Family-owned dairy holds its own

Published 5:00 am Wednesday, June 13, 2001

REDMOND Eberhard’s Dairy Products is an example of how a little guy still can teach the big boys a thing or two.

The dairy industry, like any number of businesses such as banks, carmakers or supermarkets, has been going through a consolidation the past decade or so. By getting bigger, so the theory goes, companies can save on costs and improve their bottom lines.

But family-owned Eberhard’s, which turns 50 this year, has remained independent and is proud of it. Where small dairies once dotted Central and Eastern Oregon, Redmond-based Eberhard’s now is the only dairy products firm east of the Cascade Range.

While huge dairies in Washington, California and other states churn out tons of product every day and ship to wide areas, Eberhard’s has managed to carve out a niche by remaining small, covering a specific area and stressing quality.

Eberhard’s isn’t completely on its own. It is a member of Quality Chekd, a national organization of independent dairy producers who have banded together to have more purchasing power on such things as cartons and milk jugs, and have more clout in marketing.

But Eberhard’s concentrates on a relatively small area. Its ice cream, milk, cottage cheese and other products are distributed in Central Oregon south to Diamond Lake Junction, east to John Day and Burns, west to Suttle Lake and north to Kah-Nee-Ta Resort on the Warm Springs Indian Reservation.

The fact that the company has managed to survive is a mark of its commitment to doing what is right, said Lisbeth Goddik. She’s a professor at Oregon State University in Corvallis specializing in dairy processing, and helps coordinate events for Oregon Dairy Industries, a state trade group with about a dozen members.

At Eberhard’s headquarters, a whole wall is filled with a variety of award plaques for products entered in competitions, including first places this year from Oregon Dairy Industries for chocolate ice cream and for buttermilk.

”Eberhard’s has done exceptionally well for not being one of the biggest dairies in Oregon,” Goddik said. ”They’re competing with some very large companies with lots of very expensive equipment. They have good quality raw milk, process it immediately and pay attention to quality.

”There are some huge dairy companies in the U.S. that can produce products cheaper than Eberhard’s ever could. The only thing they’ve got is making sure they have better products, and they’re smart in marketing and depend on customer loyalty.”

That’s exactly the philosophy that Jack, Bob and Richard Eberhard, brothers who are the second generation of the family to run the business, believe in.

Richard, 55, and Jack, 67, are on the production end, while Bob, 66, oversees sales. Their father and company founder, also named Jack, died in 1989. Three Eberhard cousins Ted, 39; Mark, 37; and John, 25, are the third generation working in the business.

Eberhard’s doesn’t try to compete with the big chains on price. For example, its best-selling product, a gallon of 2 percent butterfat milk is a dime or two more expensive than store brands. What Eberhard’s sells is quality, Bob Eberhard said.

The company also delivers to schools, institutions such as hospitals, and businesses.

”Our strategy is to sell our customers on the belief that Eberhard’s is the best that money can buy,” Bob Eberhard said.

Eberhard’s, which has about 42 employees, also has been nimble in anticipating customer tastes and changing its product mix, and forming strategic alliances with other producers.

The company now distributes a wide range of novelty ice cream products from other manufacturers, and has new products in the works like a series of flavored milks with Warner Bros.’s Looney Tunes characters on the bottles.

”Our business is expanding and growing in different directions than it used to,” Bob Eberhard said. ”Central Oregon has grown from an independent market. We’ve changed our focus to work with independently owned stores. A good part of our future is working with them.”

Most of all, the goal of the company is to remain an independent, family-owned business, Bob said. He said that as a locally owned company, Eberhard’s contributes to a variety of local charitable causes that national chains don’t always embrace.

”Our roots are deep in Central Oregon. We don’t plan on going anywhere,” he said. ”We want to continue the traditions of our mother and father.”