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Housing & Community | Real Life Stories « Banking on Business »
Banking On Business Success Stories
The Proof is in the Pudding…BOB-funded Business Dishes up Homemade Desserts
“Down Home Homemade Pudding,” based in Factoryville, PA, has provided its homemade rice pudding to delis, grocery stores and restaurants throughout Northeast Pennsylvania and neighboring areas of New York and New Jersey for two decades. The wholesaler carries a unique selection of all natural rice pudding products, which are gluten- and preservative-free. The company also has a niche in the pudding market by offering a line of sugar-free puddings to its diabetic customers.
When the business went on the market last year, new owners Patti Brown and her husband, Michael, jumped at the chance to purchase the company. It was a perfect fit at the right time for what the couple wanted. Patti Brown loves preparing food for others, and Michael Brown was looking for a small business to buy. The Browns called on their local community banker, Rosalia Strasser, vice president and business banking relationship manager, and FHLBank member at Fidelity Deposit & Discount Bank, who clinched the deal. They received $69,000 in recoverable assistance from FHLBank’s Banking On Business (BOB) program to help make their new company bankable.
The BOB funding facilitated the purchase of the business and accompanying real estate. The mixed-use space houses the pudding-making facility as well as apartments, another business and office space. The Browns also purchased a house next door, along with a parking lot that they share with the other business. According to Patti Brown, “The best part of having our business is how well it fits in with my Personal Chef business and how well our product has been received by our customers. We recently added the Dickson City and Wilkes-Barre Wegmans stores to our customer list.”
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The pudding company is a Pennsylvania Preferred member – a program of the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture that promotes high quality foods produced in the state. The Browns have not changed a thing since they bought the business last May. They continue to use the same distributors and produce the same all-natural puddings, and they still offer an array of rice pudding with flavors that include raisin, peaches n’ cream and banana cream, as well as sugar-free coconut cream.
The company – with estimated annual revenue of $300,000 and a customer base of 150 clients – currently employs a pudding chef (who has been with the business since its inception), delivery driver, general laborer and administrator, as well as hiring seasonal help during the fair season. The company hopes to expand its delivery routes so it can bring homemade products to a larger number of consumers in the tri-state area.
“Buying Down Home Rice Pudding is a dream come true for us,” said Patti Brown. “It has opened a whole new world of adventure. We do all of the local fairs – about 30 every summer – as well as the New Jersey State Fair and the Big E Fair in Massachusetts. We have met so many interesting people in this type of business and made some new friends along the way.”
Since the BOB program’s creation in 2000, FHLBank Pittsburgh has provided more than $43 million in BOB funding to more than 480 small businesses throughout Delaware, Pennsylvania and West Virginia. It’s estimated that each BOB dollar leverages an additional six dollars in financial resources, in turn enhancing the job market and improving communities. More than 5,400 jobs have been created or retained – thanks to BOB.
To find out what other desserts are cooking at Down Home Homemade Pudding, visit their web site.
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