Managing Alaska's $14 million cash cow(s).

• Author: Forker, Jennifer
• Position: Interview with Matanuska Maid Pres. and general manager Joe Van Treeck

Matanuska Maid, a longtime Alaska institution, is making significant changes in its product line to cater to consumer demands for new products, unique tastes and quality. In the past few years, the company has unleashed plenty of new products and services that include orange juice, bottled water, a plethora of yogurt and the heralded Glacier Yo, a cultured dairy beverage.

Matanuska Maid, Mat Maid to its loyal customers, hopes that keeping abreast of industry trends will help it grow and prosper well into the next century. Its leadership knows that to do otherwise - to ignore customer whims and taste trends - is to round up the cows and call it a day, taking the diminutive Alaska dairy industry with it.

While not a cash cow, so to speak, the state-owned dairy has readily supplied Alaskans with milk products for 60 years. Its big-picture effect on the state's economy may be small compared to the oil, fishing or tourism industries, but Matanuska Maid makes its dent.

At the helm is Joe Van Treeck, the 43-year-old president and general manager who arrived on the scene more than 10 years ago to help the flagging dairy shake off its bankruptcy blues.

The dairy originated in the Matanuska Valley Farmer's Cooperative Association, formed in 1936 to help Mat-Su Valley farmers process their milk and produce. Its name, interestingly, was born from a contest that same winter and beat out entries such as "Cool Valley" and "Happy Valley."

After decades of churning out milk and ice cream, the privatized farmer's co-op went belly-up in 1983. As its largest creditor, the state assumed ownership. "This business is set up like the railroad," explains Van Treeck. "The state is the sole shareholder ... we are all shareholders."

Yet Matanuska Maid is self-sufficient. It hasn't received any financial aid from the state since 1988, Van Treeck says, and it pays real estate and business taxes like any other company.

"We run it as a private business. Any value that it has belongs to (the state) because they haven't sold it. But operations covers the cost of itself.

"We're paying our way in society just like our neighbors pay," he says.

While the state's original intent was to resell the dairy, that hasn't exactly been the case.

"There have not been a lot of people beating down the doors to buy it," Van Treeck admits.

In the Black

Matanuska Maid turns a modest profit, although operational costs, including recent equipment modernization, keep the bottom line low. For example, while gross sales exceeded $14 million in 1994, the company's net earnings were $354,000. The 1995 numbers are a little lower: gross sales in excess of $14 million but net earnings of $62,195.

Van Treeck calls attention to the company's recent 10-year financial history: In 1985, the year he came to Matanuska Maid as its plant manager, the dairy had revenues of $7.5 million.

"In 10 years we about doubled our sales," Van Treeck says. "We have had a consistent bench mark since 1991."

By many standards, that's not bad for the little guy playing...