Basketball Experience Helped Former Standout Paul Hamerly Become a True Entrepreneur
Paul Hamerly (TPR '77, '79) always knew that he was meant to be an entrepreneur. Having grown up in a house that fully embraced the entrepreneurial spirit, Hamerly longed for the opportunity to start a business of his own. After nearly two decades of a successful management career in the corporate world, Hamerly took his shot in 1996 when he developed Kitchen Basics.
"I wasn't primarily interested in moving up the corporate ladder. I learned a tremendous amount from the major corporations and had a lot of mentors that I'm incredibly grateful to," Hamerly said. "But I knew that I would eventually do my own thing."
Hamerly, who worked for such companies as Beecham Products, Heinz and Nestle, spent a lot of time in the 1990s researching businesses to acquire and build. The former Carnegie Mellon basketball standout actually made eight offers to acquire companies, but none of his bids were successful. That's when the 6-foot-10 Hamerly took over a small area in the corner of his children's playroom and went to work making his entrepreneurial dream come true.
For two years, Hamerly was Kitchen Basics' only employee and did all of the day-to-day work getting the company off the ground – from making sales calls to designing packaging graphics to paying the bills, Hamerly had his hands on everything. Four other co-founders gave much needed help and direction during those early years, including Hamerly's wife Nancy, who provided both financial and moral support.
"A lot of stuff wasn't done to any extraordinary degree of quality or excellence, but it was enough to get everything done and done on a meager budget," Hamerly said. "It was five or six years before we turned a profit."
Kitchen Basics established the soup stock category, which was a superior product to existing broth competition on the market. The company was the first to offer an all-natural product and utilize shelf-stable Tetra Pak cartons. Kitchen Basics was the only line to obtain certification by the American Heart Association. In 2011, Hamerly sold Kitchen Basics to spice maker McCormick & Co.
"I had grown up with really good soups and sauces from my Belgian grandmother and that's what I decided to bring to the market. We had a better product in a better package and we formed a new product called stock," Hamerly said.
A standout high school basketball player from nearby Penn Hills, Hamerly matriculated to Carnegie Mellon in 1973 and joined a men's program that had found limited success during the past few years. During Hamerly's freshman season, the Tartans finished with three wins.
"From ninth grade on, I made the decision that I wanted to go to an academic institution and develop my mind. For me, basketball was an opportunity to live a balanced lifestyle and also continue developing as an athlete," Hamerly said.
Hamerly did more than just develop as an athlete – he and his teammates turned the men's basketball program around. Under head coach Dave Maloney, the Tartans won a Presidents' Athletic Conference title in 1977. Maloney, who passed away in September, made a big impact on Hamerly during his time with the Tartans.
"I was close to Dave for all his years in Pittsburgh. He brought a tremendous work ethic to the program. He always knew the right things to say," Hamerly said.
Hamerly earned his way into a five-year master's program through Carnegie Mellon's Graduate School of Industrial Administration (now Tepper School of Business) but following his fourth year on campus, took a leave of absence to play professionally in Belgium for a year. Hamerly's mother was born in Belgium and met his father during World War II.
"I had a lot of fun. My salary was modest, but I had a car and apartment paid for," Hamerly said. "It was a chance to visit my mother's native country and cousins, aunts and uncles."
Following his year in Belgium, Hamerly returned to finish his graduate degree at Carnegie Mellon. He then went on to begin his professional career with Beecham Products. After his time at Heinz and Nestle, he followed his father's influence and began his own business.
"My father was a CPA and was self-employed. He had about 100 clients and I worked in a lot of those businesses throughout high school and college," Hamerly said. "I grew up in an entrepreneurial environment and my father really looked up to successful entrepreneurs."
As he built Kitchen Basics into a company that did more than $65 million in sales annually, Hamerly utilized the skills he learned on the basketball court to help him succeed in a competitive world.
"Competitive sports, especially basketball, gave me a perseverance and patience in the business world that I wouldn't have received otherwise. When you get down to it, the business world is all about competition," Hamerly said. "In the business world, you have to be able to fend off competitor attacks. It causes you to work harder."
The family entrepreneurial spirit seems to have been passed down another generation, as Hamerly's oldest daughter Katie will graduate with honors from the business school at The Ohio State University this spring and will move on to work at Proctor and Gamble. Hamerly's son Andrew is a freshman business major at Bowling Green State University and his daughter Sarah is in eighth grade. All three children were integral in the success of Kitchen Basics.
"The whole family helped make the business a success. Nancy served as a board member and everyone worked consumer food and wine shows. Our kids grew up in the business," Hamerly said.
Now that he's no longer running Kitchen Basics, Hamerly is looking forward to his next business challenge. In the meantime, he's working to tackle a new passion – flying airplanes.
"I'm looking to get a private pilot's license," Hamerly said. "I think it's a tremendous challenge."
And Hamerly won't stop pushing himself on the hardwood either – just last week his over-50 men's team won its league in Brecksville, Ohio.
"I'll keep playing as long as I can," Hamerly said.