Shullsburg Creamery's General Manager
Shullsburg Creamery takes pride in its hometown roots, and its newest General Manager is no stranger to tradition. In fact, the small town of Shullsburg has been the backdrop for a significant portion of Gabe Wand’s life and career, and he’s looking forward to making big things happen here in his new role.
Born and raised in historic Shullsburg, Wisconsin, Gabe Wand once walked the halls of Shullsburg High School, bagged groceries at the local Leahy’s Market, tended bar at the Wheel Inn Restaurant & Lounge, and worked in the golf shop at the Platteville Golf & Country Club. After graduating from nearby University of Wisconsin-Platteville, he was hired by Swiss Valley Farms’ VP of Sales at the time, who also happened to be a Shullsburg native, to a sales role at the company. “I graduated on a Saturday and started on a Monday,” recounts Gabe. Gabe is now in his 20th year with the company as of May, 2023, having experienced the transition from Swiss Valley Farms to Prairie Farms Dairy as well as the joining of the Shullsburg Creamery brand to the Prairie Farms family.
After spending a 10 year stint in sales where he focused on retail, bulk and export accounts from his home base in Shullsburg, Gabe made the jump to the operations side of the business, moving on to manage the warehouse in Shullsburg, where he oversaw the logistics and distribution of cheeses coming out of Prairie Farms’ Luana and White Hill facilities, as well as movement of the cut and wrap items out of Boscobel back to the Luana warehouse. Building on his dual experience in both sales and operations, in his current role as Shullsburg Creamery General Manager, Gabe will oversee all aspects of the business, including production, packaging, distribution, sales, human resources and financial. “It will be my duty to help the company get more efficient and driving costs out to gain profitability,” notes Gabe.
For Gabe, the most rewarding part of his job is building teams and seeing them work together to make quality products. “The greatest lesson I learned is to develop your people and get out of their way for them to succeed,” notes Gabe. He believes this approach will help the company to gain efficiencies, continue to build the Shullsburg Creamery brand, and strengthen relationships with customers and suppliers.
When Gabe is not at the Creamery, he can usually be found racing harness horses, which he says takes up the majority of his spare time. “I have been doing this since I was 11 years old and have been very lucky in the business,” says Gabe, who, in 2021, became the youngest inductee in history to the Wisconsin Harness Racing Hall of Fame. If you can’t find Gabe with his horses, he’s very likely out of town, taking on the Big Apple during his annual trip to New York City. Gabe discovered his love for the city during his sales years, where he visited for tradeshows and fell in love with all the big city has to offer. But for Gabe, he looks forward to returning back to the town of Shullsburg at the end of his visit, because there is no place like home.
