GENERAL MANAGER
DOWNEY’S POTATO CHIPS INC., WATERFORD TOWNSHIP
EMPLOYEES: 7
REVENUE: NA
COLLEGE: MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY
Not long before Kali Bagley became general manager of Downey’s Potato Chips in Waterford Township, the small company faced a tricky challenge that came about as the result of a decree from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
The “melt-in-your-mouth” goodness of Downey’s products was in serious peril. The FDA said cooking chips in partially hydrogenated oil (PHO) was out because of health hazards. Sunflower oil, with its neutral taste and greater cost, was in.
Downey’s was launched in 1984 when Rosemary Downey Hogarth sold freshly made chips out of a Waterford Township shop. She guided the company’s growth over the next 27 years until selling the enterprise to Patrick Bagley, an attorney and the father of three daughters. Kali, the oldest, was then a sophomore at Our Lady of the Lakes Catholic School.
“I really had no interest beyond just thinking it was so cool that we had potato chips at home all the time,” Bagley says.
After earning an advertising management degree at Michigan State University in East Lansing, she tried marketing and public relations but disliked the around-the-clock nature of those roles.
“You should just come and join us at Downey’s,” her father said. That was in 2019, the year after the FDA locked in on PHO. She got her feet wet doing social media and assisting the staff in the recipe change. Besides modifications to taste, the sunflower oil resulted in the chips’ different color, crunch, and shapes.
From there, she started to lead the company forward despite what she calls “a vendetta against seed oils,” as widely expressed on social media.
The increased cost of oil led to the adoption of an 8-ounce bag instead of the former “family-sized” 10.5-ounce bag, a move that was seen throughout the industry. At the time, Downey’s products were sold in 350 stores across southeast Michigan, but as long as changes were underway, Bagley thought a rationalization of the product line was in order.
“My mentality was: Let’s do one thing really, really well,” she says.
The product line was cut from 10 SKUs to four. Now, Downey’s Potato Chips are seasoned in sea salt, barbecue flavoring, vinegar-and-sea-salt, or a no-salt option.
Meanwhile, as long as there was essentially a different product, she thought it was time to “revamp” the packaging.
A year went into redesigning Downey’s new logo and related graphics.
Establishing herself as a leader at the Highland Road operation, she also has a ground game. In March, Bagley, a member of the Michigan Potato Industry Commission, was in Lansing for Potato Day at the Capitol.
She handed out Downey’s samples to legislative representatives and others, and highlighted the “humble” potato’s annual $2.5-billion economic impact within Michigan, along with its status as the nation’s top producer of chipping potatoes.
“It was one of the best days of being in the potato industry,” she says.
— Ronald Ahrens
