Iwig Family Dairy owner hopes to offer shares, plastic bottles

Tim Iwig, owner of Iwig Family Dairy in Tecumseh, is urging customers to return their glass bottles.

In a newsletter, he said the company had its best monthly sales of 2009 in October but then sales dropped a bit in November.

“If bottles are gone and sales have slipped, this would indicate that a lot of people bought it a few times and kept the bottles,” Iwig said. “I didn’t price my deposit high enough to just sell the bottles. The idea is to keep the deposit low enough to help encourage new sales. A higher deposit might be needed, but I think that it would discourage sales to new customers.”

FARM FRESH

The Iwig Family Dairy is at 3320 S.E. Tecumseh Road, which is about 16 miles east of Lawrence. To get there, take U.S. Highway 40 west and turn left onto Southeast Tecumseh Road. The farm is about 2.5 miles on the left.

It also can be reached by heading north on Tecumseh Road if traveling to Tecumseh via Stull Road, which is County Road 442 in Douglas County and 45th Street in Shawnee County.

The store is open from 9:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. Monday through Friday, and 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday.

For more information, click on the farm’s Web site, iloveiwig.com.

Meanwhile, Iwig said attorneys are working with the Kansas Securities Commission to be able to offer shares of the dairy operation. He said the attorneys have produced a rough draft of the securities agreement and disclosure statement.

Iwig also said he has applied for an operating grant with USDA Rural Development to assist in adding a line of plastic bottles. Although Iwig likes glass bottles, he wants to please the cutomers who prefer plastic.

“I have always and still do believe that glass bottling is the best way to preserve the natural taste of my milk,” he said. “In light of that, let me tell you what I hear from my customers: ‘I love your milk in glass and I’ll never go back to plastic’ or ‘I would buy Iwig milk if you would just put it in plastic.’

Iwig said he doesn’t plan to replace the glass bottles, just add a plastic option.

Iwig is open to any suggestions whether it be the shape of the bottles for the new plastic line or a flavor of ice cream. If you have a idea, send him an e-mail.