11-29 IAN Nelson-Ricks
There are all kinds of ways of describing this… David and Goliath, the little engine that could and so on.
How could it be that a relatively small dairy in Idaho actually joined forces with a huge retail outlet like Walmart? Nelson-Ricks Creamery, is a small, family owned cheese company located near Rexburg. “Not much has changed at the creamery” said Virginia Morrison, sales manager for Nelson-Ricks Creamery Company. “Since 1907, every one of our hand-crafted cheeses has been made with Idaho milk from our loyal, local suppliers. We are very grateful for the opportunity to supply the Idaho Preferred Cheese to local Walmart stores.”And the Idaho Department of Agriculture played a major role in arranging the marriage. Here is IDA spokesperson Leah Clark. They have been in business for many many years but on a very small scope. They have their own brand of cheese, the Banquet label but we don’t see it in this market a lot so we wanted to find a cheese company that had the ability to not only make cheese but to package it. That is how that cheese company was the one that came to be the partner with Walmart was because they had the capacity to not only produce cheese as well as to cut and wrap cheese. That is the piece that was missing from our bigger producers because they don’t do that cut and wrap for retail, they sell in bulk to other companies who do that.
