Bakers find power in numbers

Cooperative has stocked Valley kitchens since 1948

By Judy Waggoner
Post-Crescent correspondent

NEENAH — While most people sleep, bakers rise in the early morning hours to create the fragrant food British satirist Jonathan Swift called the “staff of life.”

To accomplish a task that many take for granted, however, bakers must have the ingredients with which to work. For more than 50 years, bakers in Wisconsin and Michigan’s Upper Peninsula have turned to Valley Bakers Association (VBA), a buying-and-distribution cooperative, 820 Ehlers Road, Neenah.

“A fine Irish gentleman named Fran Quigley started the company in 1949 with a group of local bakers,” said Mark Munroe, chief operating officer and executive vice president of VBA.

Quigley, who sold frozen food, shared his vision for an efficient way for bakers to purchase ingredients and supplies. Each of the bakers put up a $500 capital stock investment to launch the company.

“My father was a baker all of his life, and he was one of the bakers who started Valley Bakers with Fran Quigley,” recalled Rick Simon, owner of Simple Simon Bakery, 218 E. Wisconsin Ave., Appleton.

“If VBA was not here in Wisconsin, the small bakers would be paying a higher price for ingredients,” Simon said.

Organized as a purchasing cooperative, today members still pay only $500 (a one-time purchase of five $100 shares) to become active stockholders.

VBA has 420 member-owners who operate 800 businesses, such as retail and wholesale bakeries, supermarket bakeries, donut shops, pizza restaurants, candy makers, and institutional food service companies. VBA also serves non-members in the baking industry.

“We work through other co-ops so we have national buying power,” Munroe said.

Member-owners receive benefits in three ways: upfront (in low product prices), annually (in dividends), and long-term, he said.

Since its founding, VBA has returned an average annual dividend of about 2 percent to its member-owners in proportion to their individual purchases.

“A cooperative is a very old form of business, and it’s been in America forever,” Munroe said.

Leadership

Daily operations and supervision of 60 employees falls to Munroe but the company is guided by a nine-member board of directors and two advisors.

“They’ve got good direction and good management,” said Paul Werner, retired partner-shareholder of Schenck & Associates and a VBA advisor. “The board does not get involved in the day-to-day activities, but provides leadership.”

Werner has been involved with VBA since 1968 when he was a Schenck accountant.

Since taking over as COO last December, Munroe initiated development of a mission statement, which says, in part, “with outstanding employees and dynamic vendor partnerships, we deliver the finest baking-related products at the best possible value.”

“Our business is more than just making a living; it’s relationships,” Munroe said.

After joining VBA in 1983 as an area sales manager Munroe worked his way up the management ladder. Originally from New England, he went to college in Daytona Beach, Fla., before moving to the Fox Valley.

“I’ve spent all my working career in the baking industry,” Munroe said.

Operations

VBA is spread over three facilities including the corporate offices and 35,000-square-foot warehouse for dry ingredients in Neenah built in 1979 as well as a smaller 10,000-square-foot warehouse in Menasha.

In 1996, the company bought 15 acres in Greenville and erected a three-story, 1.5 million cubic feet of combined cooler and freezer storage space. The cooler is kept at 34 degrees, and the freezer is 10 degrees below zero.

“We would like to be all under one roof within 10 years, but we have no strict timeline,” Munroe said. “We’re in good shape financially; we’ve doubled our business in the last 15 years.”

VBA does over $26 million in sales annually, and flour, sugar, and shortening are the “big three” items requested by members. Since establishing an Internet site in 2000, members can now place orders online as well as by phone or fax.

VBA sells about 7,000 products through standard and special ordering processes, Munroe said.

“We get lots of requests for all kinds of grains, like flax seed and wheat germ,” he added.

“Years back, it was all small retail scratch bakeries,” said Don Vande Walle Sr., a VBA board member since 1982. “But (VBA) has evolved so that there are fewer of those and more supermarkets doing baking.”

Subsidiaries

Vande Walle, founder of Vande Walle’s Candies, 400 Mall Drive, Grand Chute, has been a VBA member since 1974. He is also president of Baker’s Supply Co., a VBA subsidiary trucking operation in Wisconsin and upper Michigan.

Established to provide freight service to VBA customers, Baker’s Supply has a fleet of 12 trucks and insulated semi-trailers that feature separate compartments for frozen, refrigerated and dry goods. About one-third of freight business comes from outside VBA.

Progressive Warehousing is a division of VBA that offers a range of warehouse and distribution services, including frozen and refrigerated storage facilities. About two-thirds of its business comes from public storage contracts.

VBA is successful because of “good service, good prices, and good products,” Vande Walle said.

Judy Waggoner can be reached by e-mail at pcbusiness@postcrescent.com