Reading: #94: Reinventing Because Your Brother Got The Family Biz (Ariane Daguin)

“I come from 7 generations of restaurateurs,” says Ariane Daguin, owner of D’Artagnan gourmet foods, which 35 years later has 260 employees and $132 million dollars in sales. “I grew up gathering mushrooms in the forest. But it became clear that my brother would take over the business and the girl would leave home.” Daguin moved to the US which she believed was “the land of the cowboys,” where “the country was behind the leader and united and doing things.” She says the name came from a similar belief in Gascony: “We have a one for all, all for one [attitude]. It’s the [principle] the Three Musketeers lived by. We think we are descendants of [D’Artagnan].” She says D’Artagnan products are sourced from heritage breeds which she says “have better taste and use no medication.”