Beginning the Business

In Connecticut, a northeastern state near New York, Stew Leonard’s father was the owner of a small dairy. He used to take Stew along when he delivered milk to families in the morning. From childhood, Stew Leonard remembers wanting to be somebody, wanting to be noticed and appreciated. Perhaps, it has something to do with being the sixth out of seven children. After studying dairy manufacturing at the University of Connecticut, Stew Leonard assumed he would go into a partnership with his father. But his father died suddenly, and Stew found himself taking over the family business with his brother.

Fifteen years later, unexpected circumstances caused another change: The state put a high way right through the land where the dairy was located. Stew surveyed customers to see what they wanted, and he visited other small dairies to find out how they were doing. He found out that the farmer who was bottling and selling his milk on the premises¹, rather than selling it to a middleman² was doing well, while many of the old-fashioned dairies were going under. Stew Leonard decided to redesign his dairy business to suit the changing times and his personality.

More than door-to-door service, Stew Leonard found out that customers wanted good milk prices. So, he ended deliveries and instead created a factory-outlet³ dairy-store. He bought raw milk from farmers in huge quantities, processed it in glass-enclosed plant in the middle of the store and sold it in standard half-gallon (1.8 liter) cartons with his name and a picture of a cow on them. His slogan was, “You’d have to own a cow to get a fresh milk.”

As the business grew, he created more and more of a Disneyland Dairy Store where customers might come and bring their children to be entertained. As Leonard remarks, “Where children go, their mothers will follow.” Not long after, he began adding to his original list of eight products and enlarging the building until it became(as proclaimed on the building) “the world’s largest dairy store.”

Notes:

1. in the building;

2. a distributor who handles goods between the producer and the consumer;

3. discount store selling large quantities of products.

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