Bright Ideas
Insights, Spring ’05

“Ask questions. When we were starting out, I had to ask a lot of questions, and people
were always willing to take the time to show us a better way.”

In 1985, Peggy Wight and husband Ralph started their Uncle Ralph’s Not Yet Famous Cookies business from scratch. Encouraged by friends and family, they doctored their favorite cookie recipe, and started selling it “in town.” Now operating out of a 22,000- square-foot facility, the Wights’ cookie empire sells approximately 16 million cookies and brownies each year, with $4.5 million in annual sales (2004). Frozen dough accounts for 75 percent of the business, in addition to retail sales and supplying fundraisers. Their cookies are served in gourmet shops, prestigious hotels, and bakeries in a seven-state area. They employ 57 people. “One of the things I’m most proud of is that we have so many longtime employees.”