Since 2006, Potter’s Fine Foods LLC has been out and about, allowing the public to sample its signature snack crackers at area venues and farmers markets. And while it took nearly five years on a waiting list to secure a booth at the Dane County Farmers Market, Nancy Potter, co-owner, says it was all worth it. Each Saturday, her weekly presence provides her a chance to chat with local cracker fans and visitors to Madison, and as a small business one never knows where each conversation may lead. “The farmers market is a tourist attraction,” she says, “and because we’re a licensed kitchen, we’re able to sample our product.” The one-to-one marketing technique has helped establish Potter’s Crackers locally as well as nationwide.
Potter, the former owner of New Glarus Bakery, sold the business in 2001 after baking hundreds of delectable treats every day for over 25 years. Five years later, she set her sights on just one product group: crackers.
“I’ve always been a cracker-eater, and after you own a bakery, to be able to just focus on one product and keep trying to make it better is really exciting,” she says.
Snack sense
Potter and her son Peter, a UW–Madison food science graduate, started Potters Fine Foods LLC after observing the explosion in the artisan cheese market. After all, the two really go hand in hand, especially in Wisconsin.
While she’d always been a cracker fan, until that time Potter had never baked a cracker in her life, so the winter before Potter’s Crackers launched, Potter was hard at work testing recipes. “There was a lot of trial and error,” she admits, as she tested batch after batch, looking for the right mix of unique flavors. Now, besides Wisconsin, the products can be found at retailers in 21 states.
“Our assumption when we opened in 2006 was that we would just be local, in Wisconsin and maybe Chicago and Minneapolis,” she says. “Then we realized the pent-up demand. We’re following the success of Wisconsin cheese, and there’s a lot more potential.” In fact, Potter believes the company could still double or even triple in size.
“It’s not that we’re looking to grow in terms of employees. Rather, we’re trying to make the employees we have as productive as possible so we can afford to pay them more. When you’re a small, local company, that’s your biggest challenge. You want to get that pay up there.”
The company business plan has already been rewritten three times to accommodate its growth, and Potter credits much of that to the local community, which has embraced the company’s entrepreneurial product, and her employees.
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In Madison, Potter’s Crackers has earned a permanent place as a cornerstone tenant at the Madison Enterprise Center. The company has 17 employees who make the snacks that are becoming famous for being whole grain and certified organic, and manufactured with local ingredients whenever possible. In Sacramento, Calif., where son Peter resides, another 10 employees do the same. Most products are available year-round, but seasonal flavors, such as jalapeño corn, or rhubarb graham are also popular.
“We bake every day,” Potter says, “but it really takes 24 hours for the full flavor to come through. That’s the optimum.”
She prefers her crackers be consumed shortly after baking for the freshest flavor experience, adding that the required-by-law expiration date is only a measure. “It’s funny. I’ve learned that expiration dates are just picked from thin air! There’s nothing the day before that is good that is not good the day after. We actually use that date more for tracking and rotating product. But I don’t want people to eat my crackers at that expiration date. I want people to eat them in the first two weeks.”
Potter’s has a license for low hazardous food processing. “Crackers have such a low pH and moisture content that they’re considered low hazard,” she explains. “So for us, food borne illness is really not an issue because of the nature of the product.” She is more concerned about the consumer’s tasting experience. “A fresh cracker really does taste different,” she insists.
Changes ahead
The growing popularity of Potter’s Crackers is bringing some necessary changes. The packaging will soon transition from clear, plastic bags, to a box. “We’ve resisted the pressure,” Potter admits. “Consumers liked it (bags), but stores didn’t.” The move will save on labor costs, because packages will no longer need to be hand-tied. Also, the rectangular-shaped crackers will become square so they can more easily be dropped in the boxes rather than stacked, also a labor-saver. “Boxes are expensive,” Potter notes. “We had to make it cost effective.
“It’s scary,” Potter says of the changes. “Stores will love the boxes, but you hope you don’t lose your brand recognition. I hope I don’t see a dip before it goes up.”
Potter says she’s learned a lot since the business first launched. “Who knew that the cracker market was so seasonal?” she asks, adding that the holidays are the busiest time of the year as gift giving and parties flourish.
But why would a long-time baker switch to crackers? “I’ve just always been a cracker person,” Potter admits. “I’ve converted some [people] over to crackers, and I’ve come to learn that the world is divided between cracker and non-cracker people.”
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