Oberweis Dairy

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Oberweis Dairy
Type Private
Founded 1927
Headquarters North Aurora, Illinois
No. of locations 44
Key people Peter J. Oberweis, Founder
Jim Oberweis, Chairman of the Board
Rob Renaut, President & CEO
Industry Restaurant, Home Delivery
Products Dairy and Ice Cream
Website http://www.oberweisdairy.com

Oberweis Dairy, headquartered in North Aurora, Illinois, is the parent company of several dairy-related operations in the midwest region of the United States. Its businesses include a home delivery service available in parts of Illinois, Indiana, Missouri, and Wisconsin, which delivers traditional dairy products, including milk, ice cream, cheese, and yogurt, as well as bacon and seasonal products. The businesses also include a chain of corporate-owned "Dairy and Ice Cream Stores", in the Chicago area, which sell many of the same products as the home delivery service, a distribution service which allows for some of their products (such as milk) to be available in regional supermarkets, and also includes a franchise service, which has seen the "Dairy and Ice Cream Stores" expand into Wisconsin, Indiana, Missouri,and Michigan since 2004. The firm is privately owned, largely by the Oberweis family.

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[edit] History

The business was started in 1915 by Peter J. Oberweis, who made a profit by selling milk to his neighbors in Kane County, Illinois. According to the Dairy's website, the family's farm was off of Molitor Road, in Aurora, Illinois. The family used a horse and carriage to deliver milk to their neighbors, beginning in 1927, after Peter J. Oberweis invested in half of the business of the Big Woods Dairy.

The business continued in the family, with Peter's son, Joe, running the business through the 1950s. Current owner, Jim Oberweis, took over the company in the 1980s, moved the plant from Aurora to its current location in North Aurora in the 1990s, (which also housed the offices of Jim's 'Oberweis Asset Management' company until 2006), and began expansion of the businesses in retail and franchising.

[edit] Businesses

[edit] Dairy and Ice Cream Stores

The Dairy and Ice Cream Stores have been in operation since the first store in 1951. The company currently has locations, both corporate-owned and franchised, throughout Chicago, its suburbs and northwest Indiana, around St. Louis, Missouri, and near Indianapolis, Indiana and Milwaukee, Wisconsin and near Detroit, Michigan. Some projects for the retail stores were done on a trial basis at the company's corporate office in North Aurora (which also includes a retail store) before being put into place at other locations, such as the stores' drive-through service, and the lunch/sandwich program, which began in 2004 and ended in July 2006. Most of those locations trialling the sandwich program (and select other stores) now carry a variety of pastry items, including cakes, brownies, and cookies. Oberweis has 34 company locations, and 5 franchise locations as of June 2006.

[edit] Home delivery

The company's home delivery service was begun by its founder in 1927, and continues to homeowners in the Chicago area through the present day.

[edit] Health stance

Oberweis Dairy has vowed not to use or sell milk from cows treated with rBGH, recombinant Bovine Growth Hormone. They (like Ben & Jerry's, which also refuses to sell ice cream produced from cow's milk with rBGH), have taken this step despite a statement by the United States Food and Drug Administration which claims that the hormone does not have any detrimental effects on humans. Oberweis Dairy states their reason for the decision is to successfully fulfill their motto, which is to "Provide simply the best people, products, and places."

rBGH has been outlawed in Canada, New Zealand, Australia, Japan and most EU countries.

[edit] Competition

Locally, Oberweis Dairy competes with the Colonial Café restaurant chain out of St. Charles, Illinois. While the Colonial Cafés have a full restaurant menu (which the Oberweis Dairy stores do not), both chains have ice cream fountains, and the Colonial Café chain is operated by the Anderson Dairy, which also sells its ice cream products to Chicago-area supermarkets. The Oberweis Dairy and Ice Cream Stores also compete with national ice cream store chains, such as Cold Stone Creamery, Ben & Jerry's and Baskin-Robbins for ice cream products. A company similar to Oberweis Dairy's home delivery service in the Western United States is Winder Farms.

[edit] Controversy

Some Oberweis Dairy and Ice Cream stores have experienced picketing due to negative feelings towards Jim Oberweis during both attempts at becoming Senator of Illinois in 2002 and 2004, and most recently during his run at becoming Governor of Illinois in 2005/2006.

Oberweis was also in the news in 2005, after illegal immigrants were found to be working as night cleaning crew members, though it was later revealed that they were employed by a contractor, and never worked directly for the Oberweis Dairy.

[edit] External links