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With a 100,000-square-foot new plant, Silver Springs is positioned for growth.
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| Henry Schwartz stands before a colorful display of skateboards in his Board to Death shop in downtown Menomonie. The 17-year-old has owned the business for two years and has become active in the downtown Menomonie business community. Photo by Joel Becker.
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e believed that if we built it, they would come.”
So says Ed Schaefer, 43, the president of Silver Spring Gardens, Inc., the nation's largest grower and retail processor of horseradish, about the new 100,000 square foot plant.
But there were reasons to not build the plant.
On a weekly basis Silver Spring Gardens, a subsidiary of Huntsinger Farms, with 9,000 acres of farmland in Wisconsin and Minnesota, have opportunities to sell the company.
“We get about seven offers a week for Silver Spring Gardens,” said Schaefer.
And other cities tried to persuade Silver Springs to build the new plant in their city, rather than on the north side of Eau Claire.
People like Ty Holzmer, 20, shown here skateboarding at the Menomonie skate park inside Phelan Park, make up the customer base for Schwartz’s Board to Death shop. Photo by Joel Becker.
“When we decided to build a new plant other cities offered us free land, grants and other incentives. But we stayed and expanded here, because Silver Spring Gardens has been a part of Eau Claire for 75 years,” said Schaefer.
But perhaps the biggest reason not to take the risk of expansion was the loss of their primary client, which constituted 30 percent of the company's business.
“Two-and-a-half years ago, one of our biggest clients was sold to another company. To maintain the business, this new company required an upfront payment to sign a new contract,” said Schaefer.
Schaefer and Silver Spring Gardens do not do business this way and lost the contract. With almost a third of their business gone, 51 employees were released in February of 2003. The plans to expand were shelved.
“I'd rather go out of business than do something that is wrong,” Schaefer said. “And we believe it is wrong to do business this way. Still, we lost over $10 million of annual business.”
So what did Silver Spring Gardens do?
“We drove and we called,” Schaefer said. “We went to trade shows and pitched our product. We told prospective clients to taste the difference - and they did. Within five months, we had seven new clients and more business than ever.”
By adapting, Silver Spring Gardens increased its market share.
“The loss of the large client made us stronger,” Schaefer said. “Five months after we released the 51 employees, we offered them their jobs, and went back to our plans to expand.”
That expansion is a 21st century facility that sits on 20 acres. Inside, the plant shines - enough shine to make a fastidious homemaker smile. Automated cleaning systems keep the stainless steel surfaces lustrous. There are sanitary, sealed sections for mustard, horseradish and jams and jellies. Touch-surface screens provide precise control over the machines. Secure doors, both interior and exterior, keep the food safe.
Although it is a modern, shining facility, it might remind you of grandma's kitchen. It is aromatic, with myriad scents to entertain the schnoz. Walk through the plant and your nose will be treated to the salty tang of soy sauce, the plush sweetness of jams and jellies, the exotic tones of chipotle mustard and the sharp scent of vinegar, a prime ingredient in many of Silver Springs Gardens' products.
There is also space, with coolers the size of gymnasiums, and ceilings high enough to receive robotic machinery.
“The world is changing faster than it ever has,” Schaefer said. “We can't do business like we once did. No one can. We need space to incorporate coming change.”
As Silver Spring Gardens increases its efficiency with machinery, it will need ever more skilled employees.
“Consumers want quality and low price,” Schaefer said. “That requires modern production methods. To maintain the machinery, we'll be hiring more people with engineering and mechanical backgrounds.”
Touring the plant, the efficiency is apparent.
“We once had men lugging 50-pound sacks of mustard,” Schaefer said.
Now machines fill 2,200-pound super-sacks of mustard.
Assembly lines are designed to allow workers to monitor two operations at once.
Silver Spring Gardens also tries to increase the physical efficiency of its employees with proactive health measures. Ninety-six employees are competing to see who can walk the most in a month. They wear pedometers and compete in teams of four. The winning team was to view a Packers game from a luxury box.
But the new plant does more than increase efficiency. It increases quality with a quality control laboratory. But more than machines are employed to assess quality.
“We installed computers in our employee break room,” Schaefer said. “That way, they can alert us to problems on the floor. One employee wrote that one of our products wasn't up to our standards. Management agreed and we upgraded that product.”
There is also a gourmet kitchen.
“We want to bring celebrity chefs to our facility,” Schaefer said. “They could film a show here, so that people can see how to integrate mustards and horseradishes into their cooking. We are also going to offer cooking classes. We believe in the power of word of mouth.”
But Silver Spring Gardens is more than modern innovations of touch screen technology and increasing robotics.
“We don't have a wordy mission statement,” Schaefer said. “It is simply, ‘Taste the Difference.' But ‘the difference' isn't only in our food. It's in how we do business. Integrity and ethics are paramount. So we develop company pride. If your people believe in what they're doing, they'll jump through flaming hoops to increase its quality.”
Though the employees of Silver Spring Gardens don't do the show circus trick of jumping through flaming hoops, they do other things that show pride in their product.
“Some of our employees when they're grocery shopping, will check the sections where our products are sold,” Schaefer said. “And they'll straighten the bottles. Our VPs do it. Some of our line people do it. And I do it. When we travel, my son will say, ‘Dad, let's not go into any grocery stores.' He knows if I go in, I'll realign our products.”
And Schaefer has experienced the impact on customers who did taste the difference.
“I was at a party last month and a woman I didn't know suddenly hugged me and said, ‘Thank you for your chipotle mustard! I don't know what I'd do without it!'”
As the employees of Silver Spring Gardens struggle to maintain production while shifting the site of production from Hwy. 37 to the new north side plant, Schaefer foresees the day when the plant will brim with activity and machinery.
“We are a flexible company,” he said. “We are setting up to do the work, the small runs, that the huge companies won't do. Our increasing efficiency supports our quality. We want to become more than a mere maker of horseradish and mustard. We want our quality and value to give the same sort of meaning to our name as Harley Davidson or Porsche.”
With a doubling of plant size, is Schaefer satisfied?
“When everyone in the Chippewa Valley straightens our products on store shelves,” Schaefer jokes, “I'll be satisfied.” s
Katie McKy is a freelance writer from
Eau Claire. Contact the Chippewa Valley
Business Report at (715) 723-5515 or through www.chippewavalleybusinessreport.com
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