Looking Back & Looking Ahead
Shullsburg, Wisconsin, population 1,100, is a small, quaint community located in the hilly southwestern corner of the state known as the Driftless Area or Bluff Country. It is one of the oldest settlements in Wisconsin renowned for lead mining, cheese making, and historic Water Street Commercial District. The cheese notoriety is thanks in part to Shullsburg Creamery, an award-winning establishment that employs two and three generations of cheese makers on Water Street, Downtown. Everybody knows each other here. It is the perfect atmosphere for making cheese.
Founded in 1934, by Anton “Tony” Pederson, a Danish immigrant with a panache for making great cheese and butter, Shullsburg Creamery developed a rich, decades-long tradition, of making delicious, handcrafted, old-style cheeses using fresh milk from local dairy cows. By the 1940’s, the Creamery was providing cheese for American soldiers serving in World War II and quickly gained notoriety across the Midwest. In 1972, a Chicago business executive named Art Stocker purchased the business from Tony on a handshake and moved his family to Wisconsin to take over the operations. Art’s son, Scott, eventually became CEO of the company before selling it to the Midwest Dairymen Cooperative in 2005. Shullsburg Creamery became part of the Prairie Farms family in 2020.
Today, Shullsburg Creamery employs about 135 team members between production, packaging, management, and associated distribution business called Shullsburg Transportation. Milk starts flowing around midnight daily and throughout the course of a day, somewhere between 10 to 12 vats of cheese are in production. “We can make anything from cheese curds to 40 pound blocks,” says Robert Frie, General Manager. “Some of our volume is cheeses from our artisan line of about nine different flavors and five formats.”
Robert says their highest volume product is cheese curds and that is no surprise given their popularity in Wisconsin and the Upper Midwest. “We make and sell a lot of curds which are cut in house. They are packaged in 9 or 12oz bags. You can find them at a number of large publicly traded and smaller privately owned grocery retailers across the Midwest. We definitely have a wide DSD distribution business on curds thanks to our Shullsburg Transportation unit. Some of our products are now available coast to coast and we’re running multiple trucks that distribute on a weekly basis.”
Robert sees a bright future for Shullsburg made cheeses because of innovations coming soon. “We do have some new automation equipment coming in 2024 - things that will make it a little bit easier on our team members. I think it will help with product handling and consistency. In addition, we’re finding ways to grow our volume through research and development. Whether that’s through packaging or different flavors or both. We’re always looking to make cheeses that consumers will respond well to.”
With increased business comes increased challenges that must be resolved in order to keep the curds and other cheese products flowing. “The cost of moving freight due to fuel prices is always a concern. We’re working to increase our route delivery efficiencies by putting more product on each truck.” Robert says business has increased enough recently that some operational changes are required. “We were running one long staggered shift, but soon we are about to become a two-shift operation to keep up with the demand.”
Cheesemakers typically receive the spotlight when it comes to awards and quality, but Robert says it takes the entire team to make and deliver great cheeses. “I think sometimes there are people that go unnoticed, but I want to thank everyone here from the production team, office staff, distribution, and truck drivers. It takes a concerted effort to offer a best-in-class experience for our customers.”
For decades, Shullsburg Creamery has forged a brand name that connects with consumer desires for quality cheeses and it all starts with high quality milk from the dairy farm. “We have the privilege of taking their high quality milk and turning it into cheeses that people enjoy. There is pride that comes with that. I think we’re having a brand resurgence because we believe that Shullsburg Creamery cheeses should invoke memories of good times, sharing with others, and the holidays. Our brand tagline is, ‘Goodness Worth Sharing,’ and that pretty much sums up what we’re all about here.”
(Pictured is Shullsburg Creamery's cut room team from L to R: Sue Garvey, Darla Korth, Tami Bailey, Sacha Gazpanzide, Carina Mick, Tiana Woodward, Kathy Cole, Holly White.)
