Small fruit processor provides a value-added boost

John Schmitz, May 16, 2003
The Capital Press

Newburg, Oregon - Custom food processor Wilhelm Foods Ltd. is a name that's popping up all over Oregon and Washington these days as more and more small fruit growers seek to add value to their crops.

Founded in 1982 on Wilhelm (U-Pick) Farms in Tualatin, the company offers farmers a place where they can turn part or all of their crops into jams, jellies, syrups and even hydroponic tomato preserves.

Wilhelm Foods can even help with label design and printing.

Dozens of examples of Wilhelm Foods success line the shelves inside the company's small conference room, where containers of all shapes and sizes are packed with fruits in colorfully labeled jars.

Wilhelm Foods began humbly enough in a lambing shed on the Wilhelm Farms property. From startup to this day, former farm manager Chuck Cox and his wife, Monica, have pretty much run the operation. At first, Gene and Jackie Wilhelm shared equally in the ownership with the Coxes, and then in 1988 the Coxes bought the other couple out. The first product the Coxes turned out was a processed strawberry jam made from excess fruit on the Wilhelm farm and bearing the Wilhelm Foods label. Blueberry and blackberry jams followed.

"It took us awhile to learn how to do it," Chuck said. "We had very happy pigs on the farm, because every time we'd blow a batch it would go to them."

During those early years jams were cooked in a used kettle and the jars were filled by hand with a pitcher that was dipped into the kettle. "By the end of the day we'd get 20 to 30 cases with four to five people working really hard, and there would be jam all over everybody and everything," Chuck said.

"We finally figured out how to make a really good product, put it in the produce stand and couldn't make it fast enough."

Around 1994 the Coxes moved their operation to a new 4,000-square-foot building they built in Newberg. Six years later they vacated that and relocated across the street to their current facility, a 7,000-square-foot plant they also built.

Wilhelm Foods got a big boost in business when a custom preserver packer in Portland decided to enlarge several years ago. "All of their smaller customers had the choice of either paying higher prices or dropping out," Chuck said. "So overnight we ended up with around 20 good private label customers."

Today, the company has around 100 customers, 80 percent of whom are small fruit growers in Oregon and Washington. On a good day the plant can turn out upwards of 700 cases of preserves. The Wilhelm Foods label has pretty much disappeared from the scene, appearing now and then when the Coxes pack for a fundraiser.
While most of the preserves Wilhelm Foods make feature fruit grown on the customer's farm, the company will also provide stock fruit for non-custom packs. Oftentimes customers who specialize in growing - say - strawberries but want a broader line of preserves rely on the company to provide the additional fruit.
Customers can either provide their own recipes or go with a stock recipe formulated by Wilhelm Foods.

Choosing the right label for a preserve is very important, Monica said.
"When people first come to us, they're always concerned about the label. They ask us if we have a label they can just put on. But if they will have their own label made up and sell the preserves in their own stand, it will outsell any other label that we could give them."

Chuck, who was the mayor of Newberg from 1988 to 2002, said Wilhelm Foods can pack just about any acidified food. "We don't do products like canned corn or tuna fish."

The minimum order for custom jams is around 120 pounds, which packs out to around 14 cases of 12-ounce standard jars,12 to the case.Depending on the complexity of the recipe and the type of jar used, the cost per case on custom packs, which can be turned around in as little as two days, ranges from $16 to $25.
Customers choosing to use stock fruit on hand can buy as little as one case of 12pack, 12-ounce jars for around $18.

Labels run anywhere from 3 cents to 10 cents apiece, depending on who provides the graphics and how they're printed. Chuck said many of his customers generate their own professional-looking labels on their computers.

The Coxes and their small work crew are busiest from June through September, but there's always fruit on hand - fresh, chilled or frozen - for stock or custom recipe orders.

A lot of the stock fruit, which is bought in quantities as small as 100 pounds, is purchased from custom label customers. "This is good-quality fruit. I don't buy seconds," Chuck said.
Today, Marionberry and raspberry are the No. 1 selling fruits made into preserves at Wilhelm Foods, Chuck said. "But this changes. A few years ago we couldn't make enough strawberry-rhubarb jam. Then Loganberry jams and syrup were real hot for a while."

Chuck said that his company has never advertised. "It's been word of mouth all throughout our history. It seems that every time we get ready for another growth period, new customers find us."

Because orders have been growing in size, it appears Wilhelm Foods could be moving again. "We have a lot of business where we are loading trucks, where before we were loading pickups," Chuck said. Ideally, he and Monica would like to set up operations on a farm again, where Chuck could get back to growing fruit. "I really miss the farming part of the operation."

Wilhelm Farms was sold several years ago and is now a housing development sprouting expensive homes. When he drives by, Chuck can't help but bring up pleasant memories from the eight years he worked there.

"They took down every sign that had ever been there, all the trees I planted, all the crops, fences and underground irrigation."

Gone, too, is the little lambing shed where it all began.