Vande Rose Farms

601N L Street Oskaloosa, Iowa 52577

www.vanderosefoods.com

By Ken Van Gilst

June 2006

Motivation

Vande Rose Farms is an Iowa company that raises pork and owns a catering business. The company is comprised of three extended families (Van Gilst, DeBruin and Rozenboom), whose ancestors emigrated from Holland more than 100 years ago.

The 1,400-sow inventory (at this writing) consists of Yorkshire, Landrace and Chester breeds. One of the family farms specializes in Duroc. Pigs are processed at SiouxPreme Packing Co. in Sioux Center, Iowa. Then the pork is further processed and/or cured at several different facilities for the niche market.

Pork products, including artisan dry cured bacon and artisan-cured ham, are sold through three food distributors and from a Web site (www.vanderosefoods.com/). Products are also sold through Vande Rose Catering.

Vande Rose Farms is organized as a limited liability corporation. V.G. Farm, a member of Vande Rose Farms, supplies the pigs and employs about 10 people. Vande Rose Catering employs one fulltime and several part time employees. Three full-time employees administer Vande Rose Farms, LLC. Like many family businesses, some individuals are involved with more than one business entity.

Business Development

The company started small with a loan of $100,000. Credit is provided through local banks.

Vande Rose chose to use Duroc-sired pigs based on findings from an extensive genetic carcass and evaluation study conducted by the National Pork Producers Council in the mid 1990s. The Duroc breed was identified as having desirable traits in pork color, tenderness and intramuscular fat. Duroc-sired pigs were also found as having desirable flavor and appropriate growth resulting in even marbling.

Vande Rose was awarded a $248,000 USDA producer grant in 2001. This funding enabled Vande Rose to launch the catering business. It was also used for market development for the Duroc pork sales.

Vande Rose also received a $100,000 grant from the Iowa Department of Economic Development Board’s Value Added Agricultural Products and Processes Financial Assistance Program. This funding will be used to establish the company headquarters and welcome center.

Market Access

Many pork producers went through difficult financial hardships during the 1990s. To survive the challenging economic environment, Vande Rose adopted new strategies that included feeding the pigs natural grain, certifying the pork’s quality, using single-source verification and marketing the pork as natural and antibiotic-free.     

Critical Steps/Barriers to Success

The critical steps in the development of this business were:

• adopting  production practices to meet consumer demands;
• maintaining quality of the products;
• determining the market niche of Duroc pork from one farm; and
• good product promotion at point of sale and distributor channels.

Unexpected Problems

“We had to learn what margin we needed since some cuts were harder to market and (were) sold back to the processor at commodity prices.”

The overnight transport of the products to different locations using FedEx was also a learning curve. “Of course, FedEx was not practical and we have since improved the trucking logistics.”

Success or Failure?

“We are getting more confident of success, but it is a little early to declare victory.”

Industry/Market Changes

Agri-education and agri entertainment  are growing and will continue to grow as long as there are consumer concerns about product safety, and knowing where food is coming from.

Lessons Learned

In a large pork operation that focuses on product quality, you have to invest a lot of energy and effort in order to be successful in the market.

Malinda Geisler

Ag Marketing Resource Center

Iowa State University

866-277-5567

www.agmrc.org

malindag@iastate.edu