The Rural Voice, 1995-06, Page 32-t
THE NI PORK SHOPPE
SELLING
THE SIZZLE
A Shakespeare
family makes
retailing a big part
of their operation
By Keith Roulston
In a business where many farmers
value their independence, Gerry
and Linda Knechtel's success has
been based on having people tell
them what to do.
From an accident (literally) to the
success of The Best Little Pork
Shoppe, it has been customers who
drove the decisions the Shakespeare
couple has made. Today the little
shop on their farm just east of the
village welcomes 40,000 people a
year to buy pork products, lamb,
28 THE RURAL VOICE
baked goods and farm animal
collectibles. What those people tell
them has changed the shape of their
farming operation.
Gerry Knechtel has been involved
in the pork industry since he was 12
years old and raised pigs for a 4-H
project. He grew up on a farm with a
mixture of dairy, pigs and poultry
about three miles from the current
location. By the time he was in grade
12 he had rented a barn and was
finishing 400 feeder pigs a year.
In 1959 he graduated from
Ontario Agricultural College in
Guelph and for a while sold cars,
buying his farm in 1961. In 1969 he
built one of the first purebred Duroc
herds in Canada. Later he provided
Landrace x Yorkshire gilts and
Hampshire x Duroc boars in a 75 -
sow farrow -to -finish breeding stock
operation. Breeders from 27
countries came to buy the superior
genetics he grew.
But the direction of the farm
began to change in 1987 when a gilt
broke her leg. They didn't know
what to do but they called their
butcher. He said he would be
slaughtering that day and if they
could get the pig to him, he'd process
it. Since the alternative was shooting
the pig and getting no use from it,
they decided to try. With one quarter
damaged, they told the butcher to
Gerry and Linda Knechtel have
turned their old drive -shed into a
retail outlet welcoming 40,000
people a year.
salvage what he could and make it
into sausage.
But when the deed was done, they
ended up with 150 pounds of whole -
hog sausage — a little more than can
be eaten with pancakes at breakfast.
What to do?
For several years they had used a
portable sign by the road to advertise
their breeding operation. They
decided to advertise the fresh, whole -
hog sausage on the sign. Within a
couple of days all the sausage was
gone. Even then, Linda says, "it
didn't dawn on us that this was
something we could do until people
began coming back wanting more
sausage."
They caught on. They had more
sausage made up and put a freezer in
the laundry room of their house. Next
they decided to buy smoked pork
chops to sell. "Anybody east of
Kitchener didn't even know what a
smoked pork chop was," she said.
"People went crazy for them."
people began parading into the
laundry room to buy sausage or
pork chops but along the way,
they'd pass Linda's collection
of little piggy ornaments and would
ask to buy them. Eventually she took
the hint and began to stock giftware.
Later people began to bring her items
to sell on consignment. "If it sold, it
sold. There was no risk. If it didn't
sell we'd give it back the next time
they came to buy pork. We didn't
know how it would go."
Eventually the operation outgrew
the house and they renovated part of
an old drive -shed for a small retail
operation. There were bureaucratic
hurdles to overcome. At the time the
idea of "value-added" hadn't become
part of the rural development lexicon
and planning officials didn't know
what to do with their plans. But since
they weren't building anything new
and they weren't taking land out of
production, planners eventually
decided this was an extension of their
farm operation so they could go
ahead. When they had operated from
the house, health officials at first
wanted stainless steel in the farm
kitchen, but when they opened the