Tucked in the northwest corner of Iowa surrounded by rolling green hills of corn and soybeans sits the town of Lester, population 309 and home to Dutchland Foods.

The company that started with four members of the Van Wyhe family as a small franchise more than 30 years ago is now thriving, serving fundraising, private label, wholesale and retail customers. The business boom prompted a building expansion and a flurry of new equipment purchases to keep up with the demand for its laminated pastries and other products.

“Most manufacturing today is bigger plants that run one product all day long,” said Pete Van Wyhe, president and chief executive officer, who started the company with his wife, Susan, and his parents, Wayne and Jenny Van Wyhe. “What sets us apart is we’re more nimble. We do some all-day production runs — and we want to — but we built our business being nimble and listening to customers and making what they want and being a custom shop. Everybody wants their own look.”

The plant and processing lines have been upgraded in many ways over the past year with more to come, including added production and office space; a new spiral proofer and two new freezers; a block maker and processing line; a flour silo, chiller and dosing system; and a dough mixer and dumping station.

Although the company plans to remain versatile with customizable products, the sheer volume of business is pushing leaders to focus on higher volume business.

“We have always been a very flexible company, which is evident in the fact that we make around 135 different SKUs,” said Monty Van Wyhe, vice president of sales and operations. “We are in a transition stage, though, with a need to increase capacity.  As we grow, we realize we may need to cut out some of the lower performing items and streamline our offerings, which we have already started to do.”

Dutchland’s transition and upward trajectory is one that the business is working through carefully by embracing new automation while staying true to its core values.

The Van Wyhe family established Dutchland Foods in 1992 and began making a laminated pastry under a franchise agreement. The business started selling the pastry via fundraisers for schools, churches and other charities.

“We were farmers and raised on a farm and didn’t have any pastry or baking experience other than in the kitchen,” Pete Van Wyhe said. “Why we did it exactly, I don’t know. It seemed like an opportunity back in 1992. We purchased a small franchise, bought the old bank building here on Main Street in Lester, and we got started.”

Pete Van Wyhe handled sales while the others took care of production. The business did well, but expanding into grocery stores was a misstep that hurt the fundraising business because customers could get the products cheaper, so they pulled out of stores. 

The current fundraising products, Pastry Puffins and ButterHearts, which account for about 10% of sales, are exclusive to their fundraising customers.

“What sets us apart in fundraising is they are products that you will never find in a grocery store,” Pete Van Wyhe said. “They’re made differently. They’ve got a different look, a different name. When a person is buying them on a fundraising sale, they can’t even compare us to prices in a grocery store because there’s no product there. That’s the key to the fundraising market is coming out with a unique product that nobody else has with very high quality.”

Toward the end of Dutchland’s 15-year franchise agreement, the company was informed that it would not be renewed.

“We had a decision to make whether to get completely out or were we going to retrench and start with our own product lines, and that’s what we did,” he said. “The franchise was over in 2008, so in 2005 we started working on our own product lines.”

The third and fourth generations of the family-owned Dutchland Foods are heavily involved in running the company. Pete and Susan Van Wyhe’s three sons run the business alongside Pete, and eight members of the fourth generation are involved as well. 

In addition to Monty Van Wyhe, who is in charge of sales and operations, Mychal Van Wyhe is involved in the financial aspect of the business. He also helms the Wyhe’s Choice fundraising dealership owned by him and his siblings. Dutchland has 18 dealers around the country selling its products, and Wyhe’s Choice is the largest one.

 “As kids we were all involved in the fundraising business at one time at a young age. That’s what got us into it,” Mychal Van Wyhe said. “The five kids bought out the guy who was the local fundraising salesman for the Midwest. He wanted to get out of it.” 

The brothers and sisters bought the dealership in 1999. Younger brother Malachi Van Wyhe, who was born a year after the purchase, is now vice president of marketing at Dutchland and works heavily in sales, and his wife, Kendra Van Wyhe, works in production. 

This article is an excerpt from the August 2023 issue of Baking & Snack. To read the entire feature on Dutchland Foods, click here.