Woodbury has earned a reputation for being an outstanding community to call home. In fact, national news organizations such as CNN and Money Magazine include Woodbury at the top of their annual rankings of ideal places to reside within the United States. But residents aren’t the only ones who enjoy all the community has to offer. Local companies also consider Woodbury an exceptional home base. We’ve highlighted four companies that have found success conducting business right here, in our own backyard.
Service Ideas Inc.
In 1946, restaurateurs Art and Marie Murray opened their iconic Murray’s Steakhouse restaurant in the heart of downtown Minneapolis. Behind the scenes, Art was designing service products that would best maintain their food’s temperature, flavor and presentation, thereby enhancing the dining experience. His interest in sharing the products with other restaurant operators led to the inception of Service Ideas Inc., which manufactures and distributes table service and buffet products.
Years later, their son, Pat Murray, expanded the product line and established a national distribution channel. Today, the third generation of Murrays has taken the helm, with three siblings, Tim, Jill and James Murray, managing the restaurant, and their sisters, Tina Brandt and Megan Blohowiak, leading Service Ideas. When they relocated the business in 1996, a move to Woodbury was the logical choice. The sisters both lived in the community and the city helped make the move easy.
Brandt and Blohowiak lead their company with deeply rooted family values. “Our grandfather and dad believed in doing business based on relationships and loyalty. It was all about the handshake. If you say it, you do it,” Brandt says.
The sisters agree that working as a family comes naturally. “We all started down at Murray’s, buttering toast in the bakery,” Blohowiak laughs. “We grew up seeing more of the Murray’s business than service. We saw our grandfather’s and father’s innovation.”
Looking ahead, Service Ideas will continue Art’s legacy by designing new products to meet customer needs, such as their latest flame-free thermo coffee urn. They also plan to market their products directly to chefs. “In the future, we will keep trying to grow and support Woodbury as a healthy business,” Brandt says.
Aveka Inc.
Microencapsulated particles sound like something that belongs solely in a chemistry lab, while in fact, they can be found in most Woodbury homes. The microscopic particles, encapsulated through a freezing, drying or coating process at Aveka Inc., are used in such products as Aveda hair volumizers and the pigment that makes text appear on e-books.
Aveka is a contract manufacturing and research and development company that specializes in particle technology. They have the capability to service a wide variety of applications and markets, from medical and chemical to food, agriculture and personal care.
The Aveka site was originally built in 1974 as a 3M Corporation pilot plant. Dr. Willie Hendrickson managed the site beginning in 1986. When 3M closed the plant, Hendrickson saw an opportunity. As CEO and founder, he rented 8,000-square-feet of space within the warehouse and hired two employees. Today, Aveka owns the entire building, employs 55 people, and is a leading international manufacturer and distributor of microencapsulated particles.
Hendrickson says, “We’ve grown our business by being very responsive to our customers.” That means being able to quickly change operations to meet client needs. One day they could be encapsulating fragrance for a personal hygiene product, and the next day developing on a new microencapsulated alcohol product.
The key to Aveka’s success? “It’s all about people,” Hendrickson says. His commitment to ensuring a personable work environment is summarized in a poem he shares with employees, which reads in part, “What will matter is not what you bought, but what you built; not what you got, but what you gave.”
Hendrickson considers Woodbury an ideal city for manufacturing due to “access to the highway and airport, reasonable taxes, and a city council that treats us well. We’ll be here for the long haul.”
CenterPoint Marketing Inc.
The people at CenterPoint Marketing Inc. are continually thinking outside of the box. Inside their facility on Rivertown Drive, a creative team of 60 employees makes up a full-service experience marketing agency. They design and fabricate three-dimensional exhibits and displays for companies such as Target, Wilson Sporting Goods and Delta Faucet Co.
CenterPoint chose to open in Woodbury 10 years ago because “the property was properly zoned for our type of business, desirable real estate was available at a good value, and the city supported our plan to operate a clean, green business that would bring in sustainable jobs,” says Mark Hager, CenterPoint vice president and one of the principals. It was also an easy commute for their employees, most of whom live in the Twin Cities and western Wisconsin.
“The biggest part of our business is in trade shows,” Hager says. “We work with each client to identify their marketing challenges and integrate design and experience of the exhibit to meet their marketing needs, while aligning with the images and messages in their advertising campaigns.”
When asked how advances in technology have affected trade shows, Hager says new capabilities such as video conferencing, digital interface and visual displays have become an effective element of their displays. “The digital space has found its way to amplify meaning within the physical space,” he says.
While the digital age is increasingly squeezing out other traditional marketing and advertising methods, namely print, Hager believes it hasn’t replaced the importance of building a personal business relationship. “The advent of the digital age has strengthened the importance of face-to-face marketing,” he says. “The amount of money spent on trade shows has not decreased. In fact, it has increased. You still need to meet people and engage with them personally before you sign that business contract. A trade show is still an excellent way to make those connections.”
Dean Foods
When you grab a container of milk from the refrigerated dairy case at your favorite grocer, you may be selecting a product that was prepared just down the street. In fact, a high percentage of milk products sold in the Midwest originate at the Dean Foods plant on Wooddale Drive. While the plant appears quiet from the street, a look inside reveals a state-of-the-art operation that produces milk and dairy products at an astonishing speed.
The plant is one of Woodbury’s oldest businesses, having originally opened as Pixie Pak dairy plant in 1966. It is now one of the largest plants for Texas-based Dean Foods, the leading processor and distributor of fluid milk in the United States with more than $9 billion in annual sales. The Woodbury plant licenses Land-O-Lakes brands, as well as other familiar local and regional brands and an array of private labels. Most of the plant’s 136 employees have been with the company for more than 20 years and “have an exceptional amount of industry knowledge,” says Tom Arcand, Dean Foods sales director.
The process of getting fresh milk from the farm to the store happens within 48 hours. The plant handles the entire distribution process—from the moment raw milk arrives from the farm, through the pasteurization, processing and packaging stages, to transportation to stores and distributors.
Being in Woodbury is ideal, Arcand says, because “we’re located in the center of a robust community of milk consumers. I don’t think we could pick a better location. We’re right on the highway network, among our Twin Cities retailers, close to Land-O-Lakes, and amidst many Minnesota and Wisconsin dairy farms.”
Arcand is confident the plant will be here for years to come. “This in an outstanding business,” he says. “People are looking for wholesome, pure foods that aren’t processed. It doesn’t get much purer than milk. There’s an excellent future in that.”
