The Grateful Dead, probiotics, 1960s counterculture and Ken Kesey are not words one would usually associate with a yogurt factory.
However, Nancy’s Yogurt creamery is anything but typical.
A recognized Northwest staple, Nancy’s Yogurt Springfield Creamery is where rich history and family origins collide with an old-fashioned-yet-innovative yogurt-making technique.
Owners of the factory are more than humble about their extraordinary story.
“We were just fortunate with our timing,” co-founder and co-owner Sue Kesey said.
When husband and wife duo Chuck and Sue Kesey launched their business in 1960 in their hometown of Springfield, they didn’t expect to be making yogurt. Chuck used his skills as a second-generation dairyman to start a bottled milk delivery company. The 1960s, however, changed traditional expectations and market desires, and by the late ’60s it was apparent that the creamery needed to find a unique product that would appeal to the counterculture.
Nancy Hamren, who worked as a bookkeeper for the creamery, offered up her yogurt-making experience she learned from her grandmother.
Chuck, with his expertise in cultures and probiotics, soon became inspired to find a way to use his skills in yogurt. Hamren and Chuck began experimenting with yogurt recipes for the creamery. In 1970, Nancy’s Yogurt, aptly named after Hamren, was created, becoming the first company to produce fully cultured probiotic yogurt.
Probiotics are thought to have great health benefits because they contain live microorganisms that contain “good” bacteria and can help with digestion and offer protection from harmful bacteria in your body.
This proved to be perfect timing for the company. With the help of their friend and future music legend Huey Lewis and his business partner, Nancy’s Yogurt made a name for itself in Northern California while Lewis and friends were on a comic book tour through San Francisco and Santa Cruz. Some people also connected Chuck Kesey with his brother, famous author Ken Kesey (author of “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest”), and their probiotic yogurt soon became a counterculture hit.
Nancy’s gained even more fame with the counterculture after the Grateful Dead played a benefit concert for the creamery. More importantly, Nancy’s slowly made a name for itself as a pioneer of natural food products across the country.
Now in its 50th year in business, Nancy’s Yogurt has made significant technological improvements, but not at the expense of making quality products.
Co-owner and vice president of marketing Sheryl Kesey Thompson said the key to the quality taste in their yogurt and other products is giving the product ample time to develop its flavor and its cultures.
“My dad comes in every day to personally taste test,” Thompson said.
Unlike mega yogurt corporations, Nancy’s is committed to natural, never-sweetened flavors and to the proper growth of cultures in all of its products.
And while Nancy’s has been using probiotics for more than 40 years, large corporations like Dannon only started using and promoting probiotics in the past few years.
Nancy’s Kefir product has often been used at hospitals to help rejuvenate the floor of a patient’s gut. Hamren sits on the National Probiotics Association to ensure that the company is up to date on the most cutting edge probiotic information. Sheryl Thompson said that it is important that the company keeps a standard amount of probiotics in their product.
“We have added more and more strains (of probiotics). We simply did that because it was the right thing to do,” she said.
Other dairy companies have taken advantage of this probiotic craze by putting probiotics in everything. The problem is that the probiotic level in these products may be so low that they have little health benefits at all. These same companies are Nancy’s biggest competition, mostly because they have a huge advertising budget and faster production.
However, the competition is of little concern to Nancy’s Yogurt. The company has gained a faithful second- and third-generation market in the Pacific Northwest and Northern California.
University students such as junior Andrea Vial eat Nancy’s Yogurt religiously.
“I’ve always eaten Nancy’s; I love that stuff,” she said.
Nancy’s also distributes its products in all 50 states and part of Canada as well. While the company does struggle with brand recognition in other parts of the country, Nancy’s believes the slow and steady growth of the company has been the key to its longevity and success.
“The most cost-efficient marketing is grassroots marketing — people to people. It’s genuine,” Thompson said.
More importantly, Nancy’s has been so successful because it is a small company of family and friends. Many of the employees working there today have been at Nancy’s since it originated.
“It’s very exciting to keep that family connection,” Sue Kesey said. “We are all about family.”
Sue and her husband Chuck have been through all the ups and downs of running the company for the past 50 years, but have no plans to retire any time soon.
“We earn a good living and get to work with our friends. What a good deal,” Sue Kesey said. “We’re fortunate to have it all work.”
[email protected]