Ponder Enterpises continues to expand

DONALSONVILLE — Driven from a young age to forge his own way and emerge from the shadow of his father, businessman, politician and newspaper owner, Dan Ponder, along with the help of his brother Ernest, has built an award-winning Hardee’s franchise which has helped him become “Big Dan” in his own right.

Ponder, who grew up in a hardworking family that operated a peanut shelling plant, said that even as kid he was fascinated with the way businesses work and grow and knew that whether it was one day running the family plant or striking out on his own, he was going to be in business.

“Anything that had to do with a business and it growing fascinated me,” says Ponder. “I had great mentors in my father and grandfather, and they taught me a lot which has served me well.”

Thanks to his grandfather, it wasn’t just the lessons he learned in the family business that helped Ponder on his way, it was an opportunity to start his own endeavor at age 12, something he recalls fondly decades later.

“My grandfather had some farms around town and he had 400 head of purebred Angus cows,” Ponder recalls. “He told me if I saved up my money he would sell me a cow. I still remember, I had five or six old silver dollars (and other money), put that stuff in a sock and took it to the bank and got $100. I bought a half Angus, half jersey calf and called her “mama cow.”

Over time he bred “mama cow” and every year exchanged the calves for more females and eventually built a small herd. Having to get up every day and go to the farm to feed and tend to those cows also gave him a taste of working hard for what he wanted.

That lesson was furthered when, at age 13, he and his brother Ernest had their first venture together, renting six acres of farmland from their grandfather to plant to peanuts and other vegetables. Ponder said one of his fondest memories of that time was the pair’s decision to use part of the acreage to grow tomatoes.

“We decided to grow one and a half acres of tomatoes,” remembers Ponder, “which, with no irrigation, is a lot of tomatoes. It wasn’t the best crop we ever produced. We ended up with one box of tomatoes that were suitable for market. We also had what seemed like a billion cherry-sized tomatoes. We ended up inviting some friends to come and we had a giant tomato war and, after all that, Ernest wouldn’t eat tomatoes anymore. I don’t know if he even eats them today.”

While those youthful forays helped Ponder develop his dream of one day becoming a successful business man, it was at the family’s peanut plant where he learned about what he calls “real work.”

Still in his teens at the time, Ponder recalls clearly, his father put him in charge of running the logistics of the yard when farmers would arrive to have their crops processed.

“I was 16 or 17 years old and running the yard during one of the shifts; telling the farmers where to go and what to do,” Ponder said. “It wasn’t rocket science, but it was a lot of responsibility. I learned a lot doing that.”

One valuable lesson Ponder remembers from that time came at the end of an usually long day when he was running the drying area of the plant. Ponder said he had worked his normal shift and, when no one showed to take over the night shift, he had to continue working that shift as well. When things finally settled down, he took a break and, before long, had fallen asleep.

“My dad came in and found me asleep on the peanut stacks,” Ponder recalls. “He was not happy. He read me the riot act. He said, ‘You don’t understand; you’re the boss’s son and you don’t play by the same rules. You have to do more than anybody else.’”

That hard-learned lesson extends to running his own business today.

“We had a girl at one of the restaurants that was in training,” Ponder said. “She didn’t want to clean the bathrooms, so I got the bucket and mop and showed her how we clean it and what’s expected. Of course, it’s been a long time since I’ve cleaned the bathrooms, but still I’m usually the first one here and the last one to leave.”

Taking the skills he learned working in the family business, along with others he learned while attending Auburn University, Ponder opened his first Hardee’s franchise in his hometown of Donalsonville in 1984, something he viewed as branching out on his own rather then just continuing to work for his grandfather and father.

“Until then I had only worked for my dad and he had only worked for my grandfather,” Ponder said. “I just desperately wanted to do something that my father hadn’t done before me. I could work 20 hours a day (at the family plant) and was still ‘Little Dan.’ He, of course, was ‘Big Dan.’ He understood that and was always supportive.”

Even with that moral support from his father, however, Ponder still needed some additional help. Not long after opening that first Hardee’s, he enlisted his childhood business partner, Ernest, who brought just the right complement of skills to the fledgling company.

“We’re as close as any two brothers and as different as any two brothers,” Ponder said. “We’ve always worked well together. And our differences make us good partners. I’m more of the front guy and he is the man behind the scenes. While I’m off attending meetings, he is building restaurants and handling problems. He has no interest in speaking or serving on boards, those kinds of things. We cover each other. We’ve certainly been doing it long enough.”

That partnership, which takes the form of Hardee’s franchisee Ponder Enterprises Inc., owns and operates 26 restaurants in southern Georgia, northern Florida and parts of Alabama. It has generated an impressive amount of success, including being considered a top performer within the Hardee’s franchise for each of the last 31 years.

The company was also named Hardee’s “National Franchisee of the Year” in 2001 and Hardee’s Food Systems Inc.’s “Franchisee of the Year” in the company’s five to 10 restaurants category in 2014.

In 2008, Dan and Ernest also received the first ever Wilber Hardee Award, now given annually to individuals who honor the legacy of the company’s founder through their vision, dedication, leadership, teamwork and community involvement.

That same year the brothers and their company were also awarded the CKE Star Excellence Award, which is given by Hardee’s parent company CKE to a franchisee group for its work promoting the spirit of the brand. The winner of that annual award is chosen from across the company’s different brands, which include a variety of different restaurant groups in addition to Hardee’s.

Despite all of that success, the brothers recently considered divesting themselves of the restaurants and possibly devoting more time to other ventures. Ponder said those thoughts were not driven by anything other than the fact that the pair was nearing retirement age and needed to examine how serious they were about continuing on.

“Before we started expanding (again), we did an awful lot of soul-searching,” said Ponder. “We couldn’t figure out what we wanted to do. We loved our work and we wanted to build out Hardee’s in south Georgia. It was either get in or get out. We decided to keep going. We believe in the strength of the area we’re in. It a great area that’s home for us. So far, we have not been disappointed.”

Since making that decision the group has opened two new restaurants, one in Douglas and a second on Slappey Boulevard in Albany, which opened its doors the first week of February.

Ponder said the pair had been looking at possible locations for expansion in Albany for some time, believing the city to be a great market for Hardee’s. When the Slappey property presented itself, Ponder said it was a perfect fit.

“We bought the location in Five Points (in Albany) in 2007,” said Ponder. “We also have locations in Leesburg, Cordele and Americus. We’re all around Albany. We’ve been working for years to identify the right pieces of property in Albany. We’re high on this site. I’ve been told (the area where the store will be located) gets one of the highest traffic counts in Albany.”

With the new Albany location up and running, Ponder said the company will continue to look at other expansion opportunities within its geographicla area.

In addition to working toward restaurant expansion, Ponder will also have his hands full with one of his other passions — politics.

An admitted “political junkie,” Ponder has been a keen observer of and participant in the political arena for most of his life. Since being involved in campus politics both in high school and in college, Ponder has continually been drawn into service.

Along with serving on various boards of directors within the Hardee’s corporate hierarchy, Ponder was elected to the Seminole County Board of Commissioners in 1990, and elected as chairman of that board the following year. In 1996, he left that position to run for the Georgia House of Representatives, where he served for five years.

Deciding he had had enough of state-level politics and wanting to be home with his family, Ponder left Atlanta and returned his full attention to helping Ernest run the business.

After focusing most of his attention on Ponder Enterprises over the past few years Ponder was again coaxed into service, this time closer to home when he was elected mayor of Donalsonville in 2012, something he sees as a way of giving back to a community that has been good to him over the years.

“When you turn 60, which I recently did, you start thinking about how you’re going to be remembered,” said Ponder. “The city needed some help. It’s been a great town to me and supported me along the way. I felt like I was in a position to help.”

For all of his accomplishments Ponder is quick to point out all the people that have helped him, including his grandfather, his father and especially his brother, Ernest.

“Most of the things I’ve done, we’ve done together,” says Ponder. “He’s supported me all the way. He supports me in business and he’s supported my political life. When off doing other things, being mayor, he’s hard at work. We are truly partners.”