HEBER CITY — Bear Creek Country Kitchens, the smash-hit gourmet foods company that began 10 years ago as a home enterprise by a welfare family struggling to pay utility bills, has gone on to bigger game.
JMH International of Delafield, Wis., has announced a merger creating Bear Creek Foods LLC. It will be the umbrella for two businesses, one of which will operate under the name Bear Creek Kitchens LLC, according to Kevin Ruda, chief executive officer of Bear Creek Foods LLC.
JMH, the other entity under the merger, will own 80 percent of the re-formed Bear Creek Kitchens, Ruda said. The remaining 20 percent interest will be retained by Don and Sheila White, who founded the country-kitchen business in 1991, sometimes sleeping in their plant — then in Sandy Station — and taking the family to a motel twice a week where they could shower.
The Whites bow out of management roles in this Horatio Alger story, after taking Bear Creek Kitchens to a peak of $32 million in sales in 1997. Steve White, their son, will stay on as vice president of sales and marketing.
"There definitely are bittersweet feelings," Steve White said. "The family took this thing further than anyone ever imagined.
"But after all the hard work and dreams and building the business literally from nothing, when you lay it all out, this is the right move for the brand, the right move for the employees and, ultimately, for the White family."
All of the other approximately 110 full-time Bear Creek Kitchen employees will be retained, Ruda said. He declined to comment on financial details of the multimillion-dollar deal, which closed May 8.
"We want to continue the unique legacy of Bear Creek Kitchens while helping accelerate its growth," said Ruda, 48. "We bring capital liquidity to the operation with a goal of increased productivity.
"Bear Creek Kitchen products are in 60 percent of retail outlets now. We plan to be in 80 percent by the end of 2002 and, eventually, 95 percent. Almost nothing reaches 100 percent, but we'll be trying."
Ruda said JMH eventually will move its dry-manufacturing process to the Heber City plant. It will operate in the same 175,000-square-foot-building the White family built at 875 S. Industrial Parkway as it expanded from its home phase, triggered when Sheila White began making a home English wassail recipe.
Today, Bear Creek Kitchens makes more than 60 soup, bread, cake and dip mixes, many of which earned awards in gourmet food-judging circles.
JMH, Ruda said, makes soup bases, seasonings, blended spices and flavorings that primarily supply institutional, industrial, TV dinner, chain-restaurant and airline food product manufacturers.
"We believe there is an upside synergy which can enhance our growth in both manufacturing operations," said Ruda, who is moving to the Park Meadows neighborhood in Park City, where he will commute and office in Heber Valley.
A Wisconsin native, Ruda has "been in the food business all my life," in Portland, Ore.; Orange County, Calif., and Indianapolis. Most recently, before becoming CEO of JMH International, he was president of Holsum Food Inc., and Beatrice Foods, a division of ConAgra.
"Bear Creek Kitchens built a great success story from scratch, but it may have reached its peak organized as it was. We intend to take it to new heights," Ruda said.
Bear Creek Country Kitchens sales had leveled off in the $30 million to $32 million range since 1997, prompting Don and Sheila White, both in their 60s, to seek a sale or merger. The sales figures were a far cry from the humble beginnings.
"Mom and Dad had exactly zero when this started," Steve White said.
After Don White lost a finger in an industrial accident, the family moved from Washington state to Richfield and bought a "broken down" house for $20,000. Sheila White heard about a country fair in Provo and made up 300 bags of dry wassail mix in her kitchen. The first day of the fair, she sold all 300 bags.
The family began selling to trade shows under the label Bear Creek Country Dips, living part time and mixing products in a motel on West Temple. In 1992, the family moved to the Sandy Station plant, living there without kitchen or shower facilities.
"They'd go to truck stops or motels to shower," Steve White said.
Sheila White added soup and cake mixes to the product line in 1993 and the family moved to a plant in Heber City "because Dad wanted to escape the city," Steve White said.
By 1994, the business went from selling through trade shows and independent contractors to wholesale gift-shop marketing. By the end of 1995, they had 3,000 gift-shop accounts and sold to approximately 250 independent grocers.
In February 1996, Bear Creek placed products in two Salt Lake Costco Wholesale Clubs and Sheila came out with a new potato soup recipe.
"It became our No. 1 seller," Steve White said.
By September 1996, Bear Creek was in all Costco stores in North America, 550 retail groceries, 6,000 gift shops and numerous military commissaries.
Sales rose from $500,000 in 1994 to $1.5 million in '95, $14 million in '96 and $32 million in '97.
"It was a tremendous ride, a tribute to my mom's energy and imagination and my dad's know-how," Steve White said. "The best thing about the merger is that the Bear Creek story will still be the Bear Creek story."
E-MAIL: gtwyman@desnews.com