Three years after quality control problems affecting the taste and shelf life of Kleinpeter’s milk prompted huge losses in revenue and market share for the company, the local dairy is again on sound financial footing—though it is not quite yet turning a profit.
“We’re on the cusp of making money again,” says Kleinpeter Vice President Kenny Kleinpeter, who runs the family business with his sister, president Sue Anne Kleinpeter Cox. “It’s a dramatic turnaround from a couple of years ago.”
Earlier this spring, the 104-year-old dairy leased 30 new delivery trucks and four new tractor trailers. It is also planning to repurpose its dormant ice cream processing facility and convert it into a milk production area.
The dairy suspended ice cream production in late 2014 and officially killed the line in 2015 after nearly seven years in operation. Kenny Kleinpeter says the unused space is badly needed for additional milk production and processing.
The Kleinpeter family is also mulling possibilities for its 1,500-acre farm in Montpelier, which it closed in 2016 amid challenging market conditions in the milk industry. Through much of the 1900s, the farm supplied the dairy with most of its raw milk, though in recent years it had supplied as little as 20% of Kleinpeter’s raw product.
More than a dozen investors, developers and potential buyers have expressed an interest in the property, which is located about 50 miles northeast of Baton Rouge. But the family isn’t interested in selling at the moment, and may eventually turn the land into a small, organic dairy farm, Kenny Kleinpeter says.
“If we do something like organic milk we need to let that land idle for a couple for years, so it’s a long-term decision and something we might be interested in,” he says. “But we’re in no hurry to get rid of it, that’s for sure.”
Later this year, Kleinpeter plans to begin mapping a new marketing and advertising strategy, something that has been on the back burner for the past several years.
“We actually have the money to start advertising again, so we’re getting close to putting something together,” he says. “Until now, we’ve had enough to keep us busy. We had to just shut up and get to work.”
—Stephanie Riegel
