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Serving Northern St. Louis County, Minnesota

Natural Harvest: Bursting at the seams

Popular food co-op planning major expansion, seeking additional member support

Marshall Helmberger
Posted 7/21/16

VIRGINIA— As Americans are increasingly aware, good health starts with healthy eating. And that’s a message that has fueled the remarkable growth of one of the region’s foremost promoters of …

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Natural Harvest: Bursting at the seams

Popular food co-op planning major expansion, seeking additional member support

Posted

VIRGINIA— As Americans are increasingly aware, good health starts with healthy eating. And that’s a message that has fueled the remarkable growth of one of the region’s foremost promoters of healthy foods, the Natural Harvest Food Co-op. While it’s located in Virginia, the co-op serves an ever-expanding market across all of northern St. Louis County, including Lake Vermilion and the Ely area, according to General Manager Anja Parenteau.

With double-digit sales growth for the past three years and growing demand from customers for additional products, the co-op is in the midst of a member campaign seeking support for an expanded new store next to the Carpenter’s Union Hall on Virginia’s Silver Lake. The $2.9 million dollar project is scheduled for a September groundbreaking, but the co-op is making a final push towards its goal of raising $280,000 or more in loans from its members and supporters.

“It’s similar to a down payment,” on a new home, explains Patty Torrel, who oversees marketing for the co-op. “Lenders like to see that there’s interest from the members.”

So far, the co-op, which is run by a nine-member board of directors, has raised $240,000 in loans, which they will be paying back to members over the next several years, with interest. The co-op board wants to hit at least $280,000 before breaking ground. Bank financing will cover the bulk of the cost of the expansion, which will more than double the store’s size, from its current 4,400 square feet to 9,000.

The new store should be up and running by early June, next year.

Remarkable growth

From its humble beginnings in a tiny storefront on Chestnut Street in the early 1980s, the Natural Harvest Food Co-op has grown into a community institution at its current location, in an attractive log building on Virginia’s Bailey Lake. Its original membership of a few dozen has grown to more than 2,100 active members, and many more regular customers who aren’t currently members. “The membership growth has been amazing,” said Torrel. “We had 370 new members just last year,” she noted, at a time when the region’s population is declining, the economy is struggling, and when competition from big box grocers, like Target and Walmart, has grown more intense.

But Natural Harvest has clearly found a growing market niche among area consumers who want less processed, organic foods, and who support the co-op’s broader mission of encouraging more local food production. For years, the co-op has worked closely with a number of area growers who produce a wide variety of fresh, organic fruits and vegetables and a whole lot more. They sell organic pork from Embarrass-based Bear Creek Acres, Ely-made Crapola, and a range of products from Homestead Mills, in Cook. They also sell locally-raised organic eggs, milk, honey, and locally-made skin care products like soaps and lotions. That’s helped fill the growing market demand for such products, while fueling sales growth for the co-op and for the local growers and producers themselves. It also keeps more food dollars circulating in the local economy, notes Torrel.

Natural Harvest has also been aggressive in its efforts to compete on price, particularly as big box grocers began to stock some of the food items that had once been exclusive to the co-op. Two years ago, Natural Harvest was accepted into the National Co-op Grocers organization, which has pooled the buying power of hundreds of similar stores around the country, enabling the co-op to regularly offer specials on high demand products that meet and often beat the prices at the big box stores. You can find their advertised co-op specials in a twice-monthly flyer in the Timberjay during the summer months. They’ve also instituted their “Co-op Basics” program, offering very competitive prices everyday on many commonly-sought items.

And customers have noticed, said Torrel. “The growth in sales has been terrific,” she said. “It’s helped a lot,” agreed Parenteau.

While some in the community may have viewed the co-op as a “hippie hangout” in its early years, given the growing interest in better eating, Natural Harvest has definitely hit the mainstream. Last year, sales topped $2.7 million, far exceeding the sales per square foot for a typical grocery in the U.S. The store expansion will fuel even greater sales growth in the years to come, said Parenteau, who projects $5 million in annual sales soon after the new store is up and running.

While the store once survived mostly with help from volunteers, today the store employs 25 workers, eight of them full-time. Parenteau said she expects the new store will employ as many as 40 workers, about 15 of those in full-time positions.

With a half million dollars in cash reserves, the co-op has come a long way from its early days when it struggled to make ends meet. And along with its growth, the co-op has taken a more active role in the community, having become a major sponsor of the annual Mesabi Trail bike tour, hosting other community events, and raising more than ten thousands dollars annually for area nonprofit organizations through its Change Within Reach round-up program.

The new store will offer additional space in just about every department, including expanded offerings of frozen and fresh produce, many more packaged shelf items, as well as an expanded all-day deli that will offer both a hot and cold salad bar. Parenteau said more and more customers want the convenience of already prepared foods, and she said they’ll be able to purchase meals throughout the day confident that they will be both tasty, healthy, and organic.

Through the expansion, Natural Harvest will also be expanding its educational mission, focusing on healthy eating and healthy lifestyles, generally. The co-op offers regular classes in a wide range of topics, from food preservation, to home brewing, to natural remedies, and they will be incorporating a classroom space into the new store along with an expanded offering of classes.

Natural Harvest has found that the more their customers know, the more they appreciate the co-op’s overall approach to business and the community.

Natural Harvest’s holistic approach to business will also be reflected in the construction of the new store, which Parenteau said will be built to high environmental standards, known as LEED, including extensive insulation, LED lighting, and high-efficiency heating. The building is also being designed to incorporate solar panels, which they plan to install within a year or two of the store’s opening, to demonstrate the co-op’s commitment to clean energy.

“What we have here are a lot of people who aren’t just talking the talk,” said Torrel, “they’re people who really live it.”