Post by blackcrowheart on Jan 21, 2008 10:21:14 GMT -5
Tanka Bar maker scrambles to meet soaring demand
Healthful snack debuted at Black Hills Pow Wow
By Dan Daly, Journal staff Saturday
KYLE -- In some ways, it's a good problem to have. Native American Natural Foods, based in Kyle, launched its first nutritional product, the Tanka Bar, in October. Demand for the product has been phenomenal, and the company has been scrambling to supply enough Tanka Bars to meet that surging demand.
The Tanka Bar is an energy bar made of dried bison meat and dried cranberries. It's based on a traditional Native American staple called wasna. It's healthy, natural, high in protein and low in carbohydrates. Yet it has a sweet taste and a soft texture that is nothing like the beef-jerky toughness that most people associate with dried meat.
And people just can't get enough of it. "The kids here have renamed it 'buffalo candy,'" said Mark Tilsen, president of Native American Natural Foods.
Tilsen and Karlene Hunter, the company's chief executive officer, first introduced their product during the National Indian Health Board Conference in Portland. It got rave reviews from health officials who have been battling diabetes and other health problems among Native people for decades.
Tanka Bar made its public debut at the Black Hills Pow Wow in Rapid City. More than 1,200 people tried the Tanka Bar, and it was a hit. "The product resonated really well all over the country," Tilsen said.
From there, the Tanka Bar took on a life of its own. The Associated Press wrote a story about Native American Natural Foods, and other news outlets picked it up. Before long, stories about the Tanka Bar appeared in far-flung publications such as The New York Times and Pravda.
And calls started coming in from all over from consumers, retailers and distributors who wanted to order Tanka Bars.
Yet the partners were still setting up their production and distribution network. "We thought this would be our quiet startup time," Hunter said with a chuckle. "The media decided otherwise."
For the past couple of months, Native American Natural Foods has been performing a balancing act to keep consumer interest high while ramping up the production and distribution of the product.
Currently, Tanka Bars are manufactured by Frohling Meats in Hecla, a tiny community in the northeast corner of the state. But Native American Natural Foods is bringing an Idaho food maker aboard to also produce Tanka Bars.
Lakota Express
For 13 years, Hunter and Tilsen have operated Lakota Express, an international telephone-call center that provides fundraising, surveys and customer-service work on behalf of a number of government, nonprofit and for-profit clients, some of them very large.
The call center has 22 full-time and 35 part-time workers.
They built the business from the ground up. Their headquarters building, on a hilltop on the south edge of Kyle, houses Lakota Express, Native American Natural Foods and other offices. They had to bring in water and sewer, and -- with difficulty -- a T1 Internet connection.
However, Lakota Express, as a contractor, is still subject to the ebb and flow of its clients' needs. Hunter and Tilsen needed something that would level out those ups and downs and tap the marketing expertise they've gained from Lakota Express.
They also wanted to create a business venture that would bring economic development to the reservation and create a product that would help restore traditional diet to Native Americans. And they wanted to help bison ranchers on and off the reservation find new markets for their meat.
Finally, they wanted to establish a brand name that could propel them into new products and ventures under the Native American Natural Foods umbrella.
All those goals converged in the Tanka Bar. "When you look at the big picture, it all fits together," Hunter said.
Traditional food
The Tanka Bar has its basis in Native American culture. Tilsen said indigenous people have been mixing dried meat with berries for thousands of years. The Lakota called it wasna. The meat-and-berry mixture, stuffed into buffalo horns, could sustain a traveler on long treks across the plains.
Modern diets, rich in carbohydrates and fats, have played havoc on Native people. Diabetes is a serious health problem on reservations. There has been a movement among the Lakota and other Native people to revive their traditions, including the foods they eat.
The Tanka Bar, which retails for $2.25, contains no artificial preservatives, sugars or sweeteners. The process -- the meat is smoked for nine hours -- tends to caramelize the cranberries, making them sweeter than they would otherwise taste.
There has been tremendous interest from health-food stores. It's also found a niche among Native American health advocates fighting diabetes and other diseases. Other tribes and organizations have expressed interest in collaborating on the venture.
"The Tanka Bar is just the tip of the spear," Tilsen said.
Modern marketing
To help build the market for Tanka Bars, especially for young consumers, Native American Natural Foods has enlisted a young marketing team. Team members include Rayette Camp, 33, Jayson Brave Heart, 30, and Kelly Hunter, 27.
"We call ourselves the Tanka Team," Brave Heart said.
They are raising the profile for Tanka Bars on social-networking Web sites such as MySpace and Bebo, as well as the Internet video site YouTube. They are also working with health educators, diabetes programs, schools and nonprofit groups. In addition, they're marketing Tanka Bars to grocery stores, health-food stores and other traditional retail outlets.
Their success at marketing the Tanka Bar will begin to pay off this spring, when Native American Natural Foods can ramp up production of the food.
The one-ounce Tanka Bar and the half-ounce Tanka Bite are the company's two primary products. In addition, the company is developing Tanka Trail, a trail mix of shredded buffalo meat, cranberries, herbs and spices.
Other products will follow, Tilsen said. The partners hope to turn Native American Natural Foods into a $10 million company in five years.
The partners hope to have the capacity to begin distributing nationally this spring, perhaps in March. But they will continue to take care of distributors closer to home, Mark added. "There are a few frustrated people in Rapid City who want more product," he said.
Contact Dan Daly at 394-8421 or dan.daly@rapidcityjournal.com
Healthful snack debuted at Black Hills Pow Wow
By Dan Daly, Journal staff Saturday
KYLE -- In some ways, it's a good problem to have. Native American Natural Foods, based in Kyle, launched its first nutritional product, the Tanka Bar, in October. Demand for the product has been phenomenal, and the company has been scrambling to supply enough Tanka Bars to meet that surging demand.
The Tanka Bar is an energy bar made of dried bison meat and dried cranberries. It's based on a traditional Native American staple called wasna. It's healthy, natural, high in protein and low in carbohydrates. Yet it has a sweet taste and a soft texture that is nothing like the beef-jerky toughness that most people associate with dried meat.
And people just can't get enough of it. "The kids here have renamed it 'buffalo candy,'" said Mark Tilsen, president of Native American Natural Foods.
Tilsen and Karlene Hunter, the company's chief executive officer, first introduced their product during the National Indian Health Board Conference in Portland. It got rave reviews from health officials who have been battling diabetes and other health problems among Native people for decades.
Tanka Bar made its public debut at the Black Hills Pow Wow in Rapid City. More than 1,200 people tried the Tanka Bar, and it was a hit. "The product resonated really well all over the country," Tilsen said.
From there, the Tanka Bar took on a life of its own. The Associated Press wrote a story about Native American Natural Foods, and other news outlets picked it up. Before long, stories about the Tanka Bar appeared in far-flung publications such as The New York Times and Pravda.
And calls started coming in from all over from consumers, retailers and distributors who wanted to order Tanka Bars.
Yet the partners were still setting up their production and distribution network. "We thought this would be our quiet startup time," Hunter said with a chuckle. "The media decided otherwise."
For the past couple of months, Native American Natural Foods has been performing a balancing act to keep consumer interest high while ramping up the production and distribution of the product.
Currently, Tanka Bars are manufactured by Frohling Meats in Hecla, a tiny community in the northeast corner of the state. But Native American Natural Foods is bringing an Idaho food maker aboard to also produce Tanka Bars.
Lakota Express
For 13 years, Hunter and Tilsen have operated Lakota Express, an international telephone-call center that provides fundraising, surveys and customer-service work on behalf of a number of government, nonprofit and for-profit clients, some of them very large.
The call center has 22 full-time and 35 part-time workers.
They built the business from the ground up. Their headquarters building, on a hilltop on the south edge of Kyle, houses Lakota Express, Native American Natural Foods and other offices. They had to bring in water and sewer, and -- with difficulty -- a T1 Internet connection.
However, Lakota Express, as a contractor, is still subject to the ebb and flow of its clients' needs. Hunter and Tilsen needed something that would level out those ups and downs and tap the marketing expertise they've gained from Lakota Express.
They also wanted to create a business venture that would bring economic development to the reservation and create a product that would help restore traditional diet to Native Americans. And they wanted to help bison ranchers on and off the reservation find new markets for their meat.
Finally, they wanted to establish a brand name that could propel them into new products and ventures under the Native American Natural Foods umbrella.
All those goals converged in the Tanka Bar. "When you look at the big picture, it all fits together," Hunter said.
Traditional food
The Tanka Bar has its basis in Native American culture. Tilsen said indigenous people have been mixing dried meat with berries for thousands of years. The Lakota called it wasna. The meat-and-berry mixture, stuffed into buffalo horns, could sustain a traveler on long treks across the plains.
Modern diets, rich in carbohydrates and fats, have played havoc on Native people. Diabetes is a serious health problem on reservations. There has been a movement among the Lakota and other Native people to revive their traditions, including the foods they eat.
The Tanka Bar, which retails for $2.25, contains no artificial preservatives, sugars or sweeteners. The process -- the meat is smoked for nine hours -- tends to caramelize the cranberries, making them sweeter than they would otherwise taste.
There has been tremendous interest from health-food stores. It's also found a niche among Native American health advocates fighting diabetes and other diseases. Other tribes and organizations have expressed interest in collaborating on the venture.
"The Tanka Bar is just the tip of the spear," Tilsen said.
Modern marketing
To help build the market for Tanka Bars, especially for young consumers, Native American Natural Foods has enlisted a young marketing team. Team members include Rayette Camp, 33, Jayson Brave Heart, 30, and Kelly Hunter, 27.
"We call ourselves the Tanka Team," Brave Heart said.
They are raising the profile for Tanka Bars on social-networking Web sites such as MySpace and Bebo, as well as the Internet video site YouTube. They are also working with health educators, diabetes programs, schools and nonprofit groups. In addition, they're marketing Tanka Bars to grocery stores, health-food stores and other traditional retail outlets.
Their success at marketing the Tanka Bar will begin to pay off this spring, when Native American Natural Foods can ramp up production of the food.
The one-ounce Tanka Bar and the half-ounce Tanka Bite are the company's two primary products. In addition, the company is developing Tanka Trail, a trail mix of shredded buffalo meat, cranberries, herbs and spices.
Other products will follow, Tilsen said. The partners hope to turn Native American Natural Foods into a $10 million company in five years.
The partners hope to have the capacity to begin distributing nationally this spring, perhaps in March. But they will continue to take care of distributors closer to home, Mark added. "There are a few frustrated people in Rapid City who want more product," he said.
Contact Dan Daly at 394-8421 or dan.daly@rapidcityjournal.com
