Apple and honey salsa, chunky marinara sauce, apple butter and honey. That and oh-so-many more fresh culinary delights are all made in Northern Kentucky with ingredients supplied by Kentucky farmers, sold in Kentucky and Greater Cincinnati restaurants and stores and shipped across the nation.
It's all produced through
KHI Foods in Burlington, a company well-known in the Greater Cincinnati food service industry, but still a bit of a secret in the foodie world. The Northern Kentucky company has a "field to fork" operation that works with local farmers to harvest, manufacture, distribute and market whole food products. KHI is behind private label sauces, salsas, snacks and other food offerings for
Dee Felice Foods in Covington,
Pompilio's in Newport and
Ale-8-One in Winchester among others.
The growing company was founded in 1995 by President Millard Long who has more than 27 years of food processing and packaging experience with brands including Sara Lee, Perdue, Mentos, Freschetta and Red Baron.
KHI, like many home-grown enterprises started out humbly enough, as a honey sales operation called Katelyn's Honey. Long named the company after his daughter who gave him bee hives as a birthday present. The unique gift evolved into a top- notch business and became the largest local honey supplier in Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky. The sweet stuff turned up in area stores, farmer's markets and health food shops.
Soon after, Katelyn's honey became KHI Foods and expanded, turning excess food crops into tasty treats, especially tomato-based salsa and marina sauces.
"Farmers in the area were having bumper crops and looking to throw away a lot of products. (Long said) I can process salsa and you can sell it in farmer's markets instead of throwing stuff away," said KHI Foods spokeswoman Jane Browe.
The company works primarily with Kentucky farmers and is part of the state's
Kentucky Proud initiative, which markets the commonwealth's farmers and food.
"We focus primarily on Kentucky growers; these are commercial farmers that are well-established. Many of them had been tobacco growers, and with the tobacco settlement funds the Kentucky Department of Agriculture is working to transition farmers from tobacco to other crops," Browe said. "We can identify new products to bring to market, develop them and manage the retail marketing and retail promotion to preserve these businesses."
KHI specialized in foods that were organic, with no preservatives, years before many buyers prized these traits. And today's "Green" and "Eat Local" movements in healthy eating have driven demand for products that KHI produces.
"Everything is growing pretty quickly. We are really well positioned with the trends in health and wellness that seem to be gathering momentum. And it's accelerating at the moment with healthcare reform with an emphasis on treatment and prevention. You're seeing in the medical community the retail community more interest (in these types of products) than in the past hopeful more consumers what a major role good nutrition plays in health," Browe said.
KHI received a big boost this year in the form of a $1.6 million
investment in a new wholesale food manufacturing facility in Owen
County, just south west of the Boone, Kenton, and Campbell region of
Northern Kentucky. The company will lease a three-acre,
32,000-square-foot facility in the Owenton Industrial Park, at 100
Progress Way. The plant will take locally made vegetables and meat from
farmers across the region to make finished, value-added food for its
various initiatives.
The expansion will create 32 new jobs and represents a capital investment of more than $1.6 million, according to the company.
"We
are very excited about KHI Foods locating in Owen County," said Carolyn
Keith, Owen County Judge/Executive. "This will mean approximately 32
new jobs for Owen County plus the addition of a new industry to our
county. I have been very impressed by the information provided about
the products that will be produced and many of our farmers see this as
an opportunity to sell their products to this company."
The expansion will allow the company to store food longer and create new and more varied products.
"This
is the first year we're contracting with growers for over and above
what we need for sales in the harvest season. The extra space will
allow us to process and preserve those ingredients throughout the year
instead of just seasonally," Browe said.
Among the foods KHI manufactures are honey apple salsa for
Chicks & Chucks, Strawberry Country Jam and Apple Butter for Ale-8-One, chunky marina for Pompilio's, gumbo for Dee Felice Foods and some Rempke Markets private label products.
"We have a new minestrone soup coming out on a few weeks and
Elk Creek Vineyards BBQ sauce with some wine infusion," Browe said, providing a glimpse of what's to come.
The company often pairs with charitable, youth and other organizations to raise funds for their efforts, and today, KHI Foods has five specialty areas, from the company:
- Katelyn's Honey (Rosh Hashanah Honey) Katelyn's Honey packages and ships honey internationally to help charitable organizations raise funds for their special projects.
- Katelyn's Kitchens (Private label development). Katelyn's Kitchens is a "field to fork" operation taking local produce and local restaurants' recipes from farms to independent & chain retailers' shelves. (In doing so, Katelyn's Kitchens helps small businesses at all three levels.) Katelyn's Kitchens provides a full range of services to restaurant customers looking to introduce their recipes and dreams to the retail market.
- Comfort Café (Hospital patient recovery assistance) Comfort Café develops delicious, highly fortified food products, through hospitals and direct sales, for patients returning from hospital stays.
- Katelyn's Kids (Non-profit private labels) Katelyn's Kids develops and prepares specialty food products for sale by youth groups (scholastic, athletic, etc.) to help them help youth
- Katelyn's Crops (Produce processing) Katelyn's Crops works co-operatively with farmers to purchase and process fresh produce. This approach helps farmers sell surplus produce by buying it and processing it to be used as raw material later in our other branches. Katelyn's Crops has a major goal of helping farmers switch from tobacco production to food production. We work with state and local departments of agriculture to help accomplish this goal.
As KHI grows, so do the opportunities for area farmers to sell crops, restaurants to develop fresh recipes and tummies to be filled.