{"id":30566,"date":"2018-10-19T03:47:46","date_gmt":"2018-10-19T10:47:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/?p=30566"},"modified":"2018-10-18T15:53:52","modified_gmt":"2018-10-18T22:53:52","slug":"elmans-grows-in-vancouver","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/2018\/10\/19\/elmans-grows-in-vancouver\/","title":{"rendered":"Elman\u2019s grows in Vancouver"},"content":{"rendered":"

Millie Krause, who runs Elman\u2019s, with receptionist Bonita Bouchard. (photo from Elman\u2019s)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

They started making horseradish 80 years ago and haven\u2019t stopped. Elman\u2019s Food Products is still making horseradish in small batches and, over the years, they have added new pickled products to the mix.<\/p>\n

Today, Elman\u2019s is run by Millie Krause, widow of the founder\u2019s son, Manny Finkleman, who passed away in 2004. The company is gradually increasing its reach west from Winnipeg, led by Millie Krause\u2019s daughter, Payton.<\/p>\n

Six years ago, Payton Krause moved to Vancouver to be closer to friends and expand the family business, in which she first started working in the late 1980s. By then, the family had moved the company out of the garage and into its current-day location on Jarvis Avenue in Winnipeg\u2019s North End.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt that time, Payton, my daughter, was working here,\u201d Millie Krause told the Independent<\/em>. \u201cAnd that was good, because she could keep an eye on things while I was running back and forth to hospitals, and taking Manny back and forth to this and that.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2004, Manny Krause passed away. Since then, the brunt of the management has been in his wife\u2019s hands.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a really big learning curve for me, because my background was in sales. It took awhile,\u201d she said. \u201cEverybody wanted the same deals that Manny used to give and they didn\u2019t really know who I was … but we survived.<\/p>\n

\u201cI always say that, if you don\u2019t know something, find out. Just ask. If we look a little stupid or something down the road, who cares? Just get it done. That\u2019s really the attitude we took it with. Now, what Manny said to me before he passed away … was that I should run it [Elman\u2019s] for a couple of years, with Payton\u2019s and everyone\u2019s help … and then, sell it. So, 15 years later, I\u2019m still here. The thing is, back then, when Manny was running the business, he ran it, if I might say, by the seat of his pants. He dealt with every problem that came up at the time, but he didn\u2019t really remember what he did the next time, so it was like constant chaos.\u201d<\/p>\n

She and her daughter have tried \u201cto reformulate the company and brand it \u2013 brand it into something that maybe wasn\u2019t there at the time,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

They position their products in the specialty food section, staying away from big retailers like Walmart and Giant Tiger. They sell the product by promoting the story behind it \u2013 making sure people know they\u2019re a small, local family business with a long history in the city.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we\u2019ve succeeded in doing that,\u201d said Krause, saying the process has \u201cbeen a little slow.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBefore Manny passed away,\u201d she explained, \u201cwe were shipping from Winnipeg to Thunder Bay, and then west, but in very small ways. Then, Payton wanted to move out there, as apparently she needs mountains and water around her, and she wanted to open it up further. Actually, she\u2019s done that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Expansion means winning over new clients, and that is exactly what her daughter is achieving in Vancouver.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn fact, Payton had to pass a taste test,\u201d said Krause. \u201cSome of the wannabe customers she went to call on cut up 10 slices of pickles and said, \u2018OK, now, which one is yours?\u2019 And, I think she thought, \u2018Sheesh! What if I get this wrong?\u2019 But, she got it right.\u201d<\/p>\n

One breakthrough is that Elman\u2019s pickles are included in all B.C. Ferries\u2019 burgers. \u201cThey put the pickle on the top of the bun,\u201d said Krause.<\/p>\n

As another example, she said Elman\u2019s are also used by Fairmont Hotels in Vancouver.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe goal is to obviously get more business,\u201d she said. \u201cUp until this point, we didn\u2019t have a lot of boots on the ground. We don\u2019t have salespeople. The only \u2018salespeople\u2019 we have is Payton in the Vancouver area, but she has managed to do quite well. That is her goal \u2013 to get as much business as we can. It will hopefully get to a point that we can get enough business to be busy continually.\u201d<\/p>\n

Krause is hoping to get in with another large food service restaurant, which would allow Elman\u2019s not only to be busier but to have the working capital to keep operations going. According to its website, the company currently has about 10 regular staff and casual employees.<\/p>\n

Elman\u2019s products carry a kosher certification from OU Kosher. For more information, visit elmans.ca<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Rebeca Kuropatwa<\/strong> is a Winnipeg freelance writer.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Millie Krause, who runs Elman\u2019s, with receptionist Bonita Bouchard. (photo from Elman\u2019s) They started making horseradish 80 years ago and haven\u2019t stopped. Elman\u2019s Food Products is still making horseradish in small batches and, over the years, they have added new pickled products to the mix. Today, Elman\u2019s is run by Millie Krause, widow of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":30569,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[3851,8434,8436,2628,8435],"class_list":["post-30566","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-national","tag-business","tag-elmans","tag-horseradish","tag-kosher","tag-millie-krause"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30566","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30566"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30566\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30569"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30566"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30566"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30566"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}