Daines pays virtual visit to Hi Country

Senator Steve Daines paid a virtual visit to Hi Country Snack foods Thursday, April 7 to hear about challenges rural small businesses are seeing as the COVID pandemic winds down and inflation increases.

Daines originally planned to visit in person, but had to change to a virtual tour due to scheduling conflicts in Washington D.C. He joked with Hi Country owner Travis Byerly, Chief Operating Officer Steve Fehrs and Chief Financial Officer Jeff Hollingworth that they had some pretty stiff competition among his meetings but said talking to Hi Country was the highlight of his day.

"My staff can vouch for how much I talk about what you all do and particularly your great products. I really do," Daines told them, adding he hosts a Montana lunch about once a year and features Hi Country products. He said later that Hi Country is on his "very, very short list of places I've not yet visited in Montana that I want to get to."

Byerly, who bought the business from founder Jim Johnson in 2019, dscussed some of the steps Hi Country has taken in the last three years to broaden their range of products.

"We added elk and bison to the line-up," He said. "Since COVID ... almost 80 percent of our meat block is now Montana beef as well, supporting local producers, purchasing local meat."

"That's a good thing for your brand, too," Daines noted, and asked how Hi Country fared during the pandemic.

Byerly said sales went up during COVID, but their margins went down due to the increasing costs. He said they've also had some difficulty getting price increases for their products through some of the national chains. He said their decision to move toward beef grown in Montana or the northwest helped offset issues they might otherwise have had with imported meat.

Fehrs said Hi Country has also invested in new equipment to help the company continue to grow and improve productivity and efficiency.

"Overall sales have been good for us, and demand's higher. We have more demand than we can supply, so we continue to invest in automation" he said. Fehrs told Daines they've also been able to provide year-round employment by bringing some work that had been outsourced back in-house.

Carrying the camera-equipped laptop, Hollingworth served as cameraman for a brief virtual tour of the Hi Country facility. Byerly and Fehrs discussed a new labeling machine that has streamlined part of the production, and their new spice line, which has allowed them to sell shakers of spice in addition to their jerky and sausage seasoning game kits.

"We had to put a stop on selling any shakers for a while because all the plastic that was readily available was going into hand sanitizer bottles when COVID hit," Byerley said.

Byerly told Daines the pandemic forced them to think outside the box, to think quickly and react. "You couldn't wait to make decisions. Those weren't always the best decisions but given the amount of information that changed week to week on a lot of stuff...it was a very challenging time to operate."

Fehrs and Hollingworth also gave Daines a short overview of the crew packing jerky by hand. Fehrs said they're investing in automation that will let them transition away from hand-packing and let them double output over the next 12-24 months.

Although the connection with Daines failed on the way to tour the Trading Post and they didn't have time to reconnect before Daines had to head to another meeting, the tour continued with Daines' staff members. Daines' digital director Mallory Walser filmed Byerly and Fehrs as they discussed other issues they've faced with the pandemic.

While the visit focused on Hi Country, Fehrs said other small businesses across the state are probably dealing with the same issues. "I'd be very surprised if we're the only company in Montana having those issues."

Byerly said he hopes Daines can help with programs like the increases to the Small Business Administration's COVID-19 Economic Injury Disaster Loan program, which they haven't been able to tskeadvantage of it due to the poor communication between the IRS and the SBA. He said EIDL was designed to provide businesses with access to capital a normal lender or bank won't approve due to the pandemic, rising costs or declining margins. "Whatever it is, there's constantly an excuse, so the EIDL money is there specifically to address concerns that came up due to COVID."

Byerly said they've applied for EIDL funds six time. "Each time the IRS can't release documents in time for it, so it automatically gets rejected form the system. Things like that have been a huge challenge for us."

Fehrs said they're also still living with ongoing supply chain problems. He explained that the Trading Post has made an effort to feature products made in Montana. Nevertheless, Hi Country and the businesses they work with still depend on some products from overseas, such as cardboard and packaging. "It's extremely important because these supply chain issues haven't really lessened at all. If you take a look at what's being reported for ships off the coast right now, that backlog of ships ... is larger than it was at Christmas."

"One of the great things in terms of talking to Sen. Daines is that anything he could help facilitate for Hi Country and Montana ... will only help all businesses across Montana in terms of getting through the bureaucracy with the EIDL (or) any of these sort of programs that are available to Montanans," Fehrs said.

"I think it's nice the senator took the time to look at the facility and now, as we address specific concerns, he'll understand how those apply to our facility and what we're doing to invest in the facility rather than go with the flow and exit," Byerly said. "There have been a lot of companies our size in the meat industry that have shut down because they can't compete with the big four (meat snack companies) that control the flow of product into the marketplace. We're sure we can grow this business and be a considerable presence long term."