August 9, 2000

An Idea Jells

by Tammy Swift

Kim Samuelson says she just wanted to sell a few "cute little jars of jam."

But she wound up building a business - and a successful one at that.

Today, Samuelson's RBJ's Spreadable Fruit Preserves are a staple at gift shops across the country.  They have received national exposure through QVC and Taste of Home magazine.  And they are being sold under the private label of several large companies.

"It's just been a good thing for Crookston," says Kari Thompson, director of Crookston's Development Authority.  "That stuff is all over the United States, and for Crookston, that's a really neat thing."

Yet Samuelson is just 33. 

"I think people expect me to be this grandma in a big apron standing in a field of rhubarb," she jokes.

But don't be fooled.  Samuelson has soaked up plenty of business in her lifetime.  The daughter of Crookston restaurant owner Roger B. Johnson, she took over the family business at age 19 when her father died of cancer.

She moved RBJ's Restaurant to bigger, newer quarters in 1995.  And she proved to possess the mind of a true entrepreneur, always seeking ways to develop a new product.

"When I think of an entrepreneur, she's just a perfect example," Thompson says.  "She's hardworking, full of energy, she goes 100 miles per hour.  She doesn't have enough time in the day for all her ideas."

Samuelson will agree with that.  "I tend to be restless," she says.  "My brother says that if I say 'I've been thinking,' you'd better run and hide."

Initially Samuelson dreamed of becoming a Minnesota Mrs. Fields.  "I wanted to make cookies for the whole world," she says.

But cookies, which are fragile and perishable, weren't practical for mass-production.

Preserving Tradition

Samuelson eventually found the answer in her own backyard.  Like every other Midwestern kid, she had grown up with rhubarb.  She remembers picking the leaves from the plant to carpet her playhouse.

In 1996, Samuelson used her mother's recipe to make a batch of rhubarb-strawberry spread for the "coffee guys" at the cafe.  (It's still the No. 1 jam at RBJ's Restaurant.)

People love it.  She tested several other rhubarb-fruit combinations, and got the idea to sell them.

Even though her product was good, Samuelson knew it would flounder without promotion.  "You can invest all the time and energy in the world, but if you can't sell your product, it doesn't merit a $50,000 builiding," she says.

With the help of an employee with a marketing degree, Samuelson worked to spread the word on RBJ's.  After collecting phone books from across the country, she and restaurant employees scanned yellow pages for gourmet and gift shops, then sent samples to them.  "We weren't online or anything, that was our source," Samuelson says.

In 1997, the process grew more high-tech.  Samuelson learned QVC was planning a "50 in 50" tour, in which the home shopping giant featured products from the 50 states in 50 weeks.  Samuelson applied and was granted an interview by the Minnesota Inventors Congress.

Competing against 200 entrants, she didn't think she stood a chance.  But she won one of the coveted slots, which included just four food products.  During a live broadcast at the Taste of Minnesota, she sold 6,000 jars of jam in six minutes.

Two years later she received another boost, when Taste of Home magazine printed an article about her products.  Calls and letters came in from all over the country.  Some simply sent her checks.

Thanks to this exposure and marketing assistance from the Agriculture Utilization Research Institute, Samuelson's business continues to grow.

RBJ's first inventory consisted of 144 jars; today, they ship an average of 6,000 per month.  RBJ's can be found at 600 gift shops nationwide, plus gourmet shops, resorts and bed-and-breakfasts.

Samuelson's preserves can also be found at Hornbacher's and Hugo's stores, although grocery stores aren't her main focus. 

Not your average jam

Despite a higher price tag, RBJ's isn't like ordinary preserves.  It contains less sugar than jam, which classifies is as "spreadable fruit."  It also uses nostalgic, regional favorites like chokecherries and rhubarb.

"One thing that's unique about this area is taht it's not really known as a fruit-bearing region," Samuelson says.  "But we're tough people from the north.  We'll make something from what we've got."

Many who move away from the area still long for that rhubarb patch in the backyard - and the tangy bounty it bears.  "Our biggest customer is the 40 to 70 age range, and is either from the Midwest or linked to someone from here," Samuelson says.

Besided the Rhubarb-Strawberry that started it all, she sells Rhubarb-Pineapple, Rhubarb Sauce, Strawberry-Peach, and Strawberry-Almond.  She's also added three limited edition jelly flavors: Chokecherry, Plum and Crabapple and - in September - Chokecherry Syrup.

Due to the volume needed, Samuelson now purchases commercial, frozen rhubarb for the spreads.  But she growing the chokecherries and crabapples on the Samuelson farm, where she lives with her farmer husband, Eric, and their three daughters, Erica 5, Emily 4, and Elisa 2.

The chokecherry products may be a big boon for business; several large companies already have shown interest in them.  "I've been picking chokecherries like crazy in the last few weeks," she says.  "We've picked 500 pounds so far, and we're aiming for 2,000"

After the fruit is picked, it's cold packed by Full Service Foods in Hillsboro, ND.  "That was a wise decision on our part," Samuelson says.  "They're licensed for packaging, and you get that quality and consistency."

Despite the successes of Samuelson's business, she has encountered challenges along the way.  Without the network of experts and resources that a corporation has, things like marketing can be a real challenge.  "When you're by yourself, you're by yourself," she says.

In the last year she has started working with a marketing consultant to expand the business.  "We were worried that if we didn't get any bigger, we would become incidental," she says.

And so she continues to work at keeping RBJ's name out there.  Her company's website (www.spreadablefruit.com) continues to attract traffic, and has become a popular tool for reorders.  She participates in the Pride of Dakota shows across the state, and - for the first time - sent representatives to the Fancy Food Show in New York City this summer.  "You just hope you're planting a seed that's eventually going to grow," she says.

Down the line, the woman with a hundred ideas has a hundred more, including a possible line of fruit syrups.

"Who knows?" she says, "maybe someday I'll be able to make my cookies."