Klein hits the sweet spot when it comes to entrepreneurship
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You never know who you are going to run into when you attend Eats and Beats events held on Third Street Thursday evenings.
It's really been a successful venture by Visit Marshall. As advertised, there's good music, food and even beer. Each time I have attended, I see lots of people -- many families.
As I walked onto Third Street from the alleyway this Thursday, I noticed Steve Klein sitting in the Walnut Grove Mercantile booth. Thursday's Eats and Beats was billed as a Walnut Grove Mercantile celebration. And it gave me an opportunity to have my first real good conversation with Steve.
"We’re just really thankful for the support of the community. That's one of the reasons why we wanted to do something here this summer, and because the community has been very supportive, even though we have a lot of out of town visitors. They’ve been very supportive,” he said.
As we were talking, a curious Eats and Beats attendee walked up with a question. He pointed to the basket full of bite-sized fudge individually wrapped in plastic.
"Did you make these yourself?" he asked.
Steve smiled and answered, "I had a hand in them."
"Of course you did," the man said before grabbing a piece of fudge and walking away.
Steve, as it turns out, has a background in chemistry and attended Southwest Minnesota State University. His knack for developing new products was probably developed from being raised by a dad who started Klein Foods and sold honey. In fact, Klein's Foods was recently recognized by the Minnesota State Fair with the presentation of the 50-year award. The Klein Foods business goes back 75 years.
Today, Steve's Walnut Grove Mercantile gift store is located off of Highway 23 in Marshall. Don't let the size of the store fool you. There's a lot going on inside that building.
"We’re primarily a gourmet foods manufacturer, which is much bigger than the store. Many people who come to the store think that’s our business. But the biggest part of the business is what happens in the back," Steve said. "We fundraise for nonprofits all around the country with our caramel and our fudge. So this last year we worked with nonprofits in 41 states, and we ship out about 50 tons of fudge and caramels every year. And so we work with schools, church, sports teams, 4-H, Scouts, robotics teams, prom committees, marching bands. All around the country, and so that business just keeps growing and growing."
I asked him how that side of the business developed?
"Well, you know how things are in life. Sometimes it’s an accident," he said. "When we first opened, well, you know, I grew up in the commercial beekeeping business, and our old facility used to sit where the YMCA is. And so any ways, when the city wanted our property for the YMCA, we also were thinking of adding a retail store, and so that’s how the store thing came about. And then we manufacture a lot of products for gift stores – honey things, and barbecue sauces, and preserves, and handmade soaps, and whatnot.
"And one of our good customers found out that we were going to be adding a store too, and they said, 'You know, you should consider selling fudge.' And we said 'we don’t know anything about that.' 'Well, you’ll learn.' So we gave it a try.”
That was 25 years ago. But two years after launching the fudge operation, Steve said a church group asked about helping with a fundraiser.
"And so we said, 'we’ve never done that, but we’ll give it a try.' And it was super successful. We thought, ‘hey, maybe we’re onto something.’ And so now, 23 years later, we’re in 41 states,” he said.
Steve said the fundraising business has just gotten bigger and bigger.
"Surprisingly, another one of our big customers are hospitals. And you think hospitals? What do they want? Well, most hospitals have auxiliary groups, and a number of them put on craft shows for the holidays to raise funds for their hospitals. So we do hospitals all around the country too," he said.
Steve said 50 tons of fudge and a million caramels are shipped out every year. And that's on top of the manufactured barbecue sauces and honey.
With the fundraising business going strong, I asked him about how the gift store itself is going. That's what people see while traveling down Highway 23.
"I was a little concerned this year because of the state of the economy. But it's been terrific,” he said. “It’s just amazing. I honestly, I got to tell you, I don’t understand it completely, but it’s been really strong. And I don’t know if it’s the fact that people are more interested in supporting local or what, but the store’s been doing really, really well. Last year we set an all-time record for sales, and this year we’re kind of close to doing that already. First, we have half a year to go yet."
And then I asked, who's shopping at the store.
"A lot of locals, but we have a guest book in the foyer there. And if you go through that in the last month, we've had people from I think six different countries -- Norway, Germany, England, Ireland, Brazil, and then of course almost every state in the country. A lot of it ties to the Lauren Ingles Wilder thing in Walnut Grove, and when they have events, they don't have any hotels down there, so they stay in Marshall and they’re like, 'Hey, here's something we should check out. So we have a lot of visitors from around the country and around the world. It's incredible," Steve said.
Steve revealed his unique way of developing new fudge flavors.
"Every couple of years we hold a fudge contest that’s open to the public, and we ask them for ideas for new fudge flavors. And this year we had one-hundred and sixty-two entries, and so we developed a number of new flavors from that. The winning flavor this year was lemon blueberry cheesecake. We’re also working on new barbecue sauce," he said.
My last question: Is your mind always going then?
"All the time, all the time," he said.
Steve's entrepreneurship ways don't surprise me. After all, this is Marshall. Home of plenty of entrepreneurs through the years.