Anne F. Beiler

Anne F. Beiler (born January 16, 1949) is an American businesswoman and founder of Auntie Anne's pretzels.^[2]

Anne F. Beiler
Born	January 16, 1949 (1949-01-16) (age 76) Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Occupation(s)	Businesswoman, author, motivational speaker
Known for	Founder of Auntie Anne's Pretzels
Board member of	Museum of the Bible
Spouse	Jonas Z. Beiler ​ (m. 1968)​
Children	3
Awards	Entrepreneur of the Year (Inc. Magazine)[1]

Early life

Anne was born on January 16, 1949 in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania to an Old Order Amish family. She grew up on a 100 acre farm with seven siblings. At age three, her family switched to Amish Mennonite for religious reasons and was permitted modern amenities like electricity in limited uses, such as milking the cows.^[3][4] There was no television or radio in the home. Amish practices such as their horse and buggy, but were permitted Like other Amish children at the time, Anne received no more than an 8th grade education.^[5]

Marriage and early business venture

Anne married Jonas Z. Beiler in 1968 when they were 19 and 21.^[6][7] He was raised Old Order Amish.^[8] They had three daughters: LaWonna (born 1971), Angela Joy (1974–1975), and Joy LaVale (born 1976).^{[9][10][11][12]} Angela died at 19 months old, in a farming accident involving a Bobcat tractor driven by one of Beiler's sisters on the family's property in Pennsylvania.^[13][14] Anne was overcome with grief and sought grief counseling from a pastor.^[3] She entered counseling in an emotionally vulnerable state, and the pastor started sexually abusing her. This continued for six years and caused great suffering to Anne, who had intense struggles in her marriage with Jonas, which led to him deciding to study for a new career change to marriage and family therapist.

Beginning of Auntie Anne's

By 1982, Bieler had extricated herself from the abusive pastor, who went on to lose his license due to actions with multiple women that came to light. Anne Bieler agreed to become the breadwinner, allowing Jonas to continue his counseling pursuit, because he had "stayed with me despite all that I’ve done." A nearby Amish store in Downington went on sale for a great price, and Jonas's parents loaned her $6000 to buy it. On opening day, February 2, 1988, sales were already strong. She tweaked the previous owner's menu and recipes, and she dropped pizza to focus on the popular pretzels. Several weeks in, she chose the name "Auntie Anne's Soft Pretzels" because she was used to hearing the name from her 30 nieces and nephews. By July 4th, she already opened another store in Harrisburg and hit sales of $100,000 in 1988, which she said was "more money than I’d ever seen in my whole life."

Franchising

In Harrisburg, I was selling to businesspeople and government workers downtown. That led to meeting other businesspeople, who wanted to sell Auntie Anne’s elsewhere. I kept saying no because I was happy with two stores, but people kept calling. Finally, my husband said, “I think God is telling us there’s something here we need to do. Let’s get out of the way and see what can happen.” So in 1989 we allowed friends and family to build 10 stores under a licensing agreement.

Career

In 1987, Beiler started making hand-rolled pretzels at a market stand in Maryland. She then rented a stand in February 1988 in Downingtown, Pennsylvania, and called it Auntie Anne's Pretzels. The Beilers decided to tweak the recipe and found success. Anne had no previous business experience and only an eighth grade education, but she had eight stand alone stores and her first Auntie Anne's Soft Pretzels store in a mall after a year. The only advertising the company had was the rave reviews from their customers.^[15] In 1989, the first Auntie Anne's franchises opened throughout Central Pennsylvania.^[16]

Written works

In 2002, Beiler wrote a story book style autobiography entitled Auntie Anne: My Story with illustrations by artist Frieman Stoltzfus.^[17] In 2008, Beiler penned a memoir with her nephew, Shawn Smucker, entitled Twist of Faith: The Story of Anne Beiler, Founder of Auntie Anne's Pretzels published by Thomas Nelson Inc.^[18] Her third book, co-authored with Emily Sutherland, entitled, The Secret Lies Within: An Inside Out Look at Overcoming Trauma and Finding Purpose in the Pain was released by Morgan James Publishing in 2018.^[19] In 2021, she released Overcome & Lead, which she also co-authored with Emily Sutherland, detailing the leadership lessons learned while building the international Auntie Anne's Pretzel franchise.^[20]

Speaking

Beiler delivered a speech at the 2008 Republican National Convention on September 3, 2008.^[21]

Personal life

By LaWonna, she has three grandchildren, and through her seven siblings, she has more than thirty nieces and nephews.^[22][23] Dyslexia affects several members of her family.^[24]

Beiler describes, in her memoir, her church's pastor having maintained secret sexual relationships with her and her sisters,^[25] and that he had also molested her daughter LaWonna.^[26]

Beiler holds two honorary doctorates, one from Elizabethtown College and another from the Eastern University, both schools located in Pennsylvania.^[27][28] She obtained her G.E.D. at the age of 50.^[29][30] She serves on the board of directors for the Museum of the Bible, which opened in 2017 with support from Hobby Lobby's founder, David Green.^[31]