Sustainable growth has built a foundation of success for Mullins

MANDEE ELLIS

REPORTER

Wisconsinites know how vital milk production is. With about 14% of milk in the United States coming from America’s Dairyland, Wisconsin’s farmers work around the clock to feed the country, putting the cows first and themselves last. But the process doesn’t end there. Where does that milk go after it leaves local dairies?

A good portion of it finds it’s way to Mullins Cheese in Mosinee.

Mullins Cheese was founded in 1970 and is coming up on the fifth generation of owners. The owners, affectionately deemed “the Mullins boys,” are invested in the day-to-day operation of the plant.

“It’s very big on the outside, but on the inside it’s very small,” said sales and marketing representative Tyler Gilles. “Don (Mullins) is still here every single day, all the Mullins boys are still here too, everyone is involved, when we're here, they're here.” Gilles states that the Mullins family keeps things flexible for their employees, emphasizing that family comes first.

Mullins retail store manager Cassie Meyer shares the same sentiment. “I love working here, my husband works here, my son works here, they’re a good family to work for. They care,” she said, stating that it just feels like family.

“They know everybody,” Gilles said of the Mullins boys. “It’s one of the easiest jobs I’ve ever had to wake up and go to work.”

“If they notice a new face, they go out of their way to get to know you,” Meyer said.

“We have someone that's been here 30 years, 29 in the store.”

They’ve grown exponentially since they opened their doors, though that growth has been intentionally slow. That’s because they’re doing it responsibly, taking the time to become an expert in their field to ensure that the growth is sustainable. Once a small operation, Mullins Cheese now has two plants with another facility set to open in Plover.

While they’ve grown and changed, Mullins Cheese hasn’t forgotten their roots.

“It’s farming,” Gilles said. “We’re still appreciating the people who got us started, it’s the Wisconsin way. You’ve got to start small to get big and you need those small guys to grow with you, they have to see the benefit. That’s what started the company, the little farms.”

Mullins currently contracts with 34 active farms in Taylor County. Gilles states that it’s a close knit community between Mullins and it’s farms. “It doesn't function without them,” he said of their system and the farmers they rely on. Gilles reports that Mullins has representatives whose jobs are solely to check in with their farmers and that if they have a problem, Mullins wants to be there to support them. “Without them we don't have a cheese plant.”

Once they collect the milk it comes back to the plant in Mosinee where it undergoes rigorous testing. From there it becomes a vital component of more than one successful avenue, one of those being the production of whey protein isolates (WPI). Mullins Cheese installed their first whey condensing plant in 1988, later establishing Mullins Whey in 2001. Their whey is made by isolating proteins using cold cross-flow filtration technology before drying them into powder. In addition to whey they also make lactose, permeate, and protein calcium.

“We bring in milk one day, 12 hours later it’s cheese, 24 hours later and it’s whey, it’s a quick process that keeps our quality high,” said Gilles.

Mullins’ whey products have received high praise with Gilles reporting that they’ve been award winners since they began in 2001. Whey protein isolates are low in fat lose sight of their employees, especially with about 160 people on the payroll, but that just hasn’t been the case. Several of their team members have been with the company for 20 or 30 years, and Peterson states that each one of them takes pride in what they do.

“It’s 100% passion, people honestly just care,” Steponik said.

They report that working at Lynn Dairy and Lynn Proteins feels like working for family with Peterson stating that the management and CEO are present and always willing to lend a hand.

“Bill walks through the plant every day, you have a face with that signature on your check,” she said of president Bill Schwantes. When original purchaser Walter Schwantes passed away, his son, William W. Schwantes, took the reins before retiring in 1985 and leaving Bill in charge.

“We can all say we’re family ourselves,” said Steponik. Lynn Dairy has stood the test of time, not only in their automation but in their retail market. They do this by going with the flow, taking whatever their farmers have to throw at them by way of production and making it work. It’s a team effort, and it goes to show that the dairy industry, just like the team at Lynn Dairy, really is a community.

Peterson said, “I don’t think there’s any way we’re ever going to go away from that.”