The Small Business Administration has declared the week of April 9th, Small Business Week. On April 12-13, the SBA will host a two-day conference in Washington D.C., which will honor more than 100 small businesses from around the country. The common theme for many of these businesses will be that they have recovered from near-disaster.
Over the next few weeks, The Prospecting Professor would like to highlight some of these small business success stories.
Shatto Milk Co. has been a family-owned farm for more than 100 years. They are located in Osborn, Missouri, which is about 45 miles north of Kansas City. It is owned by Leroy and Barbara Shatto.
For the past 30 years, Leroy Shatto has operated the farm by milking his herd of 80 cows twice-a-day, and then, like most dairy farmers, selling the milk to a co-op. Over the past two decades or so, many local dairy farmers have gone out of business due to the low prices that were being paid out by the dairy cooperatives for bulk milk. Indeed, by 2000 the Shatto farm was no longer profitable, and Barbara and Leroy were considering shutting it down.
Searching for alternatives to closure, Leroy received two grants from the U.S. Department of Agriculture that helped pay for research, a feasibility study, and a business plan. He also sought out the Service Corps of Retired Executives who provided other marketing data.
Through this research, Shatto learned that consumers wanted farm-fresh milk...and wanted to know where it came from. With loans from the SBA, and a new business plan...Shatto determined that he could become profitable again by opening a plant to process the milk himself, as well as a retail presence...store and website, www.shattomilkcompany.com.
Shatto now sells his no growth-hormone milk directly to 56 groceries in the Kansas City area and northern Missouri. Better yet, he uses recyclable bottles instead of plastic containers as a further product differentiator.
Shatto Milk sells the full range of dairy products: whole white milk, chococate-, root beer-, and strawberry-flavored milk, 2% milk, half-and-half, cream, butter, and eggnog (during the holidays.)
In the words of Leroy Shatto, "For 30 years I walked across the road every morning at 4:30 and wondered why I was doing this. For 30 years we didn't know where the milk went after we sold it, so no one ever told me my milk tasted good. Now they tell me every day."
It's always nice to be appreciated...whether you are a dairy farmer, cow, or human.
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