We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Jeff Flathau. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Jeff below.

Hi Jeff, thanks for joining us today. Let’s kick things off with talking about how you serve the underserved, because in our view this is one of the most important things the small business community does for society – by serving those who the giant corporations ignore, small business helps create a more inclusive and just world for all of us.

There are still people in our area who do not have enough to eat. We donate rice and beans to 2 ministries here, EDWARDS STREET MISSION and THE PETAL CHILDREN’S TASK FORCE.
We also donate thousands of cookie cartons each year to various charities in our area.
We also do a red beans and rice ministry feeding veterans groups, a local area veterans home, and many others.
During covid we served thousands of first responders who were on the front lines[police, fireman, city workers, nurses, doctors, etc.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

We are a family owned artisanal bakery that was founded in 1995. We manufacture shortbread cookies, cheese straws, and also co pack for other vendors. We sell our products across the USA, CANADA, and parts of central America, Mexico, and Europe.
Our products have won numerous national awards and we pride ourselves on offering the best cookies and cheese straws for a fair price.
We are constantly testing new flavors of cookies and cheese straws and are receptive to new ideas.
We pride ourselves in making sure we are attentive to our customers needs and strive to keep prices low and quality high.

We’d really appreciate if you could talk to us about how you figured out the manufacturing process.

We manufacture all of our products and co pack for other vendors. I have a restaurant-catering background. Manufacturing was much more difficult than I imagined.
The margins are obviously much tighter than in the restaurant catering business margins are.
There are many regulations and requirements that i was unaware of.
I lost lots of money learning what worked and didn’t.
I often say that I doubt I would do it over in todays world. That may be me getting older, or that is much more difficult to get started. Probably a combination of both!
I actually co pack for other vendors who are not able to do their own baking, etc.
I hope to help them get started and take the burdensome tasks off their plate.
We continue to look at new trends in our industry and explore options moving forward, which is always exciting.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

People told me not to get in this business. Too much work. No Experience. Not enough capitol, etc, etc.
God called me to my lines of work, so I keep moving forward.
Not to say there have not been bumps along the way.
And some mighty big ones. I was close to shutting down and was rescued just in the nick of time
I have lost money over mistakes and have had companies file bankruptcy and not pay their bills.
I was told not to go to certain national trade shows as the business was too small.
If I had listened to most of the advice, I would not be writing this today.
We made decisions based on what we felt in our hearts and minds and through prayer.
It’s worked for this business so far.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.flathausfinefoods.com
• Instagram: flathausfinefoods
• Facebook: flathaus fine foods
• Linkedin: Jeff Flathau
• Youtube: flathausfinefoods