $500 million.
“Both companies were very successful and provided a great return to the shareholders and management team,” he said.
In 2000, Manion moved on to EBS Dealing Resources Inc., an online foreign exchange trading platform with revenue of $250 million. His job duties as CFO required him to commute to London from New York every other week. His team was able to develop a large supplier base, double the earnings, and sell the business to Icap PLC for $865 million.
The Sept. 11 terrorist attacks helped steer his career path westward—he was across the street from Ground Zero during the attack.
“I was fortunate to survive, which led me to seek a position in Southern California,” he said. “This brought our family to Westlake Village, and I commuted to Bakersfield as the CFO for a carrot business owned by a group of Chicago investors. We were able to develop a very successful beverage business and a very efficient produce logistics business. The business became much more valuable, and we were able to sell it to my former Nestle colleague, Denise Morrison, at Campbell Soup.”
Hostess
Manion also did a stint as an interim CFO for Kansas City, Mo.-based Hostess Brands LLC, a $2.5 billion operation with 22,000 employees, 5,800 delivery routes and 700 outlet stores.
Another Nestle connection, Greg Geane, helped him meet the Underwood family. Geane is CFO for the Reyes Beverage Group, which owns Harbor Distributing LLC in Anaheim.
“Like all of the winners, we do much more than just the financial activities for the companies,” Manion said. “We are all around very good businessmen, and we can help the company and our CEO and our shareholders improve the value of the company and hopefully along the way leave a good bit of ourselves as good role models.”
