Siblings Hope to Sell 'Gramma's' Salad Dressing in Warsaw
Posted
Jordan Fouts-
Lisa Steffen and her siblings are hoping to share their grandma’s salad dressing with their hometown. Steffen, with siblings J.D. White and Lori Kruger, have been bottling their “Gramma Amber’s Salad Dressing” for about a year and a half. The family recipe is a sweet onion vinaigrette they remember paternal grandmother Amber (White) Christensen, an avid cook who loved to entertain, making them in Warsaw. “Lori, J.D. and I are the only living relatives and we wanted to preserve our heritage,” Steffen said. “So after much urging from my brother to do something with this recipe we decided to start the company.” The salad dressing is currently sold in close to 100 stores in Iowa, Nebraska and Minnesota. Their goal now is to expand into Indiana. “We have done all the sales and distribution from a grassroots effort,” Steffen noted, adding that it was a nine-month process of trademarking, label design and product approval before they could get to the shelf. In the process they learned that the dressing is low-sodium and gluten- and MSG-free, as well as pretty low in sugar and calories, something she said a lot of people appreciate. Potential customers they meet while demonstrating the product like the family story even more. “Everyone that has tried it says they have never had anything like it. Our reaction to our product is uncanny,” she said. “People at the demos will like the story even without tasting it. The story is the big thing, people like the story of how we’re trying to keep our heritage alive.” Steffen oversees distribution to north and centra Iowa and southern Minnesota herself, while Kruger covers central Minnesota and White does Nebraska. They all do the work on the side, having full-time jobs in other fields. Their flagship store is the Hy-Vee grocery chain, which carries the dressing in 32 locations. “They’ve been very good about saying, ‘Sure, we’ll make you some space,’” she said. Other sales are made face to face. “We did $20,000 in sales last year. That’s pretty good for taking it door to door out of our trunks,” she remarked. The siblings have been in talks with Owen’s parent company Kroger Co. to carry the dressing in Indiana, but haven’t had much luck so far, according to Steffen, who also observed, “I wondered why we didn’t do it in the first place.” At the same time, Steffen said she’s been sending samples of the dressing to Ellen, Oprah and the Food Network, hoping to hit it big. “All it takes is one person in that type of format to like it and run with it,” she said. “If Oprah likes something, you’re golden.”
