In 1986, Jeri Mesching was a retired elementary school teacher. Her children were grown, and she had no interest in joining her friends on the golf course or tennis court. So, what does one do when you’re an empty nester without time-consuming hobbies?
For Mesching, a talented home cook, the answer was to start a business.
“I had friends who started Christmas in the Country in Cedarburg, which is where we got our start. A dear friend who was one of the original organizers asked me to make something and I said, ‘I can’t do anything.” She said ‘Are you kidding? Going to your house for dinner is like going to grandma’s’, she said this because I made everything from scratch. I baked all of our bread. I thought everybody did that,” Mesching recalled.
To appease her friend, she made a large batch of her signature sweet and tangy mustard and jarred it for the Christmas market. To the surprise of no one but Mesching, the jars were quickly snapped up by holiday shoppers. At the end of the day, she sold every jar and had a long list of names of people who wanted more of her tantalizing mustard.
It was the start of what would become East Shore Specialty Foods.
A lot has changed since the company sold its first jar of mustard. Today the East Shore Specialty Foods owns a manufacturing plant in Hartland with 10 employees and sells its wares nearly everywhere fine foods are sold. As the company approaches its fourth decade in business, the company now produces 10 unique flavors of its mustard and 10 different kinds of dipping pretzels.
“The pretzels came about because when I first started, the specialty food industry was almost nonexistent. Everywhere I sold the mustard, they would ask me to come and do demos. What do you serve the mustard with? I couldn’t give everyone a sandwich so I started doctoring up the pretzels and then people said I can’t buy the mustard if I can’t buy the pretzels. That taught me a lot,” Mesching explained.
“I made a lot of mistakes, and I learned from them. I just worked and worked. At first, I rented a kitchen two days a week. I put everything in my car and hauled it over to the kitchen, carried it in, made my stuff, put it back in the car, brought it home, sat around the fireplace and labeled the jars at night. That’s how I did it,” Mesching said.
The company made the leap from a regional favorite to a global brand through the International Fancy Food Show in New York.
“The first time I attended the show I carried two baskets with pretzels and mustard up the stairs. Now, we ship pallets to the show,” she said.
Mesching began her business at a time before startup accelerators and incubators existed. She had no friends or family members who owned a business. With no outside support, she relied on her hard work and keen business decisions.
“I have never identified as a woman-owned business…I always thought it shouldn’t matter, and I think I made it not matter. When I went to purchase quantities of whatever, I always could find sources, and no one ever said to me. ‘oh my gosh, you’re a woman.’ It was not an issue. I honestly have never had a problem due to the fact that I was a woman,” she said.
Mesching attributes much of her bootstrapped company’s success to the fiscal discipline she has maintained since its launch.
“I never took any risks because I saved before I spent. I didn’t ask (the bank) for outrageous amounts of money that I couldn’t back in some way. We have always been very fiscally responsible and the only time I ever had a loan was when I built (the factory) and I paid it back quickly. We put an addition on maybe 10 years ago or so and I paid that back within months. It has always been important to me to be fiscally responsible. It’s very difficult to do and it doesn’t get easier,” she said.
Mesching is still involved in the operations of East Shore Specialty Foods, but the company is now led by her daughter, Kristin Graves.
“She’s much more educated than I am and she’s much better at the really difficult things,” Mesching proudly stated. Graves earned her MBA from Marquette University and currently resides in the family home that appears on the label of each jar and bag that bears the East Shore Specialty Foods name.
From its humble beginning to the globally recognized brand it has become, East Shore Specialty Foods stands as a testament to Jeri Mesching’ s hard work, resourcefulness, and fiscal discipline. Under the leadership of Graves, the company continues to maintain its commitment to quality and tradition.
To learn more about FaB Wisconsin member East Shore Specialty Foods, click here to visit the website.