Kathy Milner media release
North Carolina’s American Quality Foods
Combines Creativity With Science To Create Healthy Desserts
April 8, 2010 (MILLS RIVER, NC) -- Kathy Milner is neither right-brain dominant nor left-brain dominant. Both sides of her brain dominate in their own amazing ways. And that’s a very good thing for her company, American Quality Foods, where she employs all of her strengths.
Milner, who studied polymer chemistry while in graduate school at New York Polytechnic Institute, is the offspring of a concert violinist and a concert cellist. She is a business entrepreneur who has grown the company from three employees (including herself and her husband) manufacturing food service goods in their restored barn in Newfane, Vermont to a 32-employee, 17,000-square foot food product development and manufacturing center in Mills River, North Carolina. The sugar-free dessert maker has distribution to over 5,000 food service customers in all 48 contiguous states.
Creating a line of high quality, delicious-tasting desserts for diabetics, American Quality Foods services healthcare facilities, corporations, schools, casinos and hotels with its line of low- or no-sugar, reduced fat, low calorie, low sodium muffins, cakes, cookies, brownies and bars, gelatins, puddings, drinks, frostings, fillings and mousses. “Our guiding principle is taste. It has to taste great. And it works,” said Milner. “If we get the potential customers to taste our products, they are sold.
“We make great-tasting, healthy desserts,” explains Milner, adding, “and that’s not an oxymoron.” But then Milner, along with her chemistry degree, is something of a contradiction herself. In her spare time, she creates stained glass, thrives as a fused glass artist, enjoys watercolor painting, bakes her own breads and desserts, and devotes time outside as an avid gardener and hiker. Oh, and she also plays the cello.
Prior to launching AQF with her husband, Milner worked in the semi-conductor industry, initially as a manufacturing engineer and later on the more creative research side involving thin film polymers. She was working for DuPont when she realized the traditional success track within the manufacturing world just wasn’t her cup of tea.
So the couple, wanting to own their own business, purchased the small Vermont company, which, at the time was largely supplying food service products to a handful of schools and a couple of hospital accounts. “I remember saying to my husband, ‘What were we thinking?’ after the first few months,” said Milner. “My husband had worked as a change agent within other corporations, and he knew we had potential, but we realized we had nothing unique.”
That’s when all passions combined, creating the perfect storm – a depth of knowledge of physics and chemistry, a strong sense of business acumen, and a joint love of good food and baking desserts. “We realized the foods offered to diabetics were really abysmal,” noted Milner. “So we thought we had found our niche within the hospital, health care and nursing facility worlds.”
They began researching the products in the marketplace, what the institutions wanted, and what their residents and patients wanted. Then Kathy hit the lab again – but this time, it was the kitchen lab. “We bought the business in June of 1994,” she said. “I began with cake mixes, lots of food chemistry and nutrition research and hundreds of trials, and by December of that year, I had developed our first products for roll-out.”
At the time, around 8 to 9 percent of nursing home residents were diabetics. Today, Milner estimates the number is closer to 20 percent. In addition to this growing demand, AQF has also found more and more demand from corporate dining facilities for management and employees, as well as a dynamic business with hospital and health care clients, churches, assisted living facilities, hospitality management companies, and premiere retirement communities. “Everyone wants – and needs -- to eat healthier these days,” said Milner.
When the company needed to grow with increasing demand for its products, the operation moved to North Carolina in 1999. Access to shipping and distribution channels has been a plus, and the wholesaler company now produces over 100 kinds of cakes, cookies, muffins, mousses, fruit fillings, puddings, gelatins and dessert bars.
Milner sees tremendous growth potential with current customers and target audiences, but AQF is also eyeing the possibility of developing products for retail sales. Popular weight loss programs with structured menu deliveries are another track for growth. Still, Milner, after watching celebrity Chef Jamie Oliver’s expose on foods in the American public school system, believes this may be her next big challenge.
“We have such serious obesity problems in our schools,” she said. “And it’s complicated with so many regulations about what the schools have to serve, even if the food isn’t nutritious. Schools have to follow the government guidelines if they want to get reimbursed for food costs,” said Milner, pausing. “I think a healthy breakfast muffin option would be a great addition for public schools in North Carolina. Teaching the kids to eat healthy certainly benefits them. But it also benefits each of their communities.”
American Quality Foods is a certified Women’s Business Enterprise and for the past three years has been listed as one of the top 100 fastest growing food companies in the United States by INC Magazine. Located in Mills River, North Carolina, 15 miles southwest of Asheville, the company produces over 100 premium, diet, low fat dessert mixes. Additional information may be found by visiting www.americanqualityfoods.com.
Please direct inquiries to Randy Fluharty, American Quality Foods, 353 Banner Farm Road, Mills River, NC, 28759. The company may also be reached by calling 1-800-348-7416 or by e-mailing randyf@americanqualityfoods.com.
