A lot has changed in the 60-plus years since the late husband and wife team of Earl and Margaret Miller started raising chickens and selling eggs on their six-acre property in Avon.
The area’s largest food distributor began raising turkeys in 1954, kicking off what became a successful poultry business. At one point, the Miller Farm raised and slaughtered 14,000 turkeys a year.
In 2001, the family business started Oma’s Pride pet products, a division of Miller Foods, which produces dog food. (Oma means grandmother in German.)
Now the company is opening a freeze-drying plant to make treats in-house with the help of a state grant.
The Millers moved into the wholesale food distribution in 1972, which accounted for 30 percent of last year’s $4.5 million in revenue. The dog food business has been growing at a healthy pace, according to company leaders.
With a business that has been growing steadily since its inception, some might say the company leaders behind the success of Miller Foods would be well within their right to take it easy from this point on.
But resting on their laurels is not an option for company leaders Sandi Trudeau and Carolyn Miller-Stevens.
After all, it’s that sheer determination and ambitious drive to succeed that has enabled the company to adapt to new strategies and introduce new products so it could meet rapid market changes faster than its competitors.
“The principles espoused by the Miller Foods family have not wavered through the years as the company has changed with the times and innovated,” said Capri Frank, vice president of sales and marketing at Oma’s Pride.
About a decade ago, customers started buying bones, muscle meat, and vegetables to grind at home for their dogs because they believed it was a healthier mix for their animals.
Around the same time, the U.S. Department of Agriculture introduced new regulations on the meat-cutting operation. As a result, the family’s hamburger processing and butcher services started losing market share, creating an ideal opportunity to develop a line of dog food, said Frank.
The company’s pet food is now distributed in 45 states, and products are exported to Hong Kong, England, and Ireland.
Frank, who earned a business degree from the University of Connecticut, has worked with several large Connecticut charities before and after Miller Foods. She currently handles all of the company’s marketing events, and communicates directly with local charities.
Frank, a third-generation member of Miller Foods, now in its fourth generation, credits the company’s success to hard work together, attention to customers, and a willingness to change.
“Innovation has been the hallmark of our company for the past 60 years,” said Frank.
Her mother, Sandi Trudeau, company president, took over Miller Foods after her parents died. She runs the company with her sister, Carolyn Miller-Stevens.
Like her mother and aunt, Frank grew up in Avon and has strong personal ties with the local community.
Through its Small Business Express Program, Connecticut gave the Millers $50,000 to renovate and invest in equipment that brings production to Avon, instead of Wisconsin where it was processed.
The company expects to hire three people, bringing the total to 31. Of those, the company employs six family members across three generations.
First Place Winners:
- Companies with fewer than 25 full time employees: Miller Foods
- Companies with 25-99 full time employees: The Music People
- Companies with 100-249 full time employees: S&S Worldwide
- Companies with 250 employees or more: Hoffman Auto Group
Second through Fourth Place Winners:
- Allied Roofing & Sheet Metal
- Traver IDC
- Mohawk Northeast
- Ulbrich Stainless Steels & Special Metals
- American Ladders & Scaffolds
- Barker Specialty
- Family Care Visiting Nurse & Home Care Agency
- Sprigs & Twigs
- McCue Mortgage
- Specialty Printing
Finalists:
- ACT Group
- Commercial Sewing
- Connecticut Lighting Centers
- Connecticut Shirt Man
- Controlled Air
- Costanzo Clothing
- Disaster Restoration Services
- EasySeat Tickets
- EDRO Corp.
- Goldburgers
- Harvey & Lewis Opticians
- ImageWorks
- InfoShred
- Joseph Family Markets
- Live Every Day
- Modern Mechanical Systems
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