Milestones
We started as a nonprofit agricultural school on a hilltop farm and evolved into the organic yogurt company we are today. So we’ve done some changing. But we’ve also stayed the same. Right from the beginning, we’ve been committed to healthy food, healthy people and a healthy planet. How better for us to show you Stonyfield’s evolution than with stones? Milestones, that is.
1978
The recipe
Samuel Kaymen perfects the recipe for what will later become Stonyfield Farm Yogurt.
1979
The Rural Education Center (TREC)
Samuel and Louise Kaymen establish The Rural Education Center in Wilton, NH, a nonprofit organization devoted to teaching rural and homesteading skills with an emphasis on organic food production. For the first 7 years, Samuel’s and Gary’s families occupy adjoining apartments in the farmhouse that is the site of the original Yogurt Works.
1982
A seed is planted
Enter “idea man” Gary Hirshberg, recruited as a board member of The Rural Education Center to help implement a business strategy and generate financial support. Gary leads the trustees in a process to devise alternative strategies, and one of the ideas is to expand the farm and make yogurt production a serious financial venture.
1983
Stonyfield Farm Yogurt (the company) is born
We receive a $35,000 loan from the Institute for Community Economics, including $25,000 from the Sisters of Mercy as start-up funding for our enterprise.
On April 9, 1983, we produce our first 50-gallon batch of yogurt and begin making whole-milk plain yogurt for sale. It’s still one of our top sellers!
In September, Gary joins the Kaymens full-time, with the dream of turning this small-scale yogurt company into a thriving business that will fund TREC while advancing its educational and agricultural missions.
“Without the Kaymen kids doing cow chores, making yogurt, shrink-wrapping orders and getting up at all hours of the night, we would not have been able to ‘hang in there’ in those first years.”—Louise Kaymen
Company profile: 2 families, 7 Jersey cows, a great recipe and a dream
Cases produced each week: 150
Annual sales: $56,000
1984
Words to live by
Gary drafts Stonyfield Farm’s first business plan and sets out to secure business loans, thanks to the generous assistance of his mother and several investors who agree to co-sign our loans.
Goodbye, Laurabelle
With increased production demands, and after a full night of milking the cows by hand when a storm knocks out the power, Gary, Louise and Samuel agree it's time to sell the herd of 19 cows and begin purchasing milk from local farmers.
Number of employees: 7
Cases produced each week: 350
Annual sales: $138,000
1985
A new boiler and filler
We trade in the original wood-fired boiler for an oil-fueled rig, and the two environmentalists eat a lot of humble pie as they enjoy the modern convenience. We add a new filler that enables us to make yogurt in single-serving sized cups.
Lunch in a cup
Later that year, we add more flavors to the line, including Garden Salad, which was supposed to put Gary's children through college. Garden Salad was on the market for less than a year.
Early marketing
WROR’s Andy Moes, Boston radio co-host of the legendary “Joe and Andy Show,” told his radio audience he’d rather eat camel manure than yogurt. Gary and then-fiancée Meg stopped by Benson’s Animal Farm to gather camel manure en route to Boston, marched into the station with a carefully packed quart of each and demanded that he make the choice. We received instant airplay.
Number of employees: 10
Cases produced each week: 1,100
Annual sales: $317,200
1986
We outgrow the farm
On our quaint little hilltop farm, with all its quirks and inefficiencies, we’re no longer able to keep up with consumer demand. Repeatedly, pumps break down. Pipes freeze. Every square inch of the 1852 barn is converted to cup and lid storage, and trailer trucks get stuck on the long dirt road leading to the farm. We don’t see how we can finance a proper facility on our own, so we opt to have our yogurt made elsewhere.
1987
Near-death experience
Our co-packer falls into bankruptcy and nearly takes us with them. The bank shuts them down and creditors attach the building and all the assets inside, including our equipment, cups and lids, ingredients and finished goods. We lose our means of production.
Over four days, Samuel and Gary restart the original Yogurt Works, working around the clock to ensure the next week’s shipments. We lose over $400,000 in one weekend just by getting the ingredients back from the bank and reopening Wilton. To meet orders, we run three shifts per day, seven days per week, and Samuel and Gary take turns working without sleep every other night. This continues for a year. Still we lose about $30,000 each week, but miraculously manage to stay afloat.
Essentially bankrupt, Samuel and Gary meet with a Vermont dairy firm that has agreed to invest in our company. When the long-awaited closing finally arrives, instead of the hundred-page agreement that had been negotiated, they are presented with a one-page deal that amounts to a takeover. Samuel and Gary walk out without signing, and on the five-hour drive home in a blizzard, they begin designing a new plant.
We begin earnestly raising money and moving ahead on building a new facility that could contain our small company and allow room for real growth. Gary successfully obtains a loan guarantee from the U.S. Small Business Administration, and several investors chip in. We find a landlord willing to take a risk and sign a lease for 21,000 sq. ft. in Londonderry, NH (our Wilton farm has only 1,500 sq. ft.).
Cookbook idea starts to simmer
We hold the “Taste of New England” Recipe Contest. Nine hundred people submit yogurt recipes, and 12 finalists are invited to the farm for a big “bake-off” hosted by nationally syndicated radio host Gene Burns and telecast live on WRKO Radio.
1988
Where there’s a will, there’s a way
We begin building our Yogurt Works plant. In December, our manufacturing and shipping folks relocate to Londonderry. The company is drowning in debt, but everyone is thrilled, especially Meg Hirshberg and Louise Kaymen, who wake up one day to find the farm quiet for the first time in years.
Number of employees: 32
Cases produced each week: 3,525
Annual sales: $1,100,000
1989
A few bumps in the road
During the first month of production in our new plant, we produce frequent batches of watery yogurt instead of the creamy, thick yogurt we’re striving for. Finally, Samuel and the team identify and correct the problem—a bad stainless-steel pipe connection. The office folks move over from Wilton in early February.
Gary creates the Stonyfield Farm Moo Patrol to recruit consumers who want to be kept informed about our company and products. The Moo Patrol helps spreads the word to other consumers.
The competition is licked
Because the new Yogurt Works has a separator, we can now add nonfat refrigerated yogurt and soft-serve frozen yogurt to our product portfolio.
