When Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory Interim CEO Jeff Geygan took over company operations in May 2024, the beloved Durango-grown confectionary was on the brink of bankruptcy. Turning things around was the first item on Geygan’s agenda.
“When we came in, we said, ‘Guys, we’re losing a ton of money here, so whatever you did yesterday, assume we’re going to do it differently tomorrow,’” he said in a wide-ranging interview with The Durango Herald. “If what (was done) yesterday worked, I wouldn’t be sitting here – trust me.”
Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory stock has declined more than 50% since 2021, and though the company generated $7.5 million in revenue in its most recent fiscal quarter, which ended in November, RMCF still reported $155,000 in debt after paying for operations, labor and other expenses.
The steep rise in the cost of cocoa in recent years hasn’t helped matters, Geygan said.
Cocoa prices skyrocketed from roughly $4,500 in January 2024 to a peak exceeding $12,000 per metric ton in April 2024 – a 47-year high – as the result of a supply crisis, and have only just begun to level out as of early 2026.
“We didn’t adjust, and our earnings went straight down,” Geygan said. “That was the beginning of when we really started to hemorrhage here.”
Some fiscal improvement has been seen since Geygan took the reins – like $2.7 million in new equity being brought in from investors – but stock prices haven’t seen any marked improvement since his tenure began.
Stocks have traded from a high of about $3.25 and a low of $1.12 per share since May 2024, with a temporary spike that reached about $3.10 in fall 2024. The stock closed at $2.43 Friday.
Several prominent new initiatives are on Geygan’s makeover agenda.
The company has plans for 34 new store locations across the U.S., including at least one in Fresno, California, nine in Florida within the next three years, and another in Terminal B of the Houston International Airport.
Geygan is also heading up an effort to get RMCF brand ice cream into stores, made with the company’s chocolate and candy.
Fifty-two percent of RMCF stores sell ice cream across 14 different brands, Geygan said, and the hope is to begin replacing as much of that outsourced ice cream as possible with RMCF-branded ice cream beginning this holiday season.
“Whether we know it or not, we’re in the ice cream business,” he said. “So, why don’t we actually get into the ice cream business?”
Though RMCF-branded ice cream will likely begin appearing in stores within the year, the company’s flagship store on Main Avenue in Durango will be unable to offer ice cream because of a noncompete clause with the Cold Stone Creamery across the street, Geygan said.
Another effort Geygan headed up was a revamp of the company’s signage and its mascot, Truffles the bear.
The new Truffles – which looks a bit like the original bear’s more chipper and spry younger brother – is clad in a train engineer’s outfit to represent the railroad and show off the bear’s Durango roots.
All of these initiatives are part of building a comprehensive story around the brand, Geygan said – one based firmly in the company’s homeland.
“Durango is quaint; we’ve got the legacy,” he said. “But no one’s really ever sat down and said, ‘How do you build a brand out of this whole thing? And what do you orient it around?’ Like, guys, all the pieces are sitting here – let’s just dust them off and let’s put it together and build the story.”
Though the company could benefit financially from relocating operations to a bigger city, Geygan said loyalty to Durango is paramount.
“I’ve committed to it – to staying here – because I think we’re an important member of the community, and the community has been good to us,” he said. “I think it would be a huge slap in the face to say to the company or the community, ‘Thanks for 45 years – we’re out of here because we can make an extra nickel somewhere else.’”
Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory was founded in Durango in 1981 by Frank Crail, a former tech executive who moved to the city to start a family with his wife, Ruan. The company went on to find far-reaching success, now boasting over 140 franchise and 250 co-branded locations in the U.S., and three in the Republic of the Philippines.
Durango Business Improvement District Executive Director Tim Walsworth said the shop’s central location, the number of jobs generated by the company and the factory’s successful export efforts are all part of what brought RMCF to notoriety.
Geygan said RMCF has 140 people employed in Durango and 35 elsewhere as of January, with the vast majority of Durango-based employees working on the factory floor. About 1,000 additional employees work for franchise locations.
The company’s only production factory is located in Bodo Industrial Park in Durango. The factory, which Geygan said is largely staffed by Native American and Hispanic employees from the Four Corners, produces about 300 different types of confectionery products and ships out roughly 2 million pounds of chocolate per year.
Part of the revamp of the company has included a “fair amount of turnover” in staff, he said.
Geygan said the staffing changes have included firing some employees, but he declined to share specifics about how many employees were fired, how many quit and how many new employees were hired since his tenure began.
An anonymous tip sent to the Herald in May described more than 15 employees having left the company after Geygan’s tenure began, at least six of whom were allegedly fired. Several of the employees who left had worked there for more than 15 years, the source said.
Geygan said about 80% of new employees hired since he took over as interim executive director have remained with the company.
“Has there been turnover here? Absolutely,” he said. “Have we fired people? Not many. I can count on one hand the number of people that I’ve literally said to, ‘Sorry, you’re not cutting it.’”
Geygan said one employee was let go for illegally trading stock, and that the former CEO – who Geygan, as an RMCF board member, helped hire – was fired for being “quite aggressive” and out of alignment with the company’s culture. But most employees “self-selected” to leave their positions, he said.
Former CEO Robert Sarlls, who worked for the company from May 2022 to January 2024, could not immediately be reached for comment Friday.
Geygan said employee turnover has been part of an intentional “culture shift.”
“We started setting expectations,” he said. “We started holding people accountable. It was a cultural shift, and we’re big on culture here. ... So there’s been a lot of turnover. I admit that. And I hate it, by the way. I hate getting to know new people. But what I have said anecdotally to my executive team is, ‘Every time we hire someone new, we upgrade our talent,’ and it’s stunning to me.”
As of February, Geygan had worked in an interim capacity at RMCF for 21 months. He said though the board would happily bring him on in a more permanent position, he’s content to retain the “interim” title for now.
“I’m a sophisticated financial guy: I’ve hired and fired CEOs. I’ve owned dozens of companies on Wall Street,” he said. “... So, the narrative is, you can bring me on as permanent, but it’s going to cost you a lot more, and I’m not looking to increase our expenses; I’m looking to save them.”
A permanent executive director role would qualify Geygan for a higher salary, he said, but he’s more interested in the eventual return on his RMCF stock.
“I’m happy to work for the $390,000 (per year interim salary) – I don’t care, because I own 20% of the stock,” he said. “The payday for me is if I can drive the stock from two bucks to 20 bucks. ... And I’m willing to bet on myself here. So, I haven’t pressed the issue with the board.”
Al Harper, former RMCF board member of a year and CEO of American Heritage Railways, bought 13% of the company’s shares in August 2024. He told the Herald in January that the company is no doubt in the midst of an “uphill battle” economically and logistically – but that he has faith RMCF will find its way.
“I think they have some excellent plans, and they’re working really hard to get Rocky Mountain going in the right direction,” he said. “I think for too long they let it sit the way it was and didn’t keep coming up with new things to maintain interest in the brand. They’ve changed that, and I’m excited about it.”
Harper said turning the company around will be a long-term commitment.
“They’ve cured the quick, real immediate problems, and now they’re in that process of the long-range plan – language, marketing,” he said. “So, am I optimistic? Yeah. I think they’re going to do fine.”
Geygan said he receives frequent requests from private-equity firms interested in buying the company, but that he’s not interested in selling.
“We say, ‘No, no, we’re not for sale like that,’” he said. “We’re going to really drive the value of this business.”
Geygan said when Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory is financially and logistically stable, he’ll take his leave.
“I’m not going to be here forever,” he said. “I’m 65 years old. Guys like me retire, and I’ll do that. ... At some point I’m going to say, ‘Look, it’s fixed. I now get to go back to South Carolina, get (to have) my sleepy little life where I manage money and harass ill-behaved companies – which I really like. But for probably the next couple years, I’m going to be sitting around here making sure we get it right. And you’ll know it’s fixed when you see we have a new CEO.”
epond@durangoherald.com
In your inbox
For more stories like this delivered to your inbox, sign up at www.durangoherald.com/newsletter-signup/
