Smart cookie How a small Savannah bakery took flight to become a global treat By Leslie Moses Benjamin Tillman Byrd Sr., pictured here with his wife, Ruth, delivered handmade cookies around Savannah in his Model T Ford. COURTESY BYRD COOKIE CO. Byrd's CEO Stephanie Lindley oversaw Byrd's $4 million expansion in 2018 that helped increase cookie production by 850 percent. Her great-grandfather started the company in 1924. 26 Georgia Magazine COURTESY BYRD COOKIE CO. O Jam Byr bak the n a January morning at the Byrd Cookie Co. headquarters in Savannah, three generations of the Byrd family sit around a conference table. Above them is a black-and-white photo of B.T. "Cookie" Byrd Jr., standing over cookie tins. Byrd Jr.'s father, Benjamin Tillman Byrd Sr., started the company in 1924 and delivered handmade cookies in his Model T Ford. The cookie business is still sweet 96 years later. To remain relevant and sustainable, the company had to look back, according to CEO Stephanie Lindley. "We had to really figure out what we were going to be for the next 90 years." April 2020 26-29_Byrd_Cookies_B_0420.indd 26 3/13/20 12:12 AM