Transcripts For CNBC The Profit 20240712

I care about the product. Lemonis and dad greg pursues his own ideas. And what is your role . Jennifer not listening. Lemonis . Without consulting anybody. Greg they accuse me all the time, marcus, of going rogue. Lemonis and the further they drift apart. Jennifer you want things a certain way. Chandler do you think i just like to fight . Lemonis . The more the business suffers. Greg weve hustled, man, you know, and we aint got a pot to piss in to show for it. Lemonis if i cant help lyles understand where they want to go and how theyre gonna get there. Jennifer dont tell me that its because of me that were not out there. Lemonis . Their Bright Future will go up in smoke. Chandler leaving would be bailing on them, and i cant do that. I dont know how im gonna get to where im going. That breaks my heart. I dont know what to do. Lemonis my name is marcus lemonis, and i risk my own money to save struggling businesses. Were not gonna wake up every morning wondering if we have a job. Were gonna wake up every morning wondering how many jobs we have to do. Its not always pretty. Everythings gonna change. Everything. But i do it to save jobs, and i do it to make money. This. Lets go to work. Is the profit. Over the last several years, ive heard from thousands of businesses looking for help, literally thousands, but never before have i encountered a situation quite like this one. Because while lyles bbq did indeed apply for help with their business. Jennifer lyles bbq is a familyowned and operated veteran company. Lemonis . One of the owners, the son chandler, also applied for a job with one of my companies. I mean, heres an entrepreneur who simultaneously asked me for help with his business, while at the same time, looking for a job leave his business. Its interesting, to say the least. So i couldnt help but come down to lexington to find out exactly whats happening. And because i dont know if chandlers parents are aware that he applied for a job with me, im not gonna say anything initially. As far as all of them know, chandler included, im just here as a potential investor. Chandler oh, hey hows it going . Lemonis how are you . Chandler im good. Chandler lyles. Lemonis chandler, im marcus. Nice to meet you. So, thats where lyles comes from . Chandler its our last name, yes, sir, yeah. Lemonis is this the main location . Chandler this is, yep. Lemonis and who owns the business . Chandler so, my parents own 90 , and i own 10 . Lemonis who put the money up for the restaurant . Chandler my mom and dad. Lemonis mom and dad . Okay. Chandler weve been in business for four years. We started as a food popup tent, just oldschool smoker on the side of the road. My mom and i did that fulltime. My dad had retired from the air force, so he was really able to help us in the beginning stages. And i had some money saved up from the air force, so lemonis you were in the air force, as well . Chandler mmhmm. I did 4 years. Lemonis thank you for your service. Chandler oh, thank you. Lemonis really appreciate that. Hi, there. How are you . Im marcus. Thayer im thayer. Nice to meet you. Chastity im chastity. Lemonis chastity, nice to meet you. How do i know what to order . Thayer usually, we try to get you when you come in the door. We do want to get a menu board so that you will be able to see that. Lemonis couldnt you do it in chalk like that . Chandler we could. Im just not in love with the way that sort of looks. Lemonis why . Chandler its just kind of hard to read. It doesnt look clean enough to me. Lemonis so, the alternative is nothing . Chandler yeah. Lemonis oh. How are you . Jennifer im good. How are you . Im jennifer. Jennifer, nice to meet you. Jennifer yes. Nice to meet you. Lemonis so, i was asking questions. Whats the numberone item ordered . Jennifer pulled pork. Lemonis no doubt . Jennifer no doubt. Lemonis okay. So, whose recipes are these . Jennifer mine. Lemonis and whos in charge of what . Chandler shes the art, and im really the business side of it, right . Im trying to make sure were able to scale like, we cant scale her, so i need to have something that is makable by a properly trained employee. If it was 100 her way, it would be we make everything that we can from scratch. Jennifer thats the problem, is that were very much both control freaks about stuff. Im in charge of operations, the daily running of the store. Lemonis okay. Chandler im the ceo. I get the final call. Lemonis what does that mean . [ both laugh ] its a barbecue restaurant. Chandler yeah. Lemonis it seems to me that chandler maybe takes himself just a little too seriously. Its almost like he felt like he needed to put a label on himself. Im the ceo, just wanted everybody to know, which makes me the man in charge. I thought it was a little unnecessary. And if hes the ceo of this business, whats he doing applying for a job with me outside of the company . Chandler got your pulled pork right here, your tritip, and then, your sliced turkey. Lemonis okay. This is the pulled pork . Jennifer mmhmm. Lemonis oh, man. That pulled pork was really good. Jennifer good. Lemonis amazing. Jennifer good. Thats the difference with our meats and what we do. We dont slice anything, we dont pull anything, we dont do anything to it until you order. And that maintains the moisture, and it lemonis thats smart. Chandler its just the best. Lemonis and these are the hush muffins. Jennifer mmhmm. Chandler so, we used to have a hush puppy, uh, cause we had a fryer. And then we had to get rid of the fryer, because it was a gas line issue, essentially. Lemonis how much does that cost . Jennifer 5,000. Chandler yeah, we cant afford it right now. Revenue is all the way down. Lemonis i like hush puppies, and i like corn muffins, and i didnt feel like i got either of those satisfied. Theyre nondescript. Jennifer really . Okay. Okay. Lemonis i think you think im criticizing you. Jennifer im always very defensive about my food. When you are a southern woman. Lemonis oh, yes, maam. Jennifer . It is all about the food. Lemonis if the fryer was back, it would help. People complain about not having fries . Thayer yeah. We get that a lot. Lemonis you sell a lot of nachos . Jennifer no. Lemonis okay. Chandler not a fan of those . Lemonis no. The chips are mushy, and i dont come to a barbecue place and think nachos. Feels offconcept. Theyre missing out on selling popular items like hush puppies and french fries that a typical barbecue place would have, and instead, theyve replaced them with things that you normally wouldnt see in a barbecue joint. Thats just bad business. So, the bulk of your orders are pulled pork, and then, the next one is brisket. Thats my core. And then i have original sauces. That seems like a good jumpingoff point. I think if you cut the rest, your revenue wouldnt really move. Jennifer so, this is my fear with that, is when we cut things, we lose people. Lemonis are you annoyed . Jennifer [ laughs ] yes, im a little annoyed, i have to tell ya. Look, i when people dont like my food, i get very irritated. Lemonis i was a little surprised how jennifer reacted to my feedback. And i understand how a chef feels about their food being critiqued. But i was watching chandler, hoping that he would pipe in and say, well, you know what . Its good to get feedback. I would say he didnt necessarily accomplish that. Im gonna try your ranch. Jennifer okay. Lemonis that ranch is good. Okay, this is the original sauce. Really good. Jennifer mmhmm. Lemonis heres the spicy sauce. Jennifer its got tabasco, chipotle in it. Lemonis i think its delicious. Okay, so now i want to try to bourbon sauce. Well, thats good, and i can taste the bourbon. Jennifer mmhmm. Lemonis a lot. [ laughter ] i think your sauces are spectacular. Jennifer thank you. Lemonis barbecue takes on different forms across the country. People have different tastes and palates. And the fact that lyles offers a wide range of sauces representing the whole country is a pretty darn good idea. What it allows is that the customers can take the basic barbecue item, and they could put their own twist on em. It made her, i would say, the boss of the sauce. What do you love about making things from scratch . Jennifer i think that way too much is processed nowadays. Theres no difference between chain to chain to chain, because everything comes off of a truck. And everybody, they go home, and they eat boxes of mac and cheese or whatever. And this is somewhere that they can come, and they can sit down, and they can eat the same way that i did growing up. If youre gonna come in and spend your hardearned money with us, it should be for something that you actually enjoy. Lemonis youre 100 right. As weve been going through the food, your body language is totally changed. Jennifer thats my baby, marcus. Lemonis no, thats your baby. [ both laugh ] chandler depends on the day. Lemonis i love the passion and the commitment that she has to what she makes with her hands. You want to invest in people, you invest in people that have passion like that. Chandler i guess my position is, im just trying to find a way to do that super high quality responsibly as we grow. Lemonis but what do you mean, as you grow . Chandler i mean, we need more locations. Lemonis why . Chandler because weve got to achieve some sort of scale, because even though it is a little riskier to go to another store, it creates cash flow stability. I think about 100 stores in more densely populated areas. I dont think we can do enough in sales out of here to support two families. Lemonis im seeing the first conflict, with chandler wanting to open up stores all over the world, and mom falling in love with what shes making in lexington, kentucky. I dont know how those two worlds could actually come together. How are you, sir . Im marcus. Greg yeah. Nice to meet you. Lemonis what is your name . Greg greg. Lemonis greg, nice to meet you. You got a nice family. Greg well, thank you. Im proud of em. Lemonis and what is your role . Jennifer not listening. Greg they accuse me all the time, marcus, of going rogue. Lemonis so, what are examples of going rogue . Chandler we tried this mall location, and then its slow. Greg well, the mall was my idea i got us into. Turned out to be a crap show. Lemonis oh. Is it losing money . Chandler yes. Greg and then i bought a box truck. Its gonna turn into a food truck. Chandler just showed up one day with a giant truck. Said, we bought a truck. Lemonis what do you do with it . Greg we, uh, made it into a storage unit. Its parked out here behind the building. Were trying to do things. You know, were throwing things against the wall to see if it sticks, cause, you know, its its about cash flow. Lemonis and you have another job, as well . Greg i do. Ii work for a Human Resource consulting firm. I have to work outside of the restaurant to provide the family with the stability to keep this going. Lemonis yep. Greg im kind of like the jack of all trades. Chandler the nonsilent, silent partner. Jennifer im in charge in here, for the most part. Lemonis okay, just thought wed clear that up again. Its clear to me that the three or them are not on the same page, and theyre all working in different directions. And its clear to me that nobody is taking the lead on solving the problems that are in front of them. Chandler labeled himself as the ceo. Is he the actual leader . Chandler needs to be putting himself in the middle of it as the problem solver. All right, ill see you in a little bit. Jennifer okay. Greg hey. Lemonis all right. Chandler welcome. Good to see you again. Lemonis how are you . Chandler good. This is the Mall Food Court here. Lemonis yeah. How come you didnt light your sign . Greg its what we thought was affordable at the time, but we know weve got to get a lighted sign. Lemonis heres the weird thing. Menu board here but not at the restaurant. Chandler right. Lemonis so, why did you do the menu here . Chandler i mean, theres really no other way to order. They dont really have a place to put the menus for them to come and pick up. And we signed the lease, and we had two weeks to open. Lemonis were you not in favor of it . Chandler neither one of em was in favor of it, marcus. Lemonis and whyd you do it . Greg to me, it was a good idea to see if we could incubate our concept in the mall. Lemonis and how many people come through the mall a year . Chandler 20 million. Lemonis and how many come through the food court . A million . Chandler maybe. Lemonis how many people come through your restaurant a year . Chandler not close to a million. We probably serve 4,000 or 5,000 a month. Lemonis 60,000 compared to the mall, and so you have the potential to do bigger days. What do you think of the store, the way it looks . Chandler its halfdone. Lemonis its ugly. Chandler yeah. Lemonis and your Business Plan is, lets just open a bunch of em and hope it works out. Chandler yeah. Its to open the next one. Lemonis this is the second one, and its still aint right. Chandler yeah, no, i agree. Lemonis people eat with their eyes first, and that wasnt what i wanted to see with my eyes. Im gonna go around the back. Greg okay. Come on. Lemonis can you walk me i want to see whats back in the kitchen. So, this is the back . Jennifer uhhuh. You got your reachin right here. Lemonis oh, its decent size. Jennifer mmhmm. Yep, yep. And, uh, so, thats our smoker here on the right. Lemonis this is a small space, and so, quite frankly, on a persquarefoot basis, this actually does pretty well, relative to the other one. [ laughter ] jennifer its known as the pirate ship over here. Lemonis what does the pirate ship mean . Jennifer it means that pickles arent made over here, Tortilla Chips are done like that. And my whole thing is is that theyre not getting the same experience foodwise at both locations. Chandler i agree. I want to do it, but i just logistically, im not gonna do grocery deliveries every single day back and forth, so lemonis chandler, dont make it out like you have to get a semitruck. Chandler no. Ii know. Lemonis the fact that theyre using different chips at the mall may seem like a small thing to most people, but it was a very glaring example of jennifer acquiescing to her son to keep him happy. And i see that often in mother son relationships at work, where the mother just loves her son so much, he cant do any wrong. Im just gonna let him have it his way. So, now, were gonna take your son hat off. Like, why are you doing this . Chandler sure, i mean, iim doing a bad job. If im the ceo, i get the final call. Lemonis stop saying please dont say ceo anymore to me. Youre the one supposed to be setting the example, and youre taking the artists ideas, and youre discarding them. Chandler right. Jennifer its just like when we went round and round about these chips, and i told you my reasoning for doing the chips inhouse, which were valid reasons, but the thing is, is that you didnt want to listen to that. I think that you push back sometimes just to push back, because you want it a certain way. Chandler do you think i just like to fight . I dont understand that. Jennifer no, i think you do it because you want things a certain way, and then you push back until you get me to say, fine. Chandler no, i think our arguments, theres never any sort of, like, mutual agreement. Like, we got to have these conversations. Like, if this was a real work environment, and you took the mother son dynamic out of it, like, you got to have that conversation. Jennifer but if you took that dynamic out, you wouldnt do the same things that you do sometimes to me. Chandler thats fair. Lemonis im gonna add something. If we took the mother son dynamic, youd probably be fired. Chandler i dont agree with that. I mean, i have worked as hard as these guys lemonis nobodys questioning that. What im questioning is, pretend she wasnt your mother, and the founder of the business found out that you were circumventing stuff. At some point, shes gonna be like, look. Like, i would never want to to invest into a deal where i thought she didnt have full Creative Control of what happened in the kitchen. Who has the financials . Chandler uh, i do. Lemonis can we, all four of us, go sit down and look at em . Jennifer sure. Lemonis okay. Lemonis so, this is january to december 2017. This is full year. So, the mall did 230,000 of revenue and lost 118,000. Okay. Then the restaurant did 887,000 of revenue, and its only lost 49,000 . Chandler it did, yes. Yeah. Greg people feel like spending more money there, because of the experience. Lemonis 40. 7 margin. That includes food and labor, right . Chandler yes. Lemonis guaranteed member payment, 36,231. Chandler thats my salary. Lemonis how much did you guys take out . Chandler zero. Jennifer didnt take anything. Lemonis how much cash do you have in the bank account right now . Chandler uh, theres about 18,000 in the bank right now. Lemonis so, pretty tight on cash. Jennifer yeah. Chandler since day one. Lemonis do you have 2018 here today . Chandler this is through july. Lemonis so, your net Income Margin is 4 here. It was 5 , 6 last year. Why is it down . Chandler i think thats the thing thats frustrated us so much, is that we know we have a good product. It is just, theres some core thing missing that were just not seeing. Jennifer we need somebody to come in and help us, tell us, this is what youre doing wrong. This is how you fix it. This is how we go forward. Lemonis normally, i would, you know, make an offer right now. I dont want to do that right now, because you guys want to just make a nice living, and he wants to rule the world. And i dont know that those two things can live together. I know this is an unusual move to make, but i really feel like i need to sit back and reflect before i decide if i want to make an investment. Chandler we just want to do better. Thats why we called you. Greg if i can interject, this lady right here, shes the secret sauce to its success. Shes the face of the brand. Lemonis i agree. Greg you know, we come from dirtpoor in south georgia, and weve scraped our whole lives. We just dont want to fail. Lemonis i think you have zero interest in running a restaurant. Chandler you know, i owe them. Leaving would be bailing on on them, and i cant do that. They will, but with accident forgiveness allstate wont raise your rates just because of an accident. Cut is that good . No you were talking about allstate and. I just. When i. Accident forgiveness from allstate. Click or call for a quote today. Guys guys safe drivers save 40 safe drivers save 40 safe drivers save 40 thats safe drivers save 40 . It is, thats safe drivers save 40 . Hes right there. Its him safe drivers do save 40 . Click or call for a quote today. Safe drivers do save 40 . And weve scraped our whole lives. We just dont want to fail. And weve hustled, man, you know, and we aint got a pot to piss in to show for it. And you grind, and you grind, and you grind, and you want to have something. Lemonis i know you guys are special people. But i really do want to think about it before i make a decision. Chandler okay. Lemonis okay. Greg [ voice breaking ] im just flattered you chose us, man. Lemonis and i appreciate give me a hug. Come here. Okay . Its gonna be okay. Ive thought about it, and i do want to do a deal with this family, but its gonna be totally different than normal, because the family members all want Different Things for the business. But i think i may know a way to actually make this work. Good morning. How are you guys . Chandler hey. Were well. How are you . Lemonis how are you . Jennifer im well. Thank you. How are you . Lemonis good. Chandler uh, dad was in a meeting, so. Lemonis okay. Well, you know, i had a chance to think about, you know, what our relationship could look like. What i left really excited about were the things that you had created. And so, what id like to do is propose us getting into business together on the products that youve designed and come up with, cause thats really your your sauce collection is sort of a sampling of american barbecue. Jennifer mmhmm. Lemonis so, my offer is to invest 100,000. I dont want any of the money to go into your main location. The mall is actually the one space that i think you got to perfect. It probably wouldnt take more than 10,000 or 15,000 to take the front of that and get it right. And really, ultimately, youre doing it for branding purposes, and it should make a little scratch, and when the lease is up, youll make a decision. And then put the rest of that money into exploring, how do you take the products that you have and what actually can be scaled. You know, if im gonna put the money up on those things, i would want to make the lions share of the profit, probably 60 , 65 of it. Chandler for us, this is everything, and were lemonis no, no, no. Whats everything is your primary location, which im not touching. Chandler right. Right. Lemonis i can see the look on chandlers face. He really looks disappointed that i didnt do a deal on the actual business. But i am trying to find a perfect solution that allows me to work on a project with chandler, allows them as a family to make money, and allows me to make money without me investing in the actual restaurant. What are you thinking . Jennifer i am a big one on integrity, making sure the integrity of our product always remains the same. That is my ultimate thing. Lemonis i want to be clear. The 100,000 is gonna go towards the mall. Chandler right. Lemonis and then developing products to see if theres something there. Something you want to try . Jennifer yes. Lemonis were in business together . Jennifer were in business. Chandler we have a deal. Lemonis okay. Chandler yes, sir. Jennifer now, that one seems heavier. Chandler were bringing the french fries back. Lemonis a few days after we made the deal, i got a video from chandler. I love the fact that he jumped on my suggestions immediately and brought the fryers out of storage, and he added hush puppies and french fries back to the menu. Tarantino when we look at sauces, we look at some key matrix that we need to know in production. So, we want to know dissolved sugar. So, that helps me decide how thick a sauce is going to be. Lemonis ive connected jennifer and chandler with chef rick tarantino. He oversees product and Food Development for my entire food group. And together, were visiting a copacker to understand what it takes to actually massproduce some sauce. Tarantino so, all these metrics help me see what the ph is. So, in order to be stable, we need to be below 4. 5. Jennifer shelf stable . Okay. Tarantino shelf stable. Okay . Lemonis it goes without saying that product integrity is our primary goal, but we also have to learn how to massproduce this product and do it at a price that actually could clear the market at retail. Tarantino this is a clear pet pack. It allows us to temperature seal the safety seal. Lemonis im gonna need you to start costing these out in this size. If chandler were ever gonna be on my team, this is exactly the kind of project that i would give him. I want to see if he could think methodically. Can he use data to make decisions . And more importantly, can he work with others to get the job done . Youve got to start with knowing what it cost you to make, sharing that with him, and then hell be able to show you how we can drop that price, okay . Thank you, sir. Tarantino marcus, its always a pleasure. Mama, thank you for coming to our kitchen. Chandler thanks for having us. Tarantino good to see you, my friend. Thank you. Jennifer appreciate it. Lemonis whos ready to serve some food . Chandler lets do it. Greg we are. Lemonis so, what i wanted to accomplish today was to really understand if this is a quickserve concept or not. Is this a mall concept . Is it a foodcourt concept . What can be sold, what cant be sold, and how it competes with everybody else. Jennifer okay. Lemonis hi, folks welcome to lyles. Greg what do you think about samples . Lemonis i love it. Greg ive been asking for us to stand out front giving samples, just to introduce em to our concept. Lemonis and who doesnt like the idea . Greg neither one of em. Jennifer but this is the thing, is that we dont have the money to afford somebody to stand out there and do it. Lemonis well, unfortunately, youve signed this lease. Jennifer right. Lemonis and you cant afford to not run the business the right way. Jennifer right. Lemonis and so, i respectfully will say, if you continue to not do the things that you cant afford to do, this place has zero chance of making it. Like, if you dont put graphics up, have people passing out samples, were gonna be standing here in a line that doesnt exist. All right, so heres what were gonna do. Your dad and i are gonna go out there, and were gonna show you that just inviting people and passing out something is an engagement. Greg thats right. Lemonis since you signed the lease, we got to clean up your mess. Lets go. Greg come on, marcus. Lemonis how are you . Greg yall want some barbecue today . Were a familyowned and operated barbecue restaurant. Lemonis would you like to try a sample of our famous pulled pork . Thats mama lyles right there. She made everything from scratch. What do you think . You like it . Good. Greg weve been in business about five years. Everything is made from scratch, man. Its just like eating at our house. You like that . Man its good. Lemonis okay, great. Get some more. She looks mad. Greg oh, yeah. Shes its something she didnt want to do. Lemonis but what is it that she doesnt like . Is it that its not her idea . Greg the mall concept, it was not her idea. Lemonis okay, but were here. Greg yeah. And i think that it feels like her competency is being questioned when you bring out suggestions that she might not necessarily agree with. Lemonis but were here. Greg were here. Lemonis so, now lets make it work. Greg sure. Lemonis we got to make it work. Greg right. And we can. Weve proven that. Lemonis how was it . You liked it . Im glad you liked it. Awesome. Nice seeing you. He said he loved it. Jennifer well, good. Lemonis yep. Jennifer so, why didnt he ordered any . Lemonis cause he had just finished eating, cause we werent out here, cause you wouldnt let us be. Jennifer no, i have never said i wouldnt let anybody do anything. He is welcome to come over here at any time and do this, so i dont want to hear it. What . Lemonis oh, im sorry, jennifer. Is this such a bad idea, that your husband and i want to actually pass out your goodtasting food so more people try it . What shes really upset about is the fact that theyre even the mall. Jennifer he can come over here anytime he wants to, so dont tell me that its because of me that were not out there. So, you know what . Greg hey, baby . Jennifer what . Tarantino i can mimic the exact process in smoke. Jennifer but you dont get the smoke ring in it. Tarantino but the flavors all there. Jennifer but its roasted. Im a purist. Im sorry. Its not smoked. Its roasted. Jenniand he has done that. Here anso, dont tell me, that its because of me that were not out there. Never once has he said, im gonna go hand out samples, and i have said no. Lemonis right. Jennifer its just that, financially, the moneys got to come from somewhere, marcus. He owns just as much as i do. So, you know what . Greg hey, baby . Jennifer what . Greg i appreciate what youre saying. Jennifer oh, my gosh. Dont you do that. Greg [ laughs ] im deescalating the conversation. Jennifer dont you do that. [ laughter ] lemonis hi. How are you . Would you like to try samples . Greg yeah boy we would like to order something. Lemonis oh, youd like to order . Okay. Excellent. Come on up. Sorry about that. Thats why theyre not ordering, cause youre yelling at everybody. Theyre scared. Jennifer no, im yelling at you two. Greg want to try a sample . Jennifer what can i get ya . Lemonis look, shes really sensitive about this subject, and i get it. In her mind, this is another example of gregs crazy ideas that ended up costing their family tens of thousands of dollars. Jennifer spicy sauce with that. Lemonis well, shes mad at us. Greg yeah. Lemonis and while i give her a moment to get over her emotions, i want to gather greg and chandler up to really understand how we actually move the business forward. The one thing i would say is that the place looks rinkydink. I think maybe getting all the dust down off the pole would be a good idea. And then i think the walls need to change. But i think its time to spend some money. Yeah, so, lets just put a budget together. So, i would redo everything that a customer sees. If you get me the measurements, ill get the wallpaper done. Any images that you have, preferably with your mom in them, even some good photos of, like, something coming out of the oven, preferably with your mom doing it or your mom making the sauce. This part of the wall and that part of the wall, i would build, like, a wood crate system, and i would just have all sauces. Like, i would just load the place up. We know the foods good. We got to get the menu right, and then we got to get the aesthetics right. I also want to see how chandler handles the assignment of fixing a broken concept. If hes gonna have a job with me, hes gonna be assigned that all the time. I want to see how he meets deadlines, how he spends money, how we works with others, how much of the work hes willing to do himself, and is he willing to follow through on something that he started . So, you got the plan here. Chandler yeah, i think were good. For sure. Okay. Greg lets do it. Jennifer thanks. Chandler thank you. Man welcome. Hey, hey, hey. Lemonis whats happening, guys . Man bud, how you doing . Lemonis were already gonna move forward with massproducing jennifers sauces, but i also want to see how openminded the family is to other ideas, so im taking them to a meat copacker to see if theres a way to take her recipes and some of her ideas and get them into the prepared food sections of grocery stores. And ultimately, whether or not jennifers onboard with copacking her meat, i just want her to be more open to ideas and see what their process is, and i particularly want to see how chandlers going to handle this. So, i wanted to bring you to Beef International to explore how to potentially package and distribute preprepared foods. Jennifer okay. Tarantino our job is to figure out from you what makes you different, and what do you want to see us replicate . And we need to narrow in and hone down that flavor profile, that texture, that taste, and the cost effectiveness to be able to distribute it. Lemonis kevin, can we give them a full tour of what happens in the back and how the process works . Kevin yeah. Tarantino heres where were making 10ounce shredded pork. We can adjust and dial in the machine from the rubs and the sugar. Chandler its like, you can have a cajun rib, and you could have a southern sweet rib, and you could have eight different skews of rib. Lemonis im really not that surprised that jennifer is very skeptical about it. She wants to control the food quality. Chandler so, this is how youre handrubbing all of your meat. Tarantino thats how you handrub it. Chandler oh, thats awesome. Tarantino when you got to cook 10,000 pounds, you got to move em around in bigass racks. Chandler i like it, man. Its almost the same process. Its just scaled way up. Lemonis but when you compare and contrast her against chandler, whos pushing and pushing, asking a lot of questions, trying to figure out how to solve the problem, theres one thing thats superclear to me. They have totally different ideas about where they want to take the business. Chandler how did you guys cook this . Tarantino its cooked in ovens, in combination wet and dry process. I can mimic the exact process in smoke that you get in a smoker, in these ovens, without losing the volume of shrink. Jennifer but you dont get the smoke ring in it. Tarantino no ring, but the flavors all there. Another thing we can do is we can inject the smoke flavor into the meat. Jennifer but its roasted. Brewer once you take the step to largescale manufacturing, you develop this great appreciation for the scientist. He will take your ribs, and he will figure out exactly what makes them special, and then he will dial these ovens so that it comes out exactly like your stuff. Lemonis you guys know that shes not buying anything youre saying. Jennifer im a purist. Im sorry. Its not smoked. Its roasted. Lemonis if your business is in trouble and you need my help, log on to. Lemonis you guys know that shes not buying iredefined the wordng thschool this year. Its why, at xfinity, were committed to helping kids keep learning through the summer. And help College Students studying at home stay connected through our university program. Were providing affordable Internet Access to low income families through our internet essentials program. And this summer, xfinity is creating a Virtual Summer camp for kids at home all on xfinity x1. Were committed to helping all families stay connected. Learn more at xfinity. Com education. Anything youre saying. Jennifer im a purist. Im sorry. Its not smoked. Its roasted. Lemonis nobody wants you to compromise anything. Jennifer right. Lemonis what we have to understand is, when you scale it, what has to change in the process to make it scalable . And so then, you have to ask yourself, where is my level of compromise to scale, as long as i know that the ingredients are authentic, and the flavors authentic . Jennifer i get it. Lemonis is there something we can taste . Brewer we have some stuff warming up, up front. Lemonis great. Lets go check it out. Tarantino we got some shredded smoked pork that were gonna try to get you to taste. This is the moment of truth. Chandler i think its good. Its a really good flavor. Tarantino what did you think about the texture . Jennifer well, i think maybe its too shredded. Lemonis you hate it, dont you . Jennifer im not a fan. I care about the product. Thats my passion. Tarantino at the end of the day, we have to sell product to make money. Lemonis does this feel at all like a good first step, in your mind . Jennifer i mean, whatever my name goes on, that i would say, yes, thats mine. Thats all im looking for. Im not being difficult. Chandler i was pleasantly surprised. I thought that had really good texture to it. I personally would be comfortable saying, like putting our name on that. Jennifer i see the possibility. I see the possibility. Chandler oh, hey. Lemonis in watching chandler interact with his mom, im a little nervous about how eager he is to push things forward without the buyin of the business owner. Jennifer was polite, and she almost wanted to seem like she was openminded to the idea. But if she never gets there on this idea, im okay with that, as well, and chandler should be, too. All right. Thank you so much. Man thank you, sir. Chandler so, we started working on our sauces and jars and everything else. We had four different bottles that we liked, and so we put it out there as a sample. And this was the winner. And this one was second place. Its nice. Its sturdy. Feels homemade. We just wanted to get it up, start selling. And then, these were just some plastic ones that we were testing, but they felt a little too cheap. Lemonis from the moment i laid eyes on the packaging that chandler chose, i knew he didnt think it through. Heres why. It was made of glass. Glass isnt gonna work. Theres like a trait in your family, that you guys just throw sh[bleep] against the wall and hope it sticks. Chandler ii disagree. I think you get stuff out and get feedback immediately, and then you can change it and fix it. Lemonis but theres a way to get feedback without just going, and its a little like the mall. You just went. Greg i got to disagree with you a little bit. Thats kind of a measured approach. Lemonis this is measured . Itll be so costprohibitive, itll eat into your margin, and a lot of people wont want the risk of glass. Whats the perfect retail price that you want to sell to consumers . Chandler for me, its somewhere in that 5 to 6 range. Lemonis thats on the shelf. Whats that grocer gonna pay you for that bottle . Chandler theyre gonna be 4. 50. Lemonis say they want to pay 4 bucks for the bottle. So, if the grocers gonna sell it for 5. 99, and they want to buy it for 4, whats the distributor gonna want to buy it for . Chandler 3 . Lemonis what are you gonna have to sell it for . Chandler 2. Lemonis okay. And then what are you gonna have to make it for . Chandler 1. Lemonis how much is this one . Chandler its 2. 20. Lemonis okay. Thats out. Chandler yeah. Lemonis i love the initiative, but if we just slow it down, just pump the brakes a little bit, i think youll throw less duds. Chandler understood. Lemonis can you and i just spend away from everybody . Jennifer yeah, sure. Lemonis while i was at the main location, i wanted to sit down with greg and jennifer and talk about what happened at the mall the other day. If this business is gonna survive and, more importantly, thrive, the only way its gonna happen is if they put the past behind them. I think it would be good for you to work through the mall thing together. This unresolved conflicts got to stop. Greg sure. Jennifer as much as none of us wanted the mall, its one of those things that were all gonna get through it together. I wont, uh, hold grudges anymore. Greg i appreciate you saying that, darling. Jennifer so, youre off the hook. [ laughs ] dont do it again. Lemonis no, no, no. [ laughter ] jennifer what . [ laughs ] chandler hey. Its good to see you again. Lemonis uhoh. Chandler uhhuh. Lemonis lets get a beer. Your mom and your dad, without you, talked about the mall today. And your mom committed to your dad that she wasnt gonna rub his nose in it anymore, and we were all just gonna do it together. Chandler right. I think my mom and dad would be a lot less stressed if they just had one store to worry about, and my mom went to work there every day and got to do her thing. I dont think shed ever tell you that, cause she wants to look out for me, but i think thats what she would want. I dont know. Now i feel bad. Lemonis why . Chandler because my ambition is so different. I may have put pressure on them i didnt want to put on them. Lemonis whats your dream . Chandler my personal dream is to, like, work in a giant skyscraper running a really big company. You know, i had started to apply for jobs. And like, honestly, i even, at one point, had an interview with ml food. I was looking at the writing on the wall and seeing that i cant keep getting a salary while my moms not getting a salary, while were both working just as hard in the business. Like, that something had to give. And my mom is more talented in the kitchen and more valuable, so i needed to get out so that she could make an income, and my parents could be okay. Lemonis i now know more clearly why chandler applied for that job with me. I think he recognizes that what he wants out of the business and what his parents want out of the business, theyre just very different. And i understand that in his mind, he says, well, if i get this job, ill take the pressure off of them. But the reality of it is, is that the fact that hes now bringing this up to me, for the first time, when his parents arent around, shows me that hes worried about leaving them behind. Ultimately, this is the characterdefining moment part of the interview. I think you have zero interest in running a restaurant. Youre trying to make the mall work for your dad. And you want to make the restaurant work for your mom. And when is it that youre gonna make something work for you . Chandler i guess after it works for them. You know, i owe them. Leaving would be bailing on them, and i cant do that. I dont know how im gonna get to where im going. That breaks my heart. I dont know what to do. Lemonis let me tell you the reason that i came here. I thought to myself, you know, the best way to interview somebody for a job is to actually go hang out with them for a while. Greg oh, my gosh. Theyre going to be paying for this for a long time. They will, but with accident forgiveness allstate wont raise your rates just because of an accident, even if its your fault. Cut sonny. Was that good . Line the desert never lies. Isnt that what i said . No you were talking about allstate and insurance. I just. When i. Lets try again. Everybody back to one. Accident forgiveness from allstate. Click or call for a quote today. Chandthat breaks my heart. Im goi dont know what to do. Ng. Accident forgiveness from allstate. Lemonis youre a good son. Mantoman, i worry that youre trying to satisfy them, and theyre trying to satisfy you. And neither partys actually getting satisfaction for themselves. Chandler you know, my ambition is to open 100 stores, and my gut says thats not what she wants. Lemonis you have to finish what you started. Chandler right. Lemonis for the right reasons. And so, lets do it. Chandler im onboard, and im ready to do the work. Lemonis its clear to me now that he really doesnt want to be there. And it doesnt mean that he doesnt love his family or love the business, but hes starting to recognize that this business cant necessarily give him what he wants. Chandler deal. Appreciate it. Thank you. Lemonis a few weeks ago, i gave chandler a 16,000 budget to renovate the restaurant at the food court. And i wanted to see, number one, how responsible was he gonna be with my money, how creative was he going to be with the money that he was given, and did he actually take it to the next level and make it better than i expected . Chandler doesnt realize that, basically, what hes about to show me is one of the steps of his interview. Holy moses. Chandler hey. Lemonis what . chandler whats going on . Lemonis look at this place youre, like, all over the place now. Jennifer everywhere. Lemonis i also love the video. cause i now feel like i know who you are. Oh, my gosh. Is she on the food network . It looks. Jennifer looks good. Lemonis . Unbelievable, dont you think . Jennifer it really does. Lemonis this is, like, the biggest sign in the mall now. Jennifer it is. Lemonis so, you changed the menu board. Jennifer yes. Chandler so, we condensed everything down to just the most popular items. Lemonis hey greg doing all right, marcus . Lemonis everything good . Greg doing well, man. Lemonis look at your mall project. It worked out. This is what you meant to do the first time. [ laughter ] what do you think of it . Greg i love it. I love it. The feedback and everything is just great, man. Lemonis working with the lyles family has been an amazing experience, and things are only getting better. The sauces are almost ready for being ready for Online Retail and distribution. And in the future, they could even be sold at Major Grocery Stores Across the country. Chandler initially, phase one, were gonna sell online, and then, uh, chef here is gonna distribute for us. Tarantino well do an online website and then try to do some qvcs, Home Shopping networks. Lemonis i feel like its a lot of progress. Jennifer did an amazing job taking her four topselling sauces and making them shelf stable. And with us doing that, i expect that this company could generate at least an extra 100,000 a year from all the sources of revenue from the sauces. And with the rebranding of the newly renovated mall location and all the new foot traffic and the new attention it should get, i expect sales to increase at least 300 . Theres just one last thing we need to work out. So, weve had separate conversations, and i wanted to put those two conversations right on the table so that everybody can maybe hear what the other party has to say. Chandler yeah, i mean, i dont think its fair that i put the pressure on you to, like, feel like you have to support my personal ambitions as i go down that road. Greg let me make it perfectly clear. We want whats best for you. The reason why we do what we do was, you know, to make sure that you had something that you could make a good career out of. Jennifer the thing is, i dont want you to feel like youre dragging us along, kicking and screaming. I think for us, its just more difficult to dream big, and its not that we dont want it. Its just that its more difficult for us at this point in our life. Lemonis let me tell you the reason that i came here. cause i dont know that i talked to you about it, but theres a lot more to the story. Im sure youre aware of this, but not so long ago, chandler applied for a job with my organization. And i thought to myself, you know, the best way to interview somebody for a job is to actually go hang out with them for a while. Greg oh, my gosh. Really . Amazing school district. The hoa has been very involved. These shrubs arent board approved. You need to break down your cardboard. Thank you. Violation. Violation. I see youve met cynthia. At least geico makes bundling our home and Car Insurance easy. And it does help us save a bunch of money. Two inches over regulation. Thanks, cynthia. For bundling made easy, go to geico. Com iredefined the wordng thschool this year. Thanks, cynthia. Its why, at xfinity, were committed to helping kids keep learning through the summer. And help College Students studying at home stay connected through our university program. Were providing affordable Internet Access to low income families through our internet essentials program. And this summer, xfinity is creating a Virtual Summer camp for kids at home all on xfinity x1. Were committed to helping all families stay connected. Learn more at xfinity. Com education. The best way to interview somebody for a job is to actually go hang out with them for a while. Greg oh, my gosh. Really . Lemonis it became more clear to me through the interview process that he cares more about you than he does himself. You applied for a job . Theres your job offer. Chandler i cant believe you did that. Greg you planned this from the start . Lemonis totally. I think you had a great interview. Its your choice whether you want to take it or not. Chandler im aware of how much you guys sacrificed. I dont want to be the only one that receives things all the time. Ii just want to give you something back. Greg theres plenty of time for that. Chandler you guys greg you got to do you, son. Chandler yeah. Jennifer your dad and i done everything we didnt want to do because we wanted to do it. It wasnt because it was a burden. And thats what makes us happy, is seeing you succeed. And if its what you want, its what i want. Greg come here, bud. Give me a hug. Listen, you aint got to worry about this, okay . Whatever you want to do is fine with us. Lemonis well pay you 75,000 a year, plus bonus. You have a chance to work on this stuff with your mom, and you can work on a bunch of other things. Chandler i mean, this is a dream opportunity for me. Its a winwin. Id love to take your offer. Jennifer i love you, baby. Greg you rock, marcus lemonis. Thank you. Chandler here you are. Lemonis theres your signing bonus. Chandler [ chuckles ] no way. Lemonis yeah, way. Chandler oh, my god. Thank you. Lemonis i know that chandler is going to be a muchneeded and very effective addition to my team. And now that the family is all moving in the same direction, i have no doubt that this business is gonna run much smoother. Thanks for having me. Greg thank you, marcus. Lemonis this is just the beginning for an amazing future for lyles, and im happy just to be a part of it. All right, guys, well see you soon. Jennifer thanks. Greg safe travels. Jennifer [ laughs ] greg that is so cool, son. Im so proud of you. Lejerry about a week. St time youlemonis lets go e . Tonight on the profit. My god, im already dizzy. A Family Fun Center located on 7 acres in las vegas has become one of the citys most popular destinations. Taylor whoo were the Birthday Party capital of the world. Lemonis this feels like it. After nearly 27 years in this industry, owners jerry and matisun barton are ready to hand over the keys to their son, taylor. Jerry youre doing good, buddy. Lemonis but taylor struggles to fit in, sometimes appearing totally out of control. Taylor we sell fun here, so if youre not smiling, im gonna send you home. Lemonis your attitude, i want to throw it in the trash. Previously, taylor was a nascar driver, but his career came to a screeching halt