Grundhofer’s Old Fashion Meats ready to expand facility

Grundhofer's Old-Fashion Meats plans to build a 2,450 square-foot.

HUGO — Spencer Grundhofer is a good example of a guy who has built a successful career without spending a dime on college. He learned the meat cutting profession strictly via on-the-job training and ventured out on his own in 2007, opening Grundhofer's Old Fashion Meats.

His business on Forest Boulevard North in Hugo is doing well enough, even during the COVID-19 pandemic, to expand the facility. The Planning Commission and City Council recently gave the go-ahead for a 2,450-square-foot addition to his building.

"I started at Nadeau's Star Market in Hugo, right across from Hugo Feed Mill, boxing custom meat in freezers after school," said Grundhofer, 48, who attended White Bear Lake High School at the time.

"It was me and Larry Nadeau, one of my best friends. His dad, Leon, was the owner. I started receiving a paycheck in 1984, washing the machines and doing general cleanup. Years later, I learned how to cut meat from Jerry (Nadeau) and Dan Nadeau, also sons of the owner."

He worked for the Nadeau's until 1999, then for Festival Foods as a journeyman meat cutter, through November 2006. Figuring it was time to make his move, he spotted a facility built in 1950 that formerly housed a machine shop and office space.

"I found this building, and I said, ‘You know, I think this will go,’" he said. "Nadeau's had sold out by then, and I certainly didn't want to step on their toes. At that point it was game on, and through a lot of hard work, we built the business."

Grundhofer's website states the company takes pride in developing a wide array of brat and beef stick flavors, with their gummy bear brat by far its best seller. Grundhofer says he's the main innovator, but employees are encouraged to be creative as well. There's a cash reward for anyone's brat flavor idea that sells 100 pounds or more. He has around 15 employees, including a nephew who will eventually take over the business when he retires.

Grundhofer's Old Fashion Meats currently consists of 1,400 square feet of retail area in the front and 1,400 square feet for processing in the back. There's a second 2,000-square-foot building for storing spices and equipment.

The addition, slated to begin construction in late October, will be used for processing and for cooling; the cooler will take up 1,000 square feet. The addition will be located between the two existing structures and will connect them.

When the pandemic descended in March, spawning stay-at-home orders and other major precautions, like all business owners Grundhofer was worried. But it turned out that demand for his services and products only increased.

"We are having a record year," Grundhofer said, "because, with restaurants closed, people are cooking at home more. I think we are hitting a new era. People are discovering that by cooking at home you can feed more people on less money. It was busy at first, and then went crazy busy."

More concerning is the pandemic's impact on the agri-food chain: crowded meat processing plants have been shut down for stretches of time or are operating at reduced capacity because plant workers are vulnerable to the virus as they work in close proximity to one another.

Grundhofer gets raw materials from three suppliers and has always been able to find products in at least one of them. "When I did, I bought a lot. Instead of two cases, I’d buy 12. It was a tough go. Nobody knew what would happen. They are all open now, but I still have a problem getting pork products for brats."

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