New! Mixed Berry KefirThis letter is probably long overdue. We apologize for that. We are a small company doing a lot of pretty amazing things with just a few people. Sometimes, it can be a challenge for us to make time for those items that don’t make their way to the top our “to do” lists.
If you are a loyal Kalona SuperNatural™ customer or follow us on Twitter or Facebook, you probably know that we work hard to respond to all of our customer questions in a timely manner. And lately, we have been very busy responding to a lot of questions about a variety of different topics. As a result, we believe it makes sense to share some detailed information with all of our customers.
Kalona SuperNatural™ Organic Butter Availability
Hopefully, many of you have experienced our Kalona SuperNatural™ grass-fed organic butter. Throughout the years, we have received a lot of positive feedback from customers about our butter—and we love it too! We want to be able to continue to produce this product on a consistent basis but there are some extreme challenges associated with it.
- Butter takes cream. This is obvious, right? However, as a brand that sells more cream-based products (Whole Milk, Whole Greek Milk Yogurt, Whole Milk Cottage Cheese, Whipping Cream, Half & Half, etc.) than perhaps any other brand in the country, this can be a challenge.
- Cream levels are low. In addition to using a large amount of cream in other products, cream levels are low this year due to lingering effects from previous years and yet another long, snow-filled winter with extremely low temperatures.
As a result of these issues, we have limited the geographic distribution of our butter to what we refer to as the greater Midwest region (roughly from Minnesota to Texas and the Rocky Mountains to the Appalachian Mountains). This is not based on choosing one retail customer over another. Instead, it based on a variety of factors that we constantly review as a business:
- Customer geographic location
- Freight costs & potential shipping options
- Volume
- Overall product mix & availability in a given region
Kalona SuperNatural™ Geographic Availability
Demand for our non-homogenized, minimally processed milk has also increased substantially over the last few years. This is great news for all us—our customers, our farmers, our community, and the environment!
However, like butter, there are real challenges that exist with expanding the distribution of our milk. Due to our non-homogenized, low-temp pasteurization process, our milk has a short shelf life—only 19 days!
This means that we have to consider the same factors as above but freight costs and logistics become even more important. So places like Florida, California, and the Pacific Northwest are far enough away by truck that it’s really hard to ship our fluid milk and keep good dates on the shelf.
Kalona SuperNatural™ Retailer-Specific Availability
Many customers contact us to find out if a specific retailer carries our products. Previously, we have attempted to use our Store Locator on our website to guide customers. This has not been as helpful as we would like it to be and hard to maintain. Subsequently, we are considering removing this from our website.
Due to the fact that we sell the majority of our products through distributors (companies that purchase the products from us and then sell/ship them directly to retailers), it is very difficult for us to know what products are being stocked at each of the individual retail stores.
Here are the steps that we suggest you take if you are looking for Kalona SuperNatural™ products:
- Ask your favorite retailer to order the product for you. Usually retailers are very willing to special order a product for a customer and may even be willing to stock our products on their shelves and see if other customers are interested in buying them too.
- Consumers and retailers can always contact us at organic@kalonasupernatural.com and our sales team can connect with the retailer too.
Kalona SuperNatural™ Online/Direct Orders
This is another question that we get a lot. We wish that we had this option available for our customers but unfortunately today, the best place to get our products is at a brick and mortar grocery store.
In the past, we have recommended a few different 3rd party web-based distributors but are no longer doing this.
Future Expansion Plans for Kalona SuperNatural™
2013 was a very busy year for us. We spent most of the year getting ready to launch our new Organic Whole Milk Greek Yogurt line and our Organic Whole Milk Cheeses.
In 2014, we will continue to support those launches as well as the rest of our core product line to the best of our abilities.
In the end, we want to make sure that our cows, farmers, employees, partners, and customers are all as happy as they can be. This isn’t easy, but we strive to accomplish this everyday.
There may be times that we have to tell a customer that we can’t get them butter in California and that is very disappointing. But our hope is that making those decisions in the short-term will help us continue to be a thriving, successful business in the long-term.
If you have any other questions, please don’t hesitate to contact us at organic@kalonasupernatural.com. One of us will get back to you as soon as we can. Or subscribe to our newsletter at www.kalonasupernatural.com/contact to stay up-to-date and receive valuable coupons.
Sincerely,
Bill Evans
Owner
Kalona Organics