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Love Of Piemaking Spawns Global Enterprise From Nebraska Town.
If you think a rural Nebraska town can’t be headquarters for a global packaged food enterprise, you’d be wrong. As president of The Village Piemaker, Judith Odgen makes, packages, freezes and delivers 15 different frozen, ready-to-bake pies to markets across the globe from a restored slate green tile-and-brick dairy building on the main street in Eustis, Nebraska. She has some 350 steady accounts, five bakers, a sales representative and ambitious plans for growth.
So it’s hard to believe that just a few short years ago she was selling pies from the back of a pickup truck parked along Interstate 80.
A Piemaker At Heart
Long praised by friends and family for her scrumptious pies, Odgen decided to supplement her income by baking and selling fresh-baked pies at farmer’s markets in and around her home in Sumner, Nebraska. Then, in 2002, a persistent idea popped into her head and wouldn’t go away.
“I kept seeing myself selling pies from my pickup along I-80, and even though my logical mind told me that it was senseless to do it, my intuitive mind said to go ahead.” One bright weekend morning Odgen parked her pickup at the Elm Creek exit and opened for business. “In between selling pies, I played tunes on my fiddle.”
When a hunter who had purchased a pie called her from Washington, D.C. to place an order, Odgen knew she had something special. She remodeled her son’s bedroom into a commercial bakery and quit a secure job with benefits and retirement.
“I went into business with blind faith and a vague notion of a business plan,” said Odgen. “I thought I could run a business because being a single mom, I knew how to stretch dollars to the moon and back.”
Lessons in Marketing
Although by her own admission Odgen knew nothing about marketing when she started her business, she jumped in with both feet.
In her first year she developed 11 steady accounts, delivering 70 pies a week in an aging hatchback.
With the help of clever 60-second radio ads, awareness of the Village Piemaker grew, and so did demand. She hired a marketing specialist whom she calls “Simon, the Pieman” to expand the market by contacting the restaurants, grocery stores and specialty markets likely to carry the product.
Because she believes in the “no stone unturned” theory, she seldom turns down an invitation to speak before a group. Almost invariably, she says, someone will suggest a person for her to meet who furthers her goals. “I never miss an opportunity to share my experience, because everything leads to something else.”
A Plan to Expand
The Village Piemaker’s initial 11 accounts exploded to 350 accounts.
“Freezers and bags of flour and sugar took over my house,” said Odgen. “I needed to expand.” Odgen fielded calls from community leaders across the region trying to entice The Village Piemaker, Inc. to locate in their community. “The economic development people in Eustis were most creative, and they came up with a plan that made sense to me,” said Odgen. “Eustis felt like a good fit, and I have learned to trust my gut.”
Odgen contacted the Nebraska Business Development Center for assistance with developing her business plan. The Center offers consulting, training and materials for starting a new enterprise.
“I didn’t have any money although I do have super cash flow,” said Odgen. “Nebraska has lots of methods to help a small business acquire the money it needs. They were a tremendous help.”
A Quality Workplace
The importance of obtaining good paying jobs in rural Nebraska underscores Odgen’s personnel policy. Odgen finds that people who grow up in small communities or farms have learned to work hard and work well, and they have common sense.
“Minimum wage is a slap in the face,” says Odgen. “I take pride in my work, and I pay people well to care about the job.” Odgen gives the employees lots of credit for the company’s success. “All the little celebrations, I take back to the women because we wouldn’t be successful without us all working together for the company. Not a single employee has quit.”
Plans for the Future
“I learned early on while rolling out pie dough in the heat of the summer that it is so easy to get overwhelmed about the really big picture,” she said. “I used to think I need to have answers to every detail, and I have learned to step back and say I don’t know exactly how, but I know this problem will work itself out.”
Odgen’s plans for the future include returning to the smaller 8-inch pies and adding hand-held, empanada-type pies to the product line. “As the population ages,” she says, “the interest is smaller pies increases because older people prefer small portions.”
The Village Piemaker will also be working with University of Nebraska Food Processing Center to set up a UPC code on the labels and change packaging so the company can contract with grocery chains.
Odgen says they also plan to expand the fundraising section of the business. “When youth groups or non-profits sell pies, a high percentage of the profits returns to them,” she says. “We want to support what kids are doing.” She mentions youth sold 580 pies at a recent fundraiser for St. Anne’s Catholic Church in Lexington.
Despite workweeks that sometimes top 90 hours, Odgen loves what she does.
“I wake up every day expecting to be amazed, and I go to bed at night saying, ‘That was so cool.’ Stay open in life, because the most amazing things happen.”
Who To Contact...
The Village Piemaker
Judith Odgen
104 East Chandler Street
Eustis, NE
308.486.2383
www.villagepiemaker.com
pielady@nebnet.net
Nebraska Business Development Center
Business Consulting: 402.595.1158
EntrepreneurShop: 402.595.1158
www.nbdc.unomaha.edu
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