Success, naturally

Eleven years ago, Kelly Santee and his wife, Stacy, started their granola business as an experiment in their Boise garage.

The couple sold their 1989 Oldsmobile Cutlass for $2,000. Inside the garage they crammed a bulk mixer once used by the Army in Vietnam, plus a used oven.

In a few weeks, they launched Santee’s Granola. The couple has kept the business rolling ever since, never going into debt and slowly piling up sales.

This summer they moved Santee’s Granola to Spangle, about 20 miles south of Spokane. Their bakery window looks out on a golden field of ripening wheat, reminding them why they live in the Northwest.

“It doesn’t get much better than this,” says Kelly Santee, who’s 36. “This is our third move since we started, and we plan to stay here.”

They chose tiny Spangle — population 250 — because of a good deal on rent from Upper Columbia Academy, the nearby Seventh-day Adventist school from which Kelly graduated in 1988.

The school offered the couple low monthly rent on an office and warehouse building, plus a 10 percent discount for every Upper Columbia Academy student they hire for part-time work.

“I pay just $400 a month,” Santee said. “If I hire eight or 10 students, I’ll hardly being paying any rent at all.”

The Santees and school officials had discussed the option of moving back to Eastern Washington for five years. Stacy Santee, also 36, had grown up near Spangle.

“We waited (to move to Spangle) until we were big enough,” said Kelly. “We just reached $100,000 in sales last year. Some may not see that as very large but for us, that’s a big step.”

Calling himself a natural entrepreneur who couldn’t stay out of the kitchen, Kelly started with granola because of his wife’s response to one of his experiments.

Stacy found herself disliking every cereal she tried. Kelly was convinced he could produce a granola mix that met her approval.

When she tried his granola, he was surprised that she loved it.

“I said, ‘Hey, if you like it, then everyone else will love it too.’ ”

His business focus has been the same ever since: “We want people to think our granola is the freshest, best-tasting they’ve ever had,” said Kelly.

Their new bakery has three large granola ovens, about a dozen cooling racks, plus the same mixer the business started with 11 years ago. The Santees are the only full-time employees. On days when they bake granola, they bring in up to four students to help.

The same mix Kelly tested on his wife — called Vanilla Pecan — remains the company’s best seller. Out of eight varieties, the Vanilla Pecan accounts for more than half of all sales, Kelly said.

Packing 180 calories per one-third cup, the Vanilla Pecan appeals to the sweet-tooth crowd. Santee said his mix’s key ingredients are brown sugar, vanilla and coconut. For the hearty eater who consumes a cup or so per day, that adds up to 540 calories.

Three years ago he was sending one case of Vanilla Pecan to Whitman College every month where it was one of several granola brands served during breakfasts.

Then someone took the Vanilla Pecan granola to Whitman’s campus yogurt shop, where students started adding it as a topping. Santee said sales to the college have quadrupled.

Chris Browning, the bulk department manager for the Spokane Huckleberry’s food store, said Santee’s granola is among the three most popular granolas sold there. Browning said Santee visited in person and offered a Vanilla Pecan sample. Browning tried it, liked it, and Santee’s Granola became one of the store’s best sellers.

“I like his granola a lot,” said Browning. “He’s also a dedicated business man. He keeps coming in and asking what else we need.”

The bulk of the Santee’s Granola sales now go through wholesale outlets, including a Sysco Food Services outlet in Boise.

One goal is to broaden sales through retail outlets, Santee said. The only locations for retail store purchase are the eight regional Huckleberry’s locations and the Adventist Book Center at 3715 S. Grove.

As the company increases production, Santee said he intends to visit other retailers, like Safeway and Albertson’s supermarkets.

He’s producing at least 1,000 pounds of granola a month. Without leaving his current location, Santee figures he can crank out 20,000 pounds a month, if he needed to.

But he’s not eager to get so large that he must leave Spangle. “Our mailing address is Spokane, but I’m glad we’re down here in Spangle. I don’t use Spangle as our address because people across the country looking us up will find Spokane.

“But if they looked for Spangle, they’d never find it.”