Farmer Spotlight: Sheeder Cloverleaf Dairy
In 1996, Grant Sheeder’s father left his salaried job with benefits to start milking cows. Despite being called crazy, the dairy grew and in 2005 Grant’s mother joined her husband full time on the Farm. In 2006, the couple began processing their own milk, and started selling grass-based dairy products through local stores. Grant joined the successful family business. Recently, in part due to the pandemic, Grant and his parents decided to test interest in direct home delivery, and experienced a surge in growth and positive customer feedback. Read about their shift to door-to-door delivery.
“...Grocery stores are expensive to run and maintain, and their margins are quite thin which is why we were paid just pennies on the dollar for our milk (so they could pay for all their costs and still markup enough to make a profit). The pandemic really pushed us to think a different way—it was a jolt really, to evaluate the status quo and ask ourselves if that was the only option.
People were accustomed to returning glass bottles to the grocery store, but they weren’t allowed during the pandemic. We started meeting customers in the parking lot to collect the bottles directly—it was an ironic prompt for us to re-look at the way we sell our milk.
Great discussions with customers ensued, compelling us to think about direct home deliveries. We polled customers on Facebook about home delivery. I paid $100 to boost it for a week, and reached over 40,000 people with likes, shares and comments. We got phenomenal feedback! Of all the responses, only 1 was negative. After seeing those results, we knew we had to give direct home delivery a whirl. We now offer the same product for less money (lower price to customers due to no grocery markups), have more quality control, keep 30-35% more margin and know our customers—it’s a win for everybody!
I started looking for direct ordering solutions, and saw something in my inbox from Griffin [a Barn2Door Team Member]. I reached out on a Saturday and didn’t think I’d get anything back. Instead, he called and had answers for my entire list of questions. It was perfect timing and seemed like a no brainer. I appreciated that he took the initiative to reach out—that spoke wonders about Barn2Door. Since then, it’s been a very pleasant experience. Everyone at Barn2Door has been incredibly helpful, from Griffin to Patrick [Barn2Door Support] and Alessandro [Barn2Door Onboarding Manager]—it’s like having a whole team supporting our Dairy!
The system is super easy to understand. It’s easy to add delivery dates, set delivery zones and make changes to adapt as needed. We use the Pick and Pack lists for delivery, and the Pack list makes it easy for us to use OptimoRoute for our delivery routes!
We’re partnering with other local stores and food producers, to offer fresh-baked bread, local roasted coffee, eggs and nuts—in addition to our milk. We have plenty of orders coming in, and have only really promoted it a bit on social media. People are really excited to get these fresh, local options!”
Barn2Door touched base with Grant soon after their first Friday delivery day; we wanted to learn the details and share so other Farmers considering door to door might know what to expect. He was delighted at the outcome. Here is his summary on how it went:
“Our first delivery went really well! We had 42 orders, left at 5:15 AM and were all done by 12:30 PM. Prior to delivery day, we used Barn2Door’s Pick and Pack lists to get order details to the bakery; when we showed up all the bread had been baked to order! We added bread and were on our way!
We didn’t assemble individual orders. Instead, we had each of the products in a specific place in the truck—milk, bread, coffee, etc. At each delivery location, we simply referenced what the person had ordered, put it in a crate and walked it to the door. If the customer wasn’t home, they left a cooler out. It was a lot easier to do it this way than taking the time to pack individual orders beforehand.
Next time, we’ll reference the Pack list for each stop, instead of using OptimoRoute for both navigation and order items. We chose a paid plan for OptimoRoute, it created our route, and customers could track the delivery van. Some were even waiting for us and waving when we arrived!
Customers were just tickled. Our customer base is a bit older, so they're particularly weary about being in stores right now, and some are nostalgic about getting milk delivered—something they haven’t seen in years! Neighbors would ask about the deliveries if they were out too. It was so fun to see the smiles on people’s faces.
Overall, the first day was definitely a success. Now that we have a grasp on logistics, we’ll start promoting the service and products. We are now running 3 radio and 1 newspaper ad, targeting our customers and focusing on the delivery service. We direct people to the website to sign up and try us out, making sure to add them to our MailChimp list so we can notify them as the service expands.”
Grant’s advice to other producers looking into direct home delivery was: “Do your homework, then test out your idea or plan for a new pathway to market. We were fortunate to have a strong brand and base of customers when we started home delivery. If you don’t, do some advertising and keep promoting your service-—building awareness takes time but is worth it. As a small business you have to be prepared to adapt to an environment—it won’t stop changing, and you can’t either.”
Barn2Door is proud to support Grant and Sheeder Cloverleaf Dairy’s latest venture. You can learn how Barn2Door supports direct home delivery, and learn how Barn2Door works in 5 minutes.