Business Pulse

More documents

Recommendations

Info

<strong>Business</strong> Profile: Hempler’s Idaho. “I envision a day, not too distant, when less than 20 percent of our sales are in Washington. That’s due to exploding population growth in other western states.” Richard Hempler, company chairman, said, “The growth is all south and southeast. As our company continues to grow, our business outside of Washington increases. Our sales center 10 years ago was Seattle. Now that volume percentage is moving south.” Hempler’s is a regional company, but through sales to Safeway their products can be found throughout the nation. Hempler enjoys hearing fisherman friends tell of buying bacon with his name on it in a tiny store on a tiny island at the tip of the Aleutians. Hempler and Bates joke that they’d like to call on the Safeway stores in Hawaii – just to check on their product, of course. It’s all a long, long way from the company’s Depressionera beginning on F Street in downtown Bellingham. Richard Hempler’s father, Hans Hempler, worked in his family’s sausage business that started during the 1800s in Borken, Germany. Hans Hempler became a master sausage maker before immigrating to the U.S. in 1928. The story goes that he didn’t speak much English, but chose Bellingham because it sounded like a belly and a ham, and he knew what those were. He worked and saved, and in 1934, with a partner, bought B.B. Meat & Sausage Company, 1401 F Street. The business operated at that original site through 2005. “When I was 7 years old, after school I’d go down to the plant and help with clean up,” Richard Hempler said. “I don’t know how much help I was. If I wasn’t doing anything, my dad put a broom in my hand. I grew up in the family business. Summers during high school I worked in the sausage kitchen. “It was hard work. You had to earn respect. I did; it took me a “If I wasn’t doing anything, my dad put a broom in my hand. I grew up in the family business.” —Richard Hempler, chairman while. We used to twist the sausages into individual links by hand. You could do 75 pounds of sausage an hour. Today, we have machines do that 50 times faster, and more accurately.” The old plant had its own retail outlet, which operated through the 1980s. The store included big butcher blocks, three meat cutters, and a 40-foot-long, fullservice glass case stocked with 14 | BUSINESSPULSE.COM
WILSON TOYOTA Pork products – the fastest-growing market for Hempler’s – require travel afar, even abroad, for the company to meet its strict quality requirements. (Photos courtesy of Hempler’s) On Sourcing Pork: Ironically, while Hempler’s has grown an enormously popular brand locally, and throughout Washington and the entire Western U.S., it must go abroad to source some of its biggest sellers – an allnatural line of meats. “We try to source as locally as possible,” said Kestin Hempler Liberato, the director of sales. “We get poultry, beef, and chicken from Washington and Oregon.” However, she said, there’s not a pork market in the Pacific Northwest, so the company goes elsewhere in North America and Europe. “People wonder why we’d go so far,” Kestin said. “Our product quality (for Hempler’s natural line) specifies no growth promoters, and no antibiotics, and the animals must be vegetarian-fed and humanely-raised. “We created a differentiated product in the market. We have to go (far) to get that. That side of the business is far and away our fastest-growing segment.” To all our Patrons who helped make us #1. Thank You wilsontoyota.com Sales Commercial Sales Service Parts 1100 Iowa Street 360.676.0600 Whatcom’s Largest and Best Selling New and Used Inventory WHATCOMBUSINESSALLIANCE.COM | 15
Page 1 and 2: 28TH Whatcom Business Person of the
Page 3 and 4: What An SBA Preferred Lender Can Do
Page 5 and 6: THE STYLE REVOLUTION BEGINS For tho
Page 7 and 8: Whatcom County ... ... the heart of
Page 10 and 11: Leading Off At our most recent WBA
Page 12 and 13: Business Profile: Hempler’s Hempl
Page 16 and 17: Business Profile: Hempler’s sausa
Page 18 and 19: Business Profile: Hempler’s watch
Page 20 and 21: Business Person of the Year From le
Page 22 and 23: Business Person of the Year Finalis
Page 30 and 31: Start-Up Business of the Year Final
Page 38: Small Business of the Year Finalist
Page 42 and 43: Small Business of the Year Finalist
Page 44 and 45: Small Business of the Year Finalist
Page 46 and 47: Lifetime Achievement Award: Dan Was
Page 52 and 53: Where Are They Now? Since then he h
Page 54 and 55: Where Are They Now? Rud Browne (Fil
Page 56 and 57: Where Are They Now? Small Business
Page 58 and 59: Industry Report - Golf In Whatcom C
Page 64 and 65:
Industry Report - Golf In Whatcom C
Page 66 and 67:
Page 68 and 69:
Page 70 and 71:
Page 72 and 73:
Page 74 and 75:
Page 76 and 77:
Philanthropy: Mt. Baker Chapter Red
Page 78 and 79:
Page 80 and 81:
Page 82 and 83:
Personally Speaking: WWU President
Page 84 and 85:
• Education: B.S., Master’s, an
Page 86 and 87:
Page 88 and 89:
“We Got It” Service is our Spec
Page 90 and 91:
Page 92 and 93:
Page 94 and 95:
Page 96 and 97:
Guest Column: Minimum Wage Law Erin
Page 98 and 99:
Guest Column: Free-Market Environme
Page 100 and 101:
Guest Column: Risk Management Don C
Page 102 and 103:
Guest Column: Lean Business Randall
Page 104 and 105:
Guest Column: Water Rights Ken Mann
Page 106 and 107:
Guest Column: Water Rights Roger Al
Page 108 and 109:
Whatcom Business Alliance Fostering
Page 110 and 111:
Ask the Experts: Life in the Tech L
Page 112 and 113:
free for personal and commercial us
show all

Business Pulse

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?