Paul Wagstaff and the freedom to start again

Paul Wagstaff had a name that already belonged in the grocery aisle. Smucker is his middle name, and he spent roughly two decades working in the family company. By 2011, he was president of its U.S. Retail Consumer Foods business. He had substantial responsibilities, a board seat, and a family history woven into the enterprise. In January 2015, he left to pursue a business of his own.

There is a temptation to make this sort of departure sound like a quarrel. Wagstaff’s own account was warmer and more interesting. He spoke affectionately about Smucker, its people, and his cousin Mark. What attracted him was the prospect of independence: building the company, choosing the team, and taking responsibility for the whole undertaking. Having room to operate within an established institution had not exhausted that ambition.

“I’ve always wanted to run my own business.”Paul Wagstaff, 2018

Today, the Medina, Ohio-based executive is co-founder and CEO of 21cv. Its work includes Green Day’s Punk Bunny Coffee and Tom Hanks’ Hanks For Our Troops. The cast has become more theatrical. The underlying work still involves brands, products, retailers, and people who can get things done. To understand how Wagstaff arrived here, it helps to begin with a less glamorous object: a can of milk.

A family name, an operating education

Wagstaff’s route through Smucker was a sequence of operating jobs. He became vice president and general manager of the foodservice market in 2001, then vice president of foodservice and beverage markets in 2006. In August 2008, he became president of U.S. Retail Oils and Baking. Each title placed a different part of the food business under his care.

When he joined the board in January 2009, Smucker described him and Mark as fifth-generation family members. The family connection was explicit. So was the professional progression. His move to president of U.S. Retail Consumer Foods took effect on May 1, 2011. A company biography becomes more revealing when read as an account of accumulating obligations rather than a collection of impressive nouns.

The division he led was substantial. Pepperdine’s account puts its net sales at $2.4 billion and profit above $400 million. Figures on that scale can swallow the people beneath them. They also explain the kind of preparation he brought to his next venture: experience of an operating business with established brands and considerable financial consequences.

His education had already taken him beyond a narrowly domestic frame. He studied international relations at the College of Wooster and international business at Pepperdine. Those subjects fit a career that would eventually include investment, advisory work, and a board role with Canadian dairy cooperative Agropur. The family company was a major chapter; it did not become the boundary of his professional life.

The new company came in a familiar can

Wagstaff worked with longtime friend Jeff Boyle to find a business they could build. Their early search included a bid for Green Giant, which General Mills was selling. They lost. It is a useful detail in a career often described through completed transactions: the enterprise that eventually existed was shaped partly by an opportunity that went elsewhere.

Then Smucker’s canned milk business became available. The assets included Eagle Brand, Magnolia, PET, Milnot, and private label products. The transaction also brought two manufacturing facilities, 170 manufacturing employees, and 14 corporate and sales employees. The starting point was a functioning business, with the practical responsibilities that accompany one.

Wagstaff knew it. He had previously run the brands at Smucker. At the end of 2015, the acquisition became the foundation of Eagle Foods, established with private equity partner Kelso. Independence, in this case, came through a return to familiar territory under different ownership. There was something almost domestic about the arrangement: leave the family business, then buy a piece of its pantry.

The distinction mattered. A known brand could give the new company a base from which to pursue other acquisitions. Wagstaff’s experience could help him assess the business, while Boyle and Kelso supplied complementary capabilities. The venture assembled people and assets that could work together before it assembled a larger portfolio.

Popcorn, with a side of discipline

The next chapter moved into snacks. In August 2016, Eagle Foods acquired Cornfields, including G.H. Cretors popcorn. Wagstaff found a point of connection with the Cretor family through their shared understanding of family businesses. He was also interested in the production: popcorn and caramel made in-house, with flavors that gave the brand a distinct identity.

Popcorn, Indiana followed in August 2017. Together, the acquisitions gave Eagle a broader position in ready-to-eat popcorn. For Wagstaff, the shelf was part of the calculation. A recognizable portfolio could matter as larger food companies bought snack brands and competition for retail space intensified. Acquisitions changed the company’s place in a category, as well as its collection of products.

His account of dealmaking was decidedly practical. Assign clear responsibilities. Trust the people doing the work. Make communication usable. Examine financial performance and the conditions that could change after the purchase. None of these ideas requires a glittering presentation. They require attention when a transaction begins to gather its own momentum.

“You need to have the conviction to walk away.”Paul Wagstaff on acquisition discipline

That advice contains a small rebuke to the romance of the deal. Time invested can make completion feel like a reward. Yet the operating business will remain after the congratulations end. Wagstaff’s emphasis on criteria puts a limit around enthusiasm: an acquisition has to withstand the assessment that justified pursuing it.

A vote around the table

At Eagle Foods, Wagstaff and Boyle screened opportunities against a list of 15 to 20 criteria. They considered the category, company size, market share, growth, competition, and the complexity of the product range. An opportunity that passed their first review went to the functional leaders, including finance, marketing, sales, operations, and human resources.

Those leaders were asked whether they were comfortable proceeding. Agreement was preferred, though unanimity was not essential. Only then would the proposal move toward a recommendation to Kelso. The sequence gave the operating team a role in shaping a decision they would later have to carry out.

They also wanted to walk through the buildings and understand the people in a business they might acquire. Existing employees could bring detailed knowledge of the product and help integration. The value of a company was partly held by people who knew its routines. The checklist and the factory visit belonged to the same decision.

The experience travels

Wagstaff served as Eagle Foods CEO from 2015 to 2018. In 2018, he co-founded Embassy Park, an investment and advisory firm in the consumer sector. The change expanded the ways his experience could be used. Running a business, advising one, and investing in one place a different set of decisions in front of an operator.

Embassy Park’s work covers branded, private label, and co-manufactured products. It is an unshowy set of categories, but an instructive one. A shopper’s encounter with a label is only one part of the enterprise. Manufacturing arrangements, sales, and ownership all sit behind it. Wagstaff’s career has repeatedly taken him into those less visible rooms.

His board work has included Agropur, Alphia, and Pepperdine’s Graziadio Business School. At Pepperdine, he has spoken about the pleasure of creating teams and working with people prepared for change. That interest connects the corporate executive, founder, and advisor in his biography. Across different settings, he keeps returning to the people around the table.

When the pantry meets the stage

21cv says it formalized its platform in April 2025. The business brought together consumer-goods management, a venture studio, and branded entertainment. Its public announcements described a $20 million Series A. Wagstaff leads it alongside a team whose work includes operating brands and developing partnerships around talent.

The names attached to its coffee brands make the change in setting easy to see. Punk Bunny comes from Green Day. Hanks For Our Troops comes from Tom Hanks and directs its profits toward veterans. 21cv has also announced the acquisition of InStyle Products Group, extending its work into fragrance and beauty products.

The current company is organized around Brands, Experiences, and Entertainment Marketing. Its projects include 7-Eleven FanLand and Punk Bunny activations. These activities give a consumer business places to meet an audience beyond the shelf. The operating work still has to support that encounter: a brand that creates attention also needs products available for people to buy.

For Wagstaff, the connection to Green Day predates the current platform. A 2022 biography listed his board role at Oakland Coffee, the band’s earlier coffee company. The move into talent-led brands therefore has a history of its own. It grew alongside his investment and advisory work rather than appearing as an abrupt excursion into entertainment.

The trajectory is appealing because it allows the ordinary work to remain visible. Canned milk, popcorn, and coffee have different personalities. They still belong to businesses that must be run. Wagstaff’s attraction to independence has taken him through several forms of ownership and responsibility. The famous family name remains part of the story. So does the decision to keep making room for a company of his own.