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Customer demand drives Oxford Locker expansion
by Pat Underwood

Oxford Locker was one of the first rural business success stories covered in the early days of Nebraska Rural Living, but a recent expansion and enthusiastic customer reports about it brought us back to find out what owner Carl Kramer has been up to lately. A lot, as it turns out.

Fifteen hundred square feet of new retail space has been added to the custom and retail meat processing facility, including a gleaming new cooked-food preparation area which has enabled the locker to greatly increase its selection of ready-to-eat items. Freezer space has been doubled, the spice and seasoning collections are more extensive, competitively priced convenience and dairy items — as well as ammunition for hunters — have been added to the inventory, and the previously impressive selection of fresh meat is now twice what it used to be and much more attractively displayed.

How does an already-successful small business know when the time is right to expand?

"The customers are really what drove the timing of that decision," Carl said. "I could tell from the level at which the business was continuing to grow, demand was increasing, and customers were making requests for new and special items, that I needed to expand in order to fulfill the customers' needs and wants." 

Fulfill them he apparently has.

Meat, glorious meat

Sales of Carl's pre-cooked roast beef and pork loin have quadrupled as word has spread about their availability and succulence. Pulled pork, smoked brisket, summer sausage, meat sticks and smoked turkey drumsticks are also among the most popular of the pre-cooked items available. People still come from miles around--more people and more miles all the time--for Carl's country smoked hams.

On occasion, Oxford Locker cooks up specialty items, and this writer can attest that the smoked prime rib and zesty orange barbecue-smoked chicken breasts available on a recent visit are so tasty they could almost bring a food-worshipping person to her knees. Made-to-order sandwiches are also now available, big and meaty and inexpensive, with options including pastrami, salami, four kinds of ham, corned beef, and smoked turkey.

There are eleven flavors of bratwurst, eight varieties of beef jerky, and a quick listing of ready-to-cook chicken breasts in the freezer section included sun-dried tomato-basil, lemon butter, buffalo wing seasoned, Italian, lemon pepper, mesquite, butter garlic, and many more mouthwatering options.

You might not want to go when you're hungry, but it's more fun if you do.

World famous, locally conscious

Carl jokes that his jerky is "world famous" because quite a bit of it has been sent to U.S. troops stationed overseas, but he is serious about fulfilling his own and his customers' and staff members' desire to do something of value for others. Each hunter having meat processed at Oxford locker is given the opportunity to donate a package of jerky for the staff to send in care packages to the troops. Retail customers can do this as well.

The Locker also participates in the Hunters Feeding the Hungry program, through which hunters make extra deer meat available for distribution to regional food banks.

Start small, be realistic, and plan to work very, very hard

Carl purchased Oxford Locker as an existing business in 1999, operating the entire facility with only himself and two employees. He now has ten full time and two seasonal part time employees, and expects to employ up to 22 people during deer season.

He would caution potential entrepreneurs, though, not to expect this sort of growth to happen overnight.

"A person thinking about starting a new business, especially in a small rural area, needs to have realistic expectations, a good business plan, and must be prepared for a LOT of hard work," Carl said. "Also, when you find good employees you want to keep over the long term, you must be prepared to pay them well. You can't expect to just pay minimum wage."

Mostly, though, Carl said a successful small business owner must be very dedicated and hands-on, maintain high quality, and be willing to add new things to keep current customers coming back and draw new ones.

"You can't expect to be able to just pay to get things done, you have to expect to do a great deal of the work yourself," he said. "And you can't expect to start pulling money out of the business right away; you must plan to put money back into the business to make it grow."

Carl will be doing just that — again — with the next phase of his expansion, which he had been planning for two years into the future, but which he says now — with a tone of calm satisfaction every small business owner surely hopes to achieve one day — will probably be able to take place even sooner.

Who To Contact...

Oxford Locker
309 Odell Street
Oxford, NE 68967
308.824.3662
800.538.0384
www.oxfordlocker.com
Hours: 8-5 Monday through Friday and 8-3 on Saturdays

Pat Underwood is a resident of Alma, Nebraska, where she does grant writing, fundraising, and other development work for non-profit organizations and serves part time as Harlan County Tourism Director. She is also a regional reporter for the Kearney Hub. She is a former resident of California, Hawaii, Guam, and Florida and can be reached at underwoodpat@ymail.com.

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