Few companies in Baton Rouge engender as much customer loyalty as Kleinpeter Farms Dairy. The 101-year-old operation is a family-owned business and a local institution, one of just four remaining dairies in the state and the only one still locally owned. So beloved is the Kleinpeter brand, customers are willing to pay a 25% premium, on average, for Kleinpeter products—which they genuinely believe taste better.
But over the past year, problems with Kleinpeter’s quality—the taste and shelf life of its signature milk products—have surfaced. Although no one, including the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals, is suggesting Kleinpeter products pose any health issues, the company’s image and carefully cultivated customer relations may be on the line. The problems have been mounting for months, and now the company is aggressively trying to address them.
In recent weeks Kleinpeter has hired consultants, contracted with an LSU dairy scientist, fired several employees, replaced older equipment and called in top management to work round-the-clock to determine why milk is spoiling before it should and, also, why some batches have what customers report as a peculiar, chemical taste.
The problems are no secret. Grocers say customers have been returning Kleinpeter milk in greater-than-usual quantities all year, complaining it tastes bad. DHH has also received complaints about the taste of the milk and its shortened shelf life. The Diocese of Baton Rouge, with just four weeks left in the school year, canceled its contract with Kleinpeter to supply milk to Catholic schools for breakfast and lunch.
Even the dairy’s own Facebook page contains a litany of posts from frustrated customers, who invariably say the same thing: I have always bought Kleinpeter milk … but lately something is wrong.
Jeff Kleinpeter, president of the company and a fourth-generation dairy farmer, says the dairy has identified problems in its processing facility responsible for the chemical taste. The problem, he says, has recently been corrected. As for the milk’s shortened shelf life, they’re still trying to figure out the cause. He suggests several possible contributing factors: refrigerators at grocery stores and convenience stores Kleinpeter claims aren’t kept cold enough; company employees that haven’t been performing up to par; and older equipment in the plant that could have been harboring bacteria and needed replacing.
Kleinpeter says there is another contributing factor: Customer expectations are so high—given the brand’s reputation and higher price—that they feel it should not be having these problems. Kleinpeter concedes he does not have a single answer for why his milk has been going bad.
“I think there are a bunch of things,” he says. “So we’ve got to fix them all.” It is an uncomfortable position to be in for a company that has built a brand around impeccable service and exceptional quality. “We’re all anxious to get this behind us—more than any customer can imagine,” he says. “I want to be as open and honest as I can with everyone and … let them know how sorry I am we let them down.” Read the full story.
—Stephanie Riegel
