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If One Business, Why Not Two?

Quality meat products, nuts and bolts keep customers coming back to Oxford

Red and gold autumn days, sweet apples and the pungent smell of burning maple leaves come to mind as you savor a morsel of country ham smoked at the Oxford Locker, a custom meat processing plant and retail storefront in Oxford, Nebraska.

The fine texture and mouthwatering taste of Oxford Locker hams attract customers who live many miles outside of the Oxford region. Fresh cuts of locally raised pork and beef, smoked hams, bacon, beef jerky, pioneer steaks and bratwurst are among the meat products prepared and sold at the locker

Driven By An Entrepreneurial Spirit

Carl Kramer has owned the Oxford Locker since 1999. Kramer started learning the meat processing business at his first job in a grocery store in his hometown of Atkinson, Nebraska.

“I learned the trade in Atkinson, but then I got a job as a department manager at Sam's Club in their meat department,” said Kramer. “I put in a lot of time and effort, and I learned as much as I could.”

Kramer was ultimately promoted to regional fresh merchandiser at eleven Sam's Clubs in Minnesota and Wisconsin, but his entrepreneurial spirit was always urging him to buy his own business. When he heard from a relative about a locker business for sale in his native Nebraska, he purchased the Oxford plant and moved his family to Oxford within a few weeks.

The Satisfaction of Business Ownership

Owning his own business satisfies Kramer. “No matter how stressful the work becomes, I still have control, and I decide what to do everyday,” says Kramer. “I forecast the amount of work we can do so the company will grow at the rate I can live with comfortably.”  

Kramer believes that no matter how stressful the days become at the locker, the work is never as stressful as it was when he worked for a large company. "During the whole time I have owned the Oxford Locker, not one day do I wake up and wish I didn't have to go to work. When I was employed at the Sam's Club job, though, there were many days I wished I could stay home,” he said.

If One Business, Why Not Two?

In 2004, feeling the entrepreneurial nudge again, Kramer purchased a hardware store in Oxford that had been emptied and closed down for six months.

“Three times in one week I traveled 22 miles for $3.00 worth of bolts and washers to repair a machine at the locker,” says Kramer. “I joked when I said that I need to buy a hardware store to keep a locker.”

But Kramer took himself seriously and decided to buy the hardware store building on the main street of Oxford and open a hardware business.

“We had room to spare in the building,” says Kramer. “I invited in other businesses to share the space, and we manage the cash register.” Today T'N'T Farm Supply and PinPoint rent space in the building.

Advice to Entrepreneurs

“In the food processing business, a quality product is essential to maintain customer loyalty,” Kramer says. “Recruiting and retaining productive and competent employees helps assure quality. If you can recruit the people you want to work with you, you need to pay to keep them. If you pay minimum wage and employee turn over will take away the business profits.”

Kramer says word-of-mouth is the best kind of advertising, which is why Oxford Locker often provides meat products for benefit suppers in the region.

“Time and effort can make about anything work,” he concludes. “If you can get something people need and present an excellent product, they will buy from you.”

Who To Contact...

Oxford Locker
309 Odell Street
Oxford, NE 68967
308.824.3662
www.oxfordlocker.com
locker@atcjet.net

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