C H E E S E R E P O R T E R 14April 1, 2011

LaGrander’s Dairy Finding Niche In Traditional StylesCustomer Oriented Approach Incorporates Blocks TowersStanley, WI—The crossroads atLaGrander’s Hillside Dairy has apaved north-south road, and anunpaved east-west road.

That’s a perfect metaphor for oneof the company’s latest decisions toexpand with 40 pound block towerswhile most of the production stillcomes from granular and traditionalcheddaring.

LaGrander’s Hillside Dairy is amedium-size cheesemaking operation.

The company is famous for itsColby longhorns, earning anotherBest of Class award during the recentUnited States Championship CheeseContest.

The company is run by RandyLaGrander and his two sons, Ryanand Joey. Its a company that Randy’sparents purchased 50 years ago lastNovember.

The company itself is at a cross-roads: update technology to makehigher volumes and less laboriouscheese, or stay the path and continuemaking traditional hand-crafted,granular curd cheese.

“We’re not giving up making tra-ditional longhorns or deli horns,”Randy LaGrander said. “Still, weneed to keep our eye on the futureand being flexible and diverse.”

The company makes about 13million pounds of cheese a year.

Last May, LaGrander’s added 40-pound block towers to better diver-sify the company’s product line.

“We’re still doing the deli horns,traditional horns and curd, but whenthose markets slow down, we can gointo the 40-pound block market,”LaGrander said.

“The reason we went to towers isthat we’re looking to move tohigher volume, otherwise we prob-ably would have kept on doingwhat we were doing,” LaGrandersaid. “I just felt we needed thatcapability.”

Which is where the question ofeconomics comes into play. It even-tually comes down to labor costs,according to LaGrander.

“Labor is so expensive and it’shard work,” he said. “People justdon’t want to be over the vat slab-bing curd anymore. That’s why thelarger plants with higher volumehave found more ways to becomeefficient.”

Finding Niches In TraditionalCheesesLaGrander's Hillside Dairy’s productline is sold nationally and includesColby, Cheddar, Monterey Jack,Pepper Jack and Co-Jack, but the topthree sellers are Colby, Co-Jack andPepper Jack.

The company offers traditionallonghorns in six-inch diametersand deli horns – found in super-market deli departments – in fourinch diameters which are designedfor slicing.

“The horn business tends to fluc-tuate a little,” LaGrander said. “Itused to be the traditional horns thatwere very popular, now it’s the delihorns.”

Up until 10 years ago, LaGrander’swas making traditional horns andtwo-pound Cheddar daisies.

When the deli horns were intro-duced the company saw a spike in

business, LaGrander said.However, more manufacturers

eventually followed suit.“We became more specialized, but

like everything else – once some-thing catches on, more and morepeople get involved,” LaGrandersaid.

Current demand for deli horns ismodest, “not great” said LaGrander.

“Ultimately, it’s become a cut-throat market. That’s why we’realways looking forward – where canwe go where there is a premium,” hesaid.

Deli horns represent about onethird of the company’s total cheeseproduction. Traditional horns andcheese curds account for the remain-ing two-thirds.

The Curd BusinessBack in the early part of 2000, alarge appetizer company approached LaGrander's to make cheese curd tobe breaded and sold both at retailand in foodservice operations. Itturned out to be a huge success forthe company.

“We were very fortunate there,”LaGrander said.

We were always making curd forretail sales, but to make the move tomass production for foodservice hasbeen very good for us, LaGrandersaid.

“We’re also building a lot of inter-est for our fresh curd market,”LaGrander said. “We do curd in bulk30-pound cases that are then sold atthe store as one-pounders,” he con-tinued.

The company houses a cus-

tomized curd mill to adjust curd sizeto customer specifications.

The BeginningLaGrander’s Hillside Dairy traces itsroots to the 1900s; it was first oper-ated by Theodore Schultz. The com-pany was sold to Leo Biel in 1933and he operated the plant until1960.

On November 1, 1960, DannieLaGrander with his wife Lorrainepurchased the facility.

Dannie LaGrander said he startedmaking cheese at Nasonville Dairyin 1950 for Clayton Johnson. Heobtained his cheesemakers license in1952 and continued working atNasonville Dairy until 1955.

After leaving Nasonville, DannieLaGrander then managed EdelweissCo-op of Stratford and Maple GroveCheese in Blenker, Wisconsinbefore purchasing Hillside Dairy inStanley.

“We had a lot of cheesemakingunder our belt,” Dannie said.

Dannie put the family to work.Lorraine had her own cheese maker’slicense, which was rare at the time,he said.

Randy got his cheese makerslicense when he was 15.

The company originally manufac-tured 40-pound blocks, but eventu-ally transition to waxed andCheddar horns, daisies and midgets.This transition required more work,but commanded premium prices.

“I’ve always tried tolook ahead, and neverbox myself in. We’rebasically a specialty

plant, and put ourselvesout there as such.”

—Randy LaGrander

During the late 1960s, LaGranderbegan manufacturing Muenster andBrick cheeses along with Cheddardaisies.

“As we started growing, we didn’thave the room, so we made thechoice to get out of Muenster andBrick and went into the Colbyhorns,” LaGrander said.

Back in 1972, LaGrander’sprocessed about 25,000 pounds ofmilk a day. Today running five daysa week, the company processesroughly 500,000 pounds of milk perday that it receives from about 140patrons.

Eighty percent of the company’smilk supply comes within 15-20miles of the plant.

On a yearly basis, LaGrander’sprocesses between 10 to 12 millionpounds of cheese with a team of 45employees.

•See LaGrander’s Hillside, p. ➥

THE FAMILY LAGRANDER: Joey, Ryan,Dannie and Randy LaGrander along side anopen table of recently slabbed cheese.

C H E E S E R E P O R T E R 15April 1, 2011

LaGrander’s HillsideContinued from p

Customer OrientedApproach Leads ToDiversification

“I never thought it would ever getthis big of an operation,” DannieLaGrander said.

Although the company doesn’temploy a sales team, it does workwith a few brokers. Any new salesusually stem from word-of-mouth,Randy LaGrander said.

“We’re pretty fortunate,” he said.“We’ve never had a customer takemore than 20 percent of all the pro-duction. Our top 10 customers prob-ably account for 60 percent of ourproduction. The other 40 percent issplit up between roughly 20 cus-tomers.”

“Our philosophy isthat if our name is onthe product we want itto be exactly what the

buyer is looking for andexpects.”

—Randy LaGrander,LaGrander’s Hillside Dairy

“I never wanted to get tied upwith just one account,” RandyLaGrander said.

Traditional Old-Style Colby IsBiggest Seller“People like traditional Colby andmilled Cheddar. That’s still the waywe do it here,” LaGrander said. “But,

The company also anticipatesworking on some variations ofGouda and Edam.

“We’re trying to offer differentcheeses – not in the traditional way,but to incorporate the product into adeli horn for slicing,” LaGrandersaid.

“We’ve developed some formulasfor flavor profiles, and whatever thecustomer is looking for, we’re tryingto obtain,” he said. “Nothing is bigvolume.”

Forward thinking and accommo-dating the marketer is a commontheme at LaGrander’s

“I’ve always tried to look ahead,and never box myself in,” LaGranderadded. “We’re basically a specialtyplant, and put ourselves out there assuch.”

In terms of expansion plans,LaGrander will leave up to the thirdgeneration of LaGrander's - his sons,Ryan and Joey.

“We’re probably at where we wantto be right now – from here on in,anything new will be the boys’responsibilities,” LaGrander said.

“These days consumers seemmore aware of what they are put-ting in their grocery carts,”LaGrander said.

Currently the biggest challengeLaGrander envisions for the com-pany will be to maintain qualityproducts and dedicated employees.

“We have been able to keep ourquality,” LaGrander said. “They(buyers) know what they’re going toget, they know it’s going to be con-sistent, and they know it’s going tobe of good quality,” he said. “Ourphilosophy is that if our name is onthe product we want it to be exactlywhat the buyer is looking for andexpects.”

For more information onLaGrander’s Hillside Dairy, visitwww.lagranderscheese.com rr

For more information, circle #37 on the Reader Response Card on p. 18

for the most part, that’s a thing ofthe past.”

Washed curd gets you a differentflavor – a fresh milk flavor,LaGrander explained. In washingthe curd, you wash the lactose offof it. For granular Cheddar, there isno wash, so a flavor differenceexists.

Then there is the question aboutopenings in Colby. LaGrander saidwith modern technology thoseopenings in Colby don’t exist any-more.

“Nowadays with the vacuummachinery, cheese pretty muchlooks the same, whether you doColby or granular Cheddar,”LaGrander said. “When you take a40-pound block, versus the hoops,there’s a big difference. The towerwill close them right up. In a pressblock, you can still get the open-ings, but once you go through thatvacuum, you won’t get the open-ings.”

Being able to offer both styles ofColby allows Hillside Dairy to nichethe product.

“One customer of ours prefers Tip-per Tie machines to vacuummachinery,” LaGrander said. “Sothey have larger openings. That’swhat he wants.”

“We’re very customer oriented –they dictate what they want. Andwe try out best to deliver.”

Future plansAmong Randy LaGrander’s futureplans will be promoting his MasterCheese Makers certification.

“Stores and distributors want tosee a story behind the product,” hesaid.

LaGrander has earned three Mas-ter Cheese Maker certifications;Colby and Monterey Jack cheese in2003, and one in Cheddar in 2006.

LaGrander's Hillside Dairy’s product line is sold nationally and includes Colby, Cheddar, MontereyJack, Pepper Jack and Co-Jack, The company takes pride in making traditional cheddaring stylesas well as, most recently, 40 pound blocks using block forming towers.