Issue link: http://www.insightdigital.biz/i/147468
continued Fueling the growth at Renard's is a more strategic approach to promotions. TV commercials have been successful. Have you seen the ad with the little girl munching on extremely squeaky cheese curds? That's Ann and Chris's youngest daughter, Carrie. Building on a family business oward Renard, the grandfather of Chris and father of Brian, started the company in 1961 when he and his wife Angela bought the Rosewood Dairy in Algoma, which had been operating since 1910 under various owners. In 1966, Howard and his son, Gary, purchased the Cloverleaf Cheese Factory on DK near Sturgeon Bay. It was run by Gary and Bonnie Renard, Chris's parents, who took sole ownership in 1967. Howard and Gary Renard decided to consolidate in 1975, and they turned Cloverleaf into a store and processed all the cheese at Rosewood. Chris and Ann have carried on a tradition that started with Chris's dad and grandfather, who had the insight to start marketing the company when they combined the two factories, says Chris, who is now in the master cheese makers program with his uncle Brian. "What happened is a lot of small cheese factories left because their one customer said, 'We don't need your cheese anymore,' and they had nowhere to go," Chris says. "And Dad and Grandpa, they kind of saw it coming and realized they "I love those guys, their enthusiasm, positive attitudes – I don't think they've ever said 'no' to me. I've asked them for a lot of different things over the years and it's always 'yes.' They're willing to get involved, they're willing to participate, they're willing to invest." > Bill Chaudoir, executive director of the DCEDC 26 | Insight • A u g u s t 2 013 online: Click to hear Ann and Chris Renard discuss strategic growth at the company's store and deli. needed to start marketing themselves. They only had a few customers at that time and Grandpa went out and got more, and we just kept growing." Renard's is now the last cheese maker in Door County. Cheese making still starts at the Rosewood plant at 12:30 a.m. each day, and Howard still comes every morning and runs errands for the company. Ann and Chris arrive at the new store between 3 and 4 a.m. every day. In the quiet, they get a lot done. "The phone never rings – that's when Chris and I get to talk," Ann says. "The first year we were married, he was in at 12:30 a.m. So he sleeps in now – he goes in at 3." Chris, who was a buyer for Econo Foods for eight years, didn't originally plan to take over the family business. "If you asked me in high school if I was going to stay here and do this, I'd say, 'No way,'" he says. "But I went out into the real world, kind of got my wings clipped a little bit, and decided that coming back wasn't such a bad idea." Ann, who has been a driving force in the company's growth plan, didn't expect when she married into the family that the company would be such a major part of her life. She had her own successful career in insurance, and that's where she planned to stay. But then Ann and Chris's daughter Taylor got sick. Family focus t the age of 2, Taylor complained of back pain, and a proactive pediatrician sent her for an MRI. The next day, she couldn't walk. Taylor was diagnosed with the rare cancer neuroblastoma, which created a tumor in her chest cavity the size of two grapefruits. It had wrapped itself around nine places on her spine, as well as her aorta and esophagus. After a couple of tough rounds of chemo and surgery at Sloan Kettering in New York, the little girl beat her 25 percent-chance survival odds and is now a healthy, funny 8-year-old. w w w. i n s i g h t o n b u s i n e s s . c o m