Ronan company gets local products on the table – Montana’s Mission Mountain Market

Have you ever thought about selling your top-secret barbeque sauce or quitting your 9-to-5 job to make and market your favorite family recipes?

By BETSY COHEN of the Missoulian

http://missoulian.com/articles/2004/06/04/hometowns/ht01.txt

If you do, but don’t know how to turn that dream into reality, there’s a special place for people like you.

It’s called Montana’s Mission Mountain Market http://www.mt-missionmtnmrkt.com/ , and it’s a nonprofit economic development center dedicated to helping agricultural and specialty food producers cultivate ideas into products.
"I couldn’t do what I do without them," said Joyce Previte, owner, chief executive officer, creator and developer of Grandma Hoots, a speciality relish and sauce company.

When Previte moved to the Bitterroot Valley, she missed some of the flavors she grew up with in the South, in particular, chow-chow, a cabbage-based relish her grandmother used to make.

Instead of pining, she began producing small quantities for herself and selling some at craft fairs and summer markets. It didn’t take long for the relish to find Montana fans, but demand for the product was too great for her home kitchen.

In 2002, when she learned about the Mission Mountain Market, she realized it was the outfit that could help push her hobby into a full-time job.

The market not only leases out its commercially licensed kitchen, food processing center, state-of-the-art commercial refrigerators and warehouse space, but its experienced staff also is eager to offer guidance, give advice and lend support to help new businesses blossom.

In many cases, food manufacturers hire market employees to make and package their product. Such is the case of Tipus Tiger, a Missoula restaurant, which hires the market to mix, brew and bottle its special chai tea concentrate.

"Without them, I wouldn’t be able to make and market the product outside of the restaurant," said Bipen Patel, owner of Tipus. "They are affordable and easy to work with, which makes it possible for someone like me to try out a new idea."

"They held my hand through the whole start-up process, and they are still there for me, answering any and all questions that I have," said Previte, whose company now boasts nine products and the likelihood of more to come.

"If you get yourself cornered by problems, they’ll be there to help you through it," she said. "They really want you to succeed – they are your very own cheerleaders."

Since the market opened in 1999, it has helped more than 30 new businesses get started, and mentored countless numbers of would-be entrepreneurs through the complicated, often intimidating, road of business realities.

"Sometimes people have come to us with their ideas and after listening to us talk about the start-up costs and certification and marketing, they say ‘oh, that’s too much work, I guess I don’t want to do this after all,’ " said Jennifer Forbis, communication specialist for MMMM.

"Even if that’s the case, it’s a good thing, because we’ve helped people lay a dream to rest without learning the hard way – without losing thousands of dollars."

The organization is a branch of the Lake County Community Development Corporation http://www.lakecountycdc.org/ , and is located at 405 Main St. in Ronan.

Currently, the market is home base for 12 made-in-Montana businesses, which produce and/or use the facility to store their products, including Grandma Hoots, Tipus Tiger, Montana Natural Beef, Lolo Creek Mustard and Big Sky Tea http://www.mt-missionmtnmrkt.com/Producers.cfm .

It offers an indispensible, invaluable service to Montana, said Bob Warren, general manager of Amazing Grains, a cooperative of 57 farmers who produce a gluten-free flour from Indian ricegrass.

"Mission Mountain provided us with services that were instrumental in getting us off the ground – especially having Jan Tusick there, a co-op specialist," Warren said. "She ramrodded the initial project through all the stages and helped get the growers together."

Since the co-op became reality in 2000, and the first product line called "Montina" hit the market in 2003, the business has done nothing but grow.

"It’s been all upward," Warren said. "We have 175 retail outlets and major distributors in the Midwest."

For now, Mission Mountain will continue to make flour for the company, but the success of the product has the company thinking about leaving its incubator and building its own facility.

It’s an awkward growth stage no one can complain about.

"In the back of your mind, in the back of everyone’s mind here, you hope one of these manufacturers gets as big as Mrs. Fields cookies," Forbis said. "These are the hard years, when these entrepreneurs are balancing family and friends – their day jobs – and coming here at night or odd hours to make jam and mustard.

"But if they succeed, we all succeed."