Posted: 4/11/06
Spring Grove pop teaming with Woodland Industries
By David Heiller
Argus News Editor
Spring Grove Bottling Works is making a bold marketing move, with help from Woodland Industries in Caledonia.
The soda pop company is famous in Houston County for its zesty flavors, led by a strawberry that is rumored to contain nitroglycerine. (OK, thatís a joke, but barely.) The distinctive little 10-ounce bottles have made it stand out too.
Now they are switching to 12 ounce bottles, and using Woodland workers to apply the new labels and assemble cartons. Woodland Industries is a non-profit agency that provides work for people with physical, mental, and emotional disabilities.
Dawn and Bob Hansen bought Spring Grove Bottling Works in December of 2003 from Roger and Eric Morken.
The Hansens thought the pop has the potential for a bigger market. Dawn surveyed 15-20 distributors last spring about whether the pop could saturate the state. She got a good response, but she kept hearing that distributors wanted it to be in new package; for example, cases with flat closures.
ìA lot of the distributors in the larger markets didnít want to deal with us because we looked so much different than everyone else out there,î she said.
A more consistent size of case is better for loading trucks, Hansen added. They have now switched to a 12-ounce bottle. Hansen is pleased with the look, because it has a long neck and resembles the classic old bottles that are fondly recalled by older folks. ìWeíre actually taking a step back,î Hansen said.
She also designed the label to look similar to old one. Her company also offers a six pack basket carrier so customers can can mix and match the flavors.
Using the new bottles took a major reconfiguration of the bottling machinery. They changed the washer and adjusted the filler since two more ounces of pop are going into the bottles. ìThe first day was quite a trial. We got through it,î Hansen said. ìEverything is working pretty good now."
They are back to the normal production of 350 cases a day. (A case contains 24 bottles.) The last of the 10-ounce bottles were bottled in early January.
Itís an exciting time for the business, Hansen said. They are taking out 10 ounce bottles now and putting in the 12 ounce ones. ìWeíre seeing it go of the shelves real quickly so weíre pleased with that,î she said
The Hansens also switched to a pressure-sensitive (peel-and-stick) label. They are cheaper, and allow the pop to show through nicely. They also do not peel off in water like paper ones do.
The labels also include nutritional information now, as well as ìcaffeine freeî and ìmade with pure cane sugar.î
A perfect fit
Woodland Industries enters the story with the new labels. Dawn wanted to switch to pressure sensitive labels, and her company did not have that capacity. She called City Brewery in La Crosse to see how they handled their labels, and was told that they used a sheltered workshop there. Thatís when the Woodland Industries light bulb clicked on.
It seems like a perfect fit, Woodland manager Roger ìMackî McCabe said on April 7. He took this reporter on a tour that morning. Woodland Industries is located in the east side of the Twice Is Nice building at 521 Old Highway Drive, which it also operates.
Workers in one room sat at a table, peeling labels off a roll and carefully placing them on a bottle. They used a jig that McCabe had devised, consisting of half a plastic pop bottle stapled onto a 1x6 board. Some of the boards have centering marks written in marker to help the workers get the labels on just right.
ìIt seems to be working,î McCabe said.
The bottles come on pallets in five layers containing a total 2,150 bottles. These have to carefully be put in a bin and taken to the labeling room.
In the next room. Kristie Skadson ran her hands over each bottle looking for air bubbles under the labels. If she finds one, the label is pulled off and the air spot removed.
Next to her, Tim Brunson was putting boxes together and putting a check mark next to one of the nine flavors printed on the cartons. It important to get the bottles in the right carton, so that the wrong pop doesnít go in the bottles at the plant in Spring Grove.
Our last stop was on the loading dock area. Thatís Jerry Kurtzís expertise. He stacks 49 cartons on a pallet then puts stretch wrap around them.
ìWeíve got people really good at labeling that probably couldnít do this job,î McCabe said about Kurtzís work.
All the different steps with the Spring Grove pop project is a good thing, McCabe said. ìA lot more people involved.î
When the workers met their quota on one intense day, McCabe took them to the lunch room and bought them treats. ìSpring Grove pop!î he said with a laugh.
They are now finishing up their first semi-truck load of 83,850 bottles. McCabe hopes to get another load by the end of April.
Dawn Hansen is hoping that too. It will mean that her push to expand the market of Spring Grove pop is successful.
The labels are forgiving, and donít have to be on the perfectly, Hansen said. ìSo far itís been working out real well,î she said of the partnership with Woodland Industries. ìIts a good feeling all the way around. Youíre putting people to work that maybe wouldnít have a job otherwise.î
Caledonia Argus
314 West Lincoln St.
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Caledonia, MN 55921-0227
507/724-3475
E-Mail: editor.argus@ecm-inc.com