Watercolor rendering of the Jones farmhouse, built circa 1840 BACK COVER:
Artist rendition of the Jones farmstead
Produced by: The Winthrop Group, Inc., New York, NY 10018 USA
Text: Bradford Verter
Design: Anne Marie Mascia
Project Coordinator: Mariah Hadler, Jones Dairy Farm
Historical Consultant: Cole Jones, Jones Dairy Farm
IMAGE CREDITS:
All images courtesy Jones Dairy Farm archives with the exception of the following, printed by kind permission. Peter Vance (pp. 3, 19, 59, 69, 70, 74, 75); Mariah Hadler (p. 4); Estate of Yousuf Karsh (p. 9); Wikimedia Commons (pp. 12, 22); American Geographical Society Library / University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Libraries (pp. 12-13); Ivan Dimitri / The Saturday Evening Post (p. 40); Daily Jefferson County Union (pp. 45, 47, 49, 51, 64); Linda Robinson Stuart (p. 46); Geri Gerold / Rick Jones p. 49); Culinary Institute of America (pp. 57, 61); Weston Imaging Group / EUA (p. 60).
The Library of Congress has catalogued this publication as follows:
The Winthrop Group, Inc. JONES DAIRY FARM: A BRIEF HISTORY
ISBN 979-8-9869725-2-7 All rights reserved. Printed in USA.
136 YEARS AND COUNTING
Dear Reader:
It was the spirit of enterprise that brought our great-great-great grandfather to Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin, in the 1830s, and the determination to leave his mark upon the world. It was a commitment to delivering a quality product composed of pure, natural ingredients that drove our great-great grandfather when he first started marketing sausage in 1889. Today, nearly two centuries later, we at Jones Dairy Farm have held true to that spirit, that determination, and that commitment.
On behalf of the Jones family and the dedicated team members who have all contributed to the multigenerational success of Jones Dairy Farm, we are pleased to share with you the history of Jones Dairy Farm. It is a prototypically American story, born in the grit of the frontier and bred in the fertile fields of the heartland. And while we have not moved – our products are still produced on the same grounds where our family has lived ever since we came to Wisconsin in 1838 – we have thrived, like America itself. We have grown ever stronger by staying true to our roots.
Over the years, hundreds of team members – meat cutters and spice mixers, sanitation workers and chefs, packers and truckers, salespeople and secretaries – have devoted their hard work to the success of this company. Equally important are the loyal customers we have served over the years: the millions of diners who have tasted Jones Dairy Farm products and, recognizing the value in the flavor and quality we provide, have honored our labor by coming back for more. If you are among them, then the story of Jones Dairy Farm is your story too.
and CEO
Dairy Farm
Philip H. Jones and his beloved dog, Auggie
PHILIP H. JONES Chairman
Jones
CONTENTS
JONES DAIRY FARM MISSION STATEMENT
JONES DAIRY FARM will continue its heritage of being FAMILY OWNED while providing DISTINCTIVE QUALITY PRODUCTS manufactured with WORLD CLASS FOOD and WORKPLACE SAFETY STANDARDS. PRODUCT INNOVATION and UNPARALLELED CUSTOMER SERVICE are our cornerstones for growth.
Once distributed only to neighbors, Jones products are now sold worldwide. Pictured above is a sampling of the products in the company’s 2025 lineup.
OVER 135 YEARS AGO, MILO C. JONES had the idea of producing for a wider market the sausage made on his farm in Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin, using only simple, natural ingredients. His descendants have run with that idea ever since. Like his predecessors, the current CEO of Jones Dairy Farm lives on the farm that his great-great-great grandfather staked in the 1830s and the company has stuck to the same sausage recipe that the family has cherished for generations.
CHAPTER ONE: WINNING IDEAS
Philip W. Jones, President
Milo Cornelius Jones, Founder
CHAPTER ONE: WINNING IDEAS
Mary P. Jones, President
Alan P. Jones, President
Edward C. Jones, Sr., President
“We will be responsible for developing winning ideas. Ideas for growth and profit are our reason for being.”
IN THE 1880 s , THE JONESES HAD NO expectation of becoming one of the leading purveyors of quality meats in the nation. Their signature sausage was originally intended only as a sideline to help the family make ends meet during a difficult time. But the company grew faster than anyone could have imagined. By hewing to founder Milo’s original principles, the Jones family has worked through the generations to meet the highest standards of product quality and customer service while being stewards of the company that they lead and the land that they call home.
Milo Cole Jones, President & CEO
Edward C. Jones, Jr., President & CEO
CHAPTER ONE: WINNING IDEAS
Philip H. Jones, President & CEO
Richard B. Lowry, President
Ryan T. Robinson, President
“We will focus on key initiatives. Work on these daily.”
THE JONES FAMILY CAME TO AMERICA with the first waves of emigration from England in the 1600s and settled in Connecticut as farmers. Like many other large families, the younger Jones sons moved away from the family homestead to set up farms of their own. In 1797, two brothers, Jabez and Edward Jones, relocated to the newly established town of Richmond, Vermont where they both became prominent citizens. Jabez’s son, Ransom, founded a new settlement nearby named Jonesville. Edward’s son Milo went farther afield. The conclusion of the Black Hawk War in 1832 had opened land in the Midwest that was ripe for development. Recently commissioned as a surveyor, 25-year-old Milo travelled west to map the frontier.
of the territories of Michigan and Ouisconsin, 1836
CHAPTER TWO: IDENTIFYING INITIATIVES
The Jones family were charter members of the Old Round Church in Richmond Vermont, built in 1812-13.
Map
Black Hawk War ends, settlement in Fort Koshkonong (later Fort Atkinson) begins.
Wisconsin is admitted into the Union as the 30th state.
Milo
Milo and Sally Jones settle in Fort Atkinson with their two children and other family.
Rheumatoid arthritis cripples
C. Jones in his early 30s.
Milo Cornelius Jones is born the following year.
The Jones Dairy Farm produces butter and cheese from a herd of 25 cows.
WHEN MILO JONES ARRIVED IN MICHIGAN TERRITORY,
Wisconsin had not even been organized as a distinct region and the world was wide open. The task of a surveyor was to impose order on the undefined landscape. Over several years, Milo plied his trade from Ohio to Iowa, laying out towns in Milwaukee, Jefferson, and the surrounding counties. In 1835, Milo and several partners staked a claim in Fort Atkinson (then called Fort Koshkonong). In 1838, he moved his family there, built a cabin and established a small dairy farm to supplement his income. Over time, his herd grew to sixty cows. As one of the original settlers, Milo was responsible for establishing many of the civic institutions of the town: the first school, the first Congregational church, the first cemetery, the first tavern. In 1848, he was a delegate to the constitutional convention that won Wisconsin its statehood. When Fort Atkinson was incorporated as a city in 1878, he was elected the first mayor. CHAPTER TWO
Settlers Milo Jones and his wife Sally Crane Jones
This recipe published in an 1857 issue of Wisconsin Farmer is one of the first records of butter and cheese production in America’s Dairyland.
Milo Jones opened this tavern in 1848. The limestone foundation came from his farm, the bricks from his brickyard, and the wood from local timber.
CHAPTER TWO: IDENTIFYING
A survey map of Fort Atkinson by Milo Jones, 1860
MILO CORNELIUS JONES WAS BORN IN 1849, THE YOUNGEST OF THE pioneer’s eight children. A robust, athletic young man, he was admitted to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. While waiting for the semester to start, he took a temporary position at the local school. There, he fell in love with the teacher, Mary Frances “Fannie” Cole. That changed his plans. He decided to attend nearby Beloit College instead, taking classes while also
CHAPTER TWO: IDENTIFYING INITIATIVES
CHAPTER TWO
Milo C. Jones as a young man
In the 1840s the Jones family moved from the log cabin that they had built in 1837 to a two-story farmhouse that is still in use today.
managing the family farm and working as a surveyor. Between 1872 and 1879, Milo and Fannie had three children, and life was good. Then disaster struck. Around 1881, Milo was afflicted by a severe case of rheumatoid arthritis, an autoimmune disease that causes inflammation of the joints. In his case it was paralyzing. For seven years, he was laid out in bed, wracked with pain, and he would never
again walk without assistance. When his father died in 1893 leaving thousands of dollars of debt, the situation became dire. To pay the creditors Milo had to sell the dairy herd. It was a hard step, but sales of sausage made on the family farm had been steadily increasing. With Fannie’s support, Milo decided to concentrate the efforts of the Jones Dairy Farm on the sausage business.
CHAPTER TWO: IDENTIFYING INITIATIVES
Left: Milo on a summer outing in 1888. His daughter Mary is sitting above him.
Mary Frances Cole Jones, familiarly called Fannie
“We will be accountable for measurable results. Keep score.”
MILO C. JONES WAS AT A LOW POINT ON THAT day in October 1889 as he stared out of his bedroom window watching his sons butcher hogs. Then he had an idea. Fort Atkinson was dairy country, but every farm kept pigs on the side. His mother had a sausage recipe all his neighbors loved, and he had a ready supply of pork. What if he and his family sold their sausage? Everyone pitched in, chopping the meat by hand, mixing it with spices, and packing it in the farmhouse kitchen. Their neighbors’ reviews were so enthusiastic that the Joneses found their business growing by word of mouth. This was particularly gratifying to Milo, whose disabilities limited his capacity for physical labor. “I began to feel that at last I had found something interesting to do,” he later recalled. And so Jones Dairy Farm sausage was born.
CHAPTER THREE: ACHIEVING MEASURABLE RESULTS
Oppostie page, top: Pigs on the Jones family farm
Opposite page, bottom: An exterior view of the farmhouse. Sausage was produced in the kitchen.
NEWS OF JONES DAIRY FARM
CHAPTER THREE
Right: In 1894, sausage production moved to a building formerly used for making cheese. This photograph from the later 1890s includes several additions made as production continued to increase.
Far right, across center:
Workers harvesting sage at the farm. From the beginning sage was one of the key spices in Jones Dairy Farm sausage. It still is today.
sausage spread beyond Fort Atkinson. “The neighbors told their neighbors,” Milo C. Jones said. “Soon our sausages were sold in the nearby towns. We began to get a few customers from Chicago and Milwaukee.” This was a remarkable endorsement in an era when every neighborhood had a local butcher shop that offered ground sausage.
Finding few retail outlets, the Jones family took the unusual step of marketing their products directly to consumers, sending letters and asking satisfied buyers to refer their friends. After five or six years, some local grocers agreed to try stocking the sausage. Business grew slowly and steadily until 1906, when the Jones family decided to invest in a modern processing facility.
CHAPTER THREE: ACHIEVING MEASURABLE RESULTS
Above: An order form for Jones Dairy Farm products sent directly to consumers in the 1890s.
In 1895, a grocery store in St. Paul, Minnesota boasted daily shipments from Jones Dairy Farm.
CHAPTER THREE: ACHIEVING MEASURABLE RESULTS
Left:
1889 1904
THE PRACTICE OF ADVERTISING ON A NATIONAL scale was still relatively new at the turn of the 20th century. The invention of general interest magazines in the 1880s created a new forum for popularizing branded consumer goods. When Jones Dairy Farm took out its first ads in the 1903-04 season, sales rose by 34 percent. The following year, the Joneses signed on with the George Batten Advertising Agency, CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER THREE: ACHIEVING MEASURABLE RESULTS
a pioneering marketing firm based in New York City. This time their sales rose 70 percent over the previous year. The numbers climbed steadily after that. By 1913, Milo C. Jones was surprised to find himself lionized by business leaders as a poster child for the efficacy of modern advertising. The rising demand meant the company itself needed to grow. In 1904, Jones Dairy Farm employed 20 people. The outbuildings on the farm used for sausage production were too small to meet the increased demand. It was time for bigger quarters.
One of the company’s first advertisements appeared in a publication edited by the American philosopher Elbert Hubbard.
Left: Madison Avenue maverick George Batten helped the Jones family develop a winning marketing campaign.
This promotional booklet was sent to customers during the early years of the company.
CHAPTER THREE: ACHIEVING MEASURABLE RESULTS
Left: Milo C. Jones in prosperous times
CHAPTER FOUR
1906 1919
“Product quality and product safety are the keys to success. They will not be devalued.”
IN 1906, A BESTSELLING NOVEL DRAMATICALLY changed America’s food practices. Upton Sinclair’s
The Jungle horrified readers with detailed descriptions of unsanitary practices in the meat packing industry. In response to the public outcry, Congress passed laws that would lead to the revision of the meat inspection act, imposing strict controls on inspection and food production. This was all good news for Jones Dairy Farm, which from the beginning had relied on simple, natural ingredients of the highest quality. While other manufacturers scrambled to clean up their acts, customers looking for “pure food” products found what they wanted at Jones Dairy Farm. By 1907, the business processed 80 hogs a day.
Right, top: A 1906 letter from the USDA agreeing to inspect the facilities of the Jones Dairy Farm.
Right, bottom: In the wake of concerns over food safety, the purity of Jones Dairy Farm products became a major selling point.
CHAPTER FOUR: A QUALITY PRODUCT
The bottom of this poster proudly proclaimed the company’s products to be “U.S. Inspected and Passed under the Act of Congress of June 30, 1906.”
This 1916 ad from National Geographic calls attention to the seasonal nature of Jones Dairy Farm’s enterprise. Production generally ran from late fall to late spring, a function of when pigs born in the spring attained maturity.
Jones Dairy Farm receives quality certification from the US Department of Agriculture.
The company incorporates and builds a new, modern factory.
Death of Jones Dairy Farm founder Milo C. Jones
Jones Dairy Farm products sold in the United States and Canada coast-to-coast.
The United States enters World War I.
CHAPTER FOUR
WITH DEMAND FAST OUTSTRIPPING CAPACITY, the Jones family made a series of investments to give their company the foundation it needed to grow. First, they registered their trademarks to protect their brand. Next, they filed incorporation papers to make what had started as their side hustle into a formal company. As always, it was a family affair. Milo C. Jones was president; his children Edward, Philip and Mary served as officers. Finally, Jones Dairy Farm built a new factory featuring the latest technology. The brick building featured 25,000 square feet of working space over three and a half floors. A 20-ton refrigeration plant kept the meat cool, and the walls were insulated with cork and sawdust. Cutting-edge equipment included an electric bacon slicer and a hydraulic sausage stuffer.
Opposite page, top: When Jones Dairy Farm’s new factory was built in 1907, it represented the state of the art.
Opposite page, bottom: The factory included such advanced equipment as this hydraulic sausage stuffer.
Opposite page, far right: Staff in the new factory followed strict safety and hygiene protocols.
CHAPTER FOUR: A QUALITY PRODUCT
Articles of incorporation signed by Milo C. Jones and two of his children, Edward C. Jones and Mary P. Jones.
CHAPTER FOUR
IN ADDITION TO BOASTING the latest equipment, the new factory was built alongside the tracks of the Chicago & North Western Railroad. The first highways in America were not built until 1916, and even decades later, freight cars were the swiftest and most efficient forms of transportation. By the mid-1910s, Jones Dairy Farm products were shipped daily to California, New York, Florida, Texas, and Canada. The Northern Pacific Railroad served Jones Dairy Farm products in its dining cars. The company was thriving, but the Jones family faced some setbacks. Edward C. Jones, Milo’s eldest son and his second-in-
CHAPTER FOUR: A QUALITY PRODUCT
The Chicago & North Western Railroad connected Fort Atkinson with markets across the United States and Canada.
command, contracted tuberculosis and died. World War I posed new challenges both for the business and for its workers. Milo’s daughter Mary helped organize food conservation efforts on the home front. Then in 1919, Milo died. In just over 30 years, he and his children had built a leading national brand from scratch. Now Jones Dairy Farm faced an uncertain future.
FOUR: A QUALITY PRODUCT
Top left: Jones Dairy Farm’s signature “Little Pig Sausages” trucked along a simple conveyer belt.
Top right: A little pig in a World War I “doughboy” uniform summons the troops to breakfast.
Left: A train stops by the Jones Dairy Farm factory to pick up a shipment.
CHAPTER
CHAPTER FIVE
FOLLOWING THE DEATH OF THE FOUNDER,
“We will protect and grow the Jones brand.”
Milo’s son Philip took over the reins as president. Other officers were Philip’s sister Mary and their sister-in-law Charlotte, the widow of their brother Edward. Soon their nephews Alan and Edward “Bud” Jones joined the firm. Fresh out of college when they started at Jones Dairy Farm, each would work there for over 50 years. To learn the ropes, the directors changed positions periodically, rotating to serve as vice president, secretary, and treasurer. Under the leadership of this second generation, the company saw steady growth. In addition to sausage, Jones Dairy Farm also produced lard, hams, maple syrup and other products. In 1927, the Joneses revisited their roots and built a herd of Guernsey cows. Other companies took note of their success.
In 1928, a competitor offered to buy Jones Dairy Farm. The family briefly considered the option before doubling down by expanding their markets in the northeastern United States. Then on a dark Friday in October, 1929, an economic disaster turned everything upside down.
CHAPTER FIVE: PROTECTING AND GROWING THE COMPANY
Philip W. Jones served as the second president of Jones Dairy Farm from 1919 to 1933.
A passel of Hampshire hogs from a supplier to Jones Dairy Farm
Philip W. Jones assumes office as second president of Jones Dairy Farm.
Stock market crashes, spawning a severe economic crisis that will last over a decade.
After almost 60 years of operating seasonally, Jones Dairy Farm is reorganized to produce sausage and other products year-round.
Mary P. Jones is named the third president of Jones Dairy Farm.
Following entry of United States into World War II, Jones Dairy Farm serves as a supplier to soldiers overseas.
Above: A Jones Dairy Farm worker breaks up sage for seasoning the sausage.
Left: The Little Pig, early mascot for Jones Dairy Farm, announces the opening of a new season.
CHAPTER FIVE
Mary P. Jones was the first female president of Jones Dairy Farm and one of the only women in America to run a company of size and prominence.
WHEN MARY P. JONES SUCCEEDED HER BROTHER AS PRESIDENT of Jones Dairy Farm in 1933, she brought some 40 years of experience to the position, having worked there since she was a teenager. Now she faced the responsibility of guiding the company and the family through the Great Depression, the worst financial crisis the nation had ever seen. One out of four Americans was out of work. The Jones family responded early to the situation, committing to donate up to 200 pounds of meat per week for the relief of the unemployed. Mary kept the factory running throughout the Depression, reacting to continuously declining prices and New Deal initiatives that were wellintentioned but sowed havoc. The Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1935, for example, attempted to support farmers by imposing production quotas, destroying surplus produce and livestock (including pigs), and regulating prices. The Act caused widespread confusion until it was overturned by the courts in 1936. Despite the turmoil, Jones Dairy Farm did stake out some new initiatives, expanding its advertising to radio and experimenting with quick freezing technology.
A 1933 advertisement in Time magazine offered a mock crest with a Latin motto that translates as “Most little pigs go to market, but the best little pigs go to Jones.”
CHAPTER FIVE: PROTECTING AND GROWING THE COMPANY
Above: President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal programs helped Americans survive the Depression, but they created a regulatory landscape that many producers found hard to manage.
Left: To break into the Florida market, Jones Dairy Farm offered free samples to lucky listeners of one of Miami Beach’s most popular broadcasts, “Vagabond Mike.” In this 1940 photograph, WIOD radio host Russell Jones (in spats) interviews one happy recipient.
CHAPTER FIVE: PROTECTING AND GROWING THE COMPANY
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER FIVE: PROTECTING AND GROWING THE COMPANY
SAUSAGE PRODUCTION AT JONES DAIRY FARM, 1930 s
A series of photographs taken during the 1930s documented the process of making Little Pig Sausages at Jones Dairy Farm.
1. Grocer’s advertisement in the Atlanta Constitution, December 9, 1932
2. Hog carcasses cooling
3. Skilled butchers remove the meat from the bone. The long cleaver wielded by the man on the left was known as a hog splitter.
4. Grinding the pork: Once the spices were added, the ground pork would be mixed again.
5. The sausage casings were made of sheep intestines imported from New Zealand. Stuffing the meat with specialized equipment was a delicate operation.
6. A sausage linker ties the stuffed lamb casing into individual links.
7. Working in teams, packers cut and weigh the links, placing them into one-pound boxes for individual sale.
CHAPTER FIVE
FOR
ALL
ITS PAINFUL DEVASTATION,
World War II did have the positive effect of supercharging the American economy; however, agricultural producers did not benefit from this development as much as industrial manufacturers. Demand for food for soldiers overseas was at an all-time high – and Jones Dairy Farm did its part, providing bacon and other meat for the troops – but increased production was offset by rigid price controls and rationing on the home front. Prices for hogs and other raw materials soared. Dalmatian sage, grown in Eastern Europe, was no longer available. The result was that although the company sold more pounds of sausage and brought in more dollars during the war than ever before, net profits were minimal. A meat shortage after the war forced Jones Dairy Farm to shutter operations for the first time. To secure the future of the company, the Jones family made a radical change. Ever since 1889, Jones Dairy Farm had been a seasonal operation, running from late fall to early summer. Now, they determined to run for 12 months of the year instead of eight or nine. This decisive step would alter the fortunes of the company profoundly.
CHAPTER FIVE: PROTECTING AND GROWING THE COMPANY
Staff at Jones Dairy Farm pack sausage links, August 1945. In front of each worker is a scale. To the right of each is a stack of unfolded boxes. A conveyor belt down the center brings the boxes to shipping.
Jones Dairy Farm supplied cured meats for soldiers overseas during World War II.
After the war, a meat shortage led butchers and manufacturers to close shop temporarily. Jones Dairy Farm responded by retooling their operations.
CHAPTER FIVE: PROTECTING AND GROWING THE COMPANY
Price controls and food rationing played a critical role in the war effort.
“We will work as a team –no politics. We will execute our stated objectives.”
Brothers Alan (center, in white shirt) and Edward C. Jones (far left), who managed daily operations, purchasing stock at an agricultural fair in Austin, Minnesota, in 1946. CHAPTER SIX
WHEN MARY P. JONES MADE THE DECISION TO SHIFT
from seasonal to year-round production, Jones Dairy Farm was in a unique position. It was by any measure a very small company. Of the 3,000 commercial meat packers operating in 1946, only 81 had a net worth over a million dollars, and Jones was not among them.
Yet of the thousands of small firms, Jones was one of only a handful that boasted a nationwide distribution network. It was also by industry standards a venerable firm with a
CHAPTER SIX: TEAMWORK
recognizable brand. There was a lot of turnover in the meat industry, and of the small packing firms, almost half were less than 10 years old. Many had been created just to meet wartime demand, and they would not last the decade. It was with a guarded confidence that the company resolved to invest in making the adjustments required for a high-stakes initiative: building a new hog processing facility, expanding the sausage plant, and acquiring new refrigeration equipment. The investment proved to be a brilliant move. In 1946, the company had $1,250,000 in sales. Ten years later, sales were just shy of $6 million, and by 1960 they were approaching $10 million annually. The rapid growth, fueled by a booming postwar economy, required a change in management. The company was getting too big for Mary, Alan, and Bud to handle on their own.
Jones Dairy Farm invests in a new hog processing facility to meet goal of year-round production.
A new generation of the Jones family joins the firm, initiating a series of marketing innovations.
Jones Dairy Farm debuts a new logo and new packaging. Sales skyrocket.
Ground broke in May 1964 for Plant 2 addition, a 70,000 square foot facility that greatly expanded the company’s capacity.
Mary P. Jones dies after 27 years as president. Her leadership kept the company firmly in family hands.
A billboard advertising Jones Dairy Farm products rises high above Seventh Avenue in midtown Manhattan, 1949.
CHAPTER SIX
HISTORICALLY, MANAGEMENT AT JONES DAIRY FARM
was very hands-on. Through the 1940s, the company employed no salesmen. Bud and Alan managed everything, reviewing every order as it came in and communicating directly with the customers. “So important does the management consider this personal interest,” wrote a family member in 1948, “that they have refrained from expanding … because they would have to hire outside executives.”
Soon, though, the rapid growth of the postwar years made
it clear to everyone that the brothers needed help. It was time to train a new generation. Alan Jones Jr., a veteran of WWII, was the first member of the younger set to join the firm. Then his brothers Bill and Milo signed on too, along with their cousin Edward C. Jones Jr., whom everyone called Ted, and Ted’s brother-in-law, Arthur Paddock. By the end of the 1950s, the fifth generation had been fully initiated into the family business.
A 1956 portrait of the Jones family
Standing, left to right: William B. Jones, Milo C. Jones, Edward Jones Sr., and Alan Jones Sr.
Seated: Helen Jones, Edward Jones Jr., Mary P. Jones, Eleanor Jones with Richard Jones on lap, Arthur Paddock, Frances Paddock, Sarah Paddock, and Jean Jones
Sitting on floor: Alan Jones Jr, Deborah Jones, and Jim the dog
CHAPTER SIX: TEAMWORK
Below: The younger Joneses made placing the company’s products at retail outlets a priority. This slide rule helped grocers calculate their profits.
CHAPTER SIX: TEAMWORK
In 1956, Jones Dairy Farm teamed up with General Foods for a joint promotion of sausage, Log Cabin syrup and Bread and Butter frozen waffles in Life magazine. Edward Jones (left) watches as representatives of Log Cabin show layouts to Mary P. Jones (seated).
CHAPTER SIX
THE NEWLY EXPANDED MANAGEMENT TEAM WAS YOUNG, ENERGETIC, and eager to apply the lessons they brought from their experiences beyond Fort Atkinson. Alan Jr. had an MBA, and Milo had a law degree.
Bill had a background in publishing. Ted was a nascent inventor and engineer. Mindful of the company’s traditions, the Jones boys set about renewing it. One of the company’s abiding characteristics was its ability to adapt to a changing marketplace. The fifth generation organized a sales force and designed a systematic strategy for marketing Jones Dairy Farm products to major retailers and distributors. They pushed advertising into the new medium of television. Perhaps most significantly, they hired legendary Chicago designer Robert Sidney “Sid” Dickens to develop a new box, which debuted at the end of 1959. The result was counterintuitive, revolutionary, and successful beyond everyone’s expectations. Sales exploded. As demand quickly outstripped capacity, the company’s campus needed to expand again. The Jones family began building a new modern plant, breaking ground in 1964.
Visionary designer Sid Dickens believed that a product package was not simply a container but “a psychological sales tool.” His studio included a “supermarket laboratory” used to test visual appeal.
CHAPTER SIX: TEAMWORK
Dickens’ original design concepts for the new Jones Dairy Farm logo, which debuted in 1959. CHAPTER SIX:
Dickens developed a new box for Jones Dairy Farm that was innovative in two respects. First, it portrayed the product itself, so consumers knew exactly what they were buying and what it would look like when it was served. This approach, known in the industry as “plate appeal,” is standard today but was revolutionary at the time. Second, the dimensions of the box – long and thin – were calculated to display in supermarket freezer cases to maximum effect.
“We will recognize our resource limitations and prioritize our initiatives.”
In the 1960s, Jones Dairy Farm began searching for ways to diversify its product portfolio. Many proposals, including canned mincemeat, never made it to the shelves. CHAPTER
WITH THE NEW SAUSAGE FACTORY IN OPERATION, by 1964, Jones Dairy Farm set its sights on expanding the consumer base. During the 1960s and 1970s, an ever-growing number of women entered the workforce. More time at the office meant less time in the kitchen, and this resulted in an increased demand for canned and shrinkwrapped convenience foods. Jones Dairy Farm experimented with popped pig skins with cheese, ham salad spread, cheesefurters, braunschweiger with bacon, onions, and pistachios, and other products, none of which performed as well as the triedand-true staples: sausage, bacon, ham, and braunschweiger. The decision to expand marketing into television was more successful. In 1967, Jones Dairy Farm’s advertising budget was devoted entirely to newspapers, magazines, and sales promotions. By 1981, 50 percent of the company’s advertising was invested in television. One of the most exciting breakthroughs in the 1970s occurred when the company was invited to display its products at the 1974 American Food Festival in Tokyo. Japan had long forbidden the import of foreign meat; now Jones Dairy Farm had its first entrée into what would become a major market.
CHAPTER SEVEN: PRIORITIZING INITIATIVES
The company branched out into television advertising in the
The company experiments with new products and begins to expand into television advertising.
es its products to Japanese consumers.
James Robinson organizes Local 1236 to represent workers at Jones Dairy Farm.
Milo C. Jones, the great-grandson of the founder, becomes the 6th President of the company.
Jones Dairy Farm introduc-
President Edward C. Jones (second from left) and his wife Helen, at the 1974 American Food Festival in Tokyo.
late 1960s.
Alan P. Jones looks on as Evelyn Krueger and Jens Kohl process link sausage at the new plant.
CHAPTER SEVEN
FORT ATKINSON HAS ALWAYS BEEN A SMALL, CLOSEknit community, the sort of place where people work for the same company over the generations. By the mid-1960s the success of the sausage placed unprecedented demands on the staff. That gave rise to new stresses. In 1966, James “Red Dog” Robinson, a young navy veteran who worked in the hog processing unit, organized a short strike that concluded with the founding of Local 1236 of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union (UFCW) to represent workers at Jones Dairy Farm. The 1970s only increased the pressures on the company. The economic challenges of that decade, exacerbated by one oil crisis in 1973 and another in 1979, strained the resources of meat packers everywhere. Costs shot up, retail prices went down, and suddenly
CHAPTER SEVEN: PRIORITIZING INITIATIVES
Left: A skilled cutter at Jones Dairy Farm uses specialized blades to break down pork bellies.
Right: Company scientist
Jan Holewinski runs chemical assays to monitor product quality.
In 1966, James “Red Dog” Robinson organized Local 1236 to represent personnel at Jones Dairy Farm.
healthy companies were operating in the red. All the major meatpackers, including Armour, Oscar Mayer, and Patrick Cudahy, were forced to take unpopular cost-saving measures to survive. At plants across the nation, workers struck in response. When Jones Dairy Farm followed suit in 1982, the union rebelled. The intimacy of the community made the strike especially devastating. Jones Dairy Farm weathered the storm and emerged stronger for it, with a renewed appreciation for its employees as the company’s greatest asset. And today, Red Dog Robinson’s grandson is president of the company.
Packing braunschweiger in 1963
In 1982, William “Bill” Roberts and other union members organized a strike, challenging the company to renew its commitment to its employees.
CHAPTER SEVEN
George Olson (second from right) handled livestock acquisition for Jones Dairy Farm from 1964 to 1985. He also represented Jones at agricultural festivals such as this, the 1981 Wisconsin State Fair. Also pictured here are Milo C. Jones (third from left, in glasses) and Edward C. “Ted” Jones (third from right, in polo shirt), the sixth and seventh presidents of the company.
JONES DAIRY FARM HAD ALWAYS BEEN A FAMILY BUSINESS. BUT ONE OF THE lessons of the period was that the company needed to professionalize. For generations the work of running the company had been relatively ad hoc. In 1967 Bud and Alan Jones approved written guidelines for each executive position, and they began to recruit outside talent. George Olson had a degree in meat and animal science and nine years of experience at Oscar Mayer when he was hired in 1964 to manage livestock procurement at the company. When Alice Morig retired in 1975 after 48 years as the company bookkeeper, Jones Dairy Farm replaced her with Loren Gray who had a professional degree in accounting. He would work his way up to Chief Financial Officer before his retirement in 2009. Meanwhile, a new rule was laid down for the younger generation of the Jones family: they had to work a minimum of three years (later expanded to five) elsewhere before joining the company. In 1983 Milo C. Jones was named as the new head of the company.
CHAPTER SEVEN: PRIORITIZING INITIATIVES
Loren Gray was hired in 1975 as Jones Dairy Farm’s first credentialed accountant. In 1993 he was appointed CFO.
Alan P. Jones Jr., a veteran of World War II and a graduate of Harvard Business School, joined the family firm in 1950 as assistant treasurer, and remained on the board until his passing in 2010.
Milo C. Jones, installed as president in 1983, presents Jones Dairy Farm products to a winner of Wisconsin’s annual Alice in Dairyland contest.
CHAPTER SEVEN: PRIORITIZING
“We will take risks,provided those risks are calculated.”
PART OF THE YOUNGER GENERATION THAT HAD JOINED the executive team in the 1950s, Milo Jones and his cousin Edward C. “Ted” Jones each had over 25 years of experience by the time they assumed leadership. Like their predecessors, they cherished the value of what the family called “sticking to your knitting” – focusing on what you did best. Despite many opportunities to expand, they also recognized the value of keeping the company small enough to ensure consistent quality. But this did not preclude taking calculated risks to pursue opportunities for innovation or limited expansion. In 1981, Jones Dairy Farm acquired Ralph & Paul Adams (RAPA), a Delaware company specializing in scrapple – a uniquely American meat and cornmeal product. In 1988, the company doubled down by acquiring another venerable scrapple manufacturer, Habbersett, which was founded in 1863. Milo and Ted also made a divestment, selling off the herd of Holstein cattle that made Jones technically a dairy farm. Most of the cows were settled nearby. Ed Baker, head of sales at the company and a proud 4-H parent, was one of the buyers.
CHAPTER EIGHT: CALCULATED RISKS
In the 1980s, Jones acquired two companies specializing in scrapple, Ralph & Paul Adams (RAPA) and Habbersett.
Scrapple team members at the RAPA plant in Bridgeville, Delaware
Jones Dairy Farm acquires Ralph & Paul Adams, Inc.
Edward C. “Ted” Jones, Jr. is named 7th president.
The creation of a dedicated food service division.
Jones Dairy Farm acquires Habbersett Brothers.
Local dairymen bid on Holstein cattle from the herd sale at Jones Dairy Farm, February 15, 1985.
The company introduces Golden Brown Sausage.
CHAPTER EIGHT
WHILE MILO JONES MONITORED THE BUSINESS SIDE of Jones Dairy Farm, Ted oversaw the plant and operations manufacturing process. In 1977, he invented a machine to straighten sausage. This was an important innovation. Stuffed in natural casings, sausage is curved, and this meant it always had to be hand packed. Straightening the product opened the door to automating a laborious process. In 1985, the company responded to the demand for lower fat foods by inventing the world’s first “light” sausage. But their most important innovation came in 1986. with the invention of Golden Brown Sausages, a line of pre-cooked, pre-browned sausages that made preparing breakfast easier than ever.
A modern version of the patented sausage straightening machine still in use
CHAPTER EIGHT: CALCULATED RISKS
Invented during the health-conscious 1980s, Jones’s patented Light Breakfast Sausage offered the same taste and quality with a substantially reduced fat and caloric content.
Jones Dairy Farm’s precooked Golden Brown products, introduced in 1986, proved to be so successful that company personnel called them “the missing link.”
CHAPTER EIGHT: CALCULATED RISKS
CHAPTER EIGHT 1981 1995
THE SUCCESS OF GOLDEN BROWN SAUSAGES fundamentally changed the company’s business model. For almost a century, the business had focused almost exclusively on retail consumers. Now there was another audience that the company hadn’t anticipated –professional chefs working in the food service industry. Tasked with producing excellent food at speed, these chefs turned to Jones Dairy Farm for its great taste and reliable quality. In return, Jones developed various forms of fully cooked and browned sausage. In 1995, after twelve years leading Jones Dairy Farm into a new era, Milo Jones stepped down and Ted Jones took the helm as the company’s seventh president.
CHAPTER EIGHT: CALCULATED RISKS
A 1910 article on railroad dining cars is one of the earliest records of Jones products being used in a restaurant.
The runaway success of Golden Brown products opened a new gateway to the food service industry in the1980s.
Shortly after Ted Jones was made CEO, Jones Dairy Farm was featured on the cover of a leading industry magazine.
To encourage culinary creativity, the company began to sponsor recipe contests for their new microwavable sausage. Here, company president Milo Cole Jones poses with two winners of the 1988 Jones Dairy Farm Golden Brown Microwave Sausage Recipe Contest.
CHAPTER EIGHT: CALCULATED RISKS
CHAPTER NINE
1996 2024
“We will know more about our customers than the competition.”
COMPULSORY RETIREMENT GUIDELINES AT JONES DAIRY FARM FATED THAT the time Edward C. Jones, Jr. spent as President and CEO would be brief. But Ted’s tenure was marked by several key developments. First was in the field of quality control. The company was founded on the principle that producing the best meats possible meant adhering to the highest standards of production. Ted made that official policy by initiating a series of rigorous review processes. He established protocols that earned the company certification by the National Sanitation Foundation (NSF) in 1999. He built a new 10,000 square foot laboratory for testing Jones Dairy Farm products that were certified by the American Association for Laboratory Accreditation (A2LA) in 2002. That same year, the company implemented its Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) protocols. Nine years later, Jones Dairy Farm earned the Safe Quality Food Institute’s Level 3 certification, the Institute’s highest and most rigorous designation. The company has always been proactive in testing and food safety initiatives. Jones Dairy Farm made its first inroad into Japan when the company exhibited at a trade fair in 1974. The company expanded its Asian customer base in the 1990s, exporting to Japan and Hong Kong.
CHAPTER
NINE: KNOWING THE CUSTOMERS
Ted Jones was celebrated on the cover of the leading trade journal for the meat industry.
In 1996, Fred Simpson of Jacksonville, Florida, clipped a coupon from a 1935 magazine offering a Jones Dairy Farm breakfast, including sausage and pancakes, for $1, postage included. The company honored the 61-year-old coupon.
In accordance with the procedures of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), quality analyst Amber Mendoza collects a sample of sausage meat to test for fat, moisture and protein content.
A box of Jones Dairy Farm Golden Brown sausages prepared for the Japanese market
Under Ted Jones, Jones Dairy Farm focuses on quality standards, relying on scientists like Matt Voll and Anne Schauer.
1996
Philip H. Jones receives community service award from American Meat Institute.
Jones Dairy Farm establishes an endowed scholarship at the Culinary Institute of America.
2005
Jones Dairy Farm products certified gluten-free.
2001
Philip H. Jones is named 8th President and CEO of Jones Dairy Farm.
IN 2001, TED’S SON PHILIP H. JONES, REPRESENTING the sixth generation of the family, was elected the president and CEO of Jones Dairy Farm. Although his predecessors all entered the family business soon after finishing school, Philip was an exception. Determined to become a chef, he left college to take a job as a dishwasher at a bar and grill. After working his way up through a series of kitchen jobs, he attended La Varenne, a culinary school in Paris, France. He was working as an executive chef in Ohio when he answered the call to manage the plant at the Ralph and Paul Adams (RAPA) scrapple factory in Delaware, where he added to his portfolio such skills as equipment maintenance, product development and quality control. According to Philip, the decade he spent working in professional kitchens gave him invaluable managerial experience and an acute appreciation for flavor, texture, and cooking processes. “Sausage is not the most exciting thing,” he admits. “Most people don’t think about it except for in the morning when they figure out what do they want for breakfast. We think about it all day.”
CHAPTER NINE: KNOWING THE CUSTOMERS
Far left: Philip H. Jones, the great-great grandson of founder Milo C. Jones became the 8th President and CEO of Jones Dairy Farm in 2001.
Above: Freshly accredited chef Philip H. Jones proudly displays his diploma from the École de Cuisine La Varenne, headed by legendary culinary educator Anne Willan.
Philip frying up breakfast at the farmhouse kitchen
Below: 2019 Costco road show selling event in Japan
PHILIP JONES HAS BROUGHT HIS CULINARY TRAINING TO Jones Dairy Farm directly. Under his watch the company developed a cherry hardwood smoking process, an all natural Golden Brown line, an antibiotic-free and organic line of chicken and turkey sausage, and all natural smoked meat products. In 2008, all Jones Dairy Farm products were certified gluten free. In 2014, the company became the first firm to dry-age bacon on an industrial scale, formulating guidelines for the process that would be adopted by the USDA. Philip also gave back to the industry that nurtured him. In 2005, he established the Jones Dairy Farm endowed scholarship at the Culinary Institute of America (CIA), offering tuition assistance to degree candidates in New York and Texas. Committed to fostering local talent, the company also established similar scholarships at a number of schools, and funded demonstration kitchens and culinary labs at the CIA, Fox Valley Technical College, and Madison College, WI. More recently Jones Dairy Farm has supported the expansion of the Meat Science & Animal Biologics program at the University of Wisconsin – Madison. In 2014, Philip received the Edward C. Jones Community Service Award from the American Meat Institute, established in his grandfather’s memory. In 2017, Philip was inducted into the Wisconsin Meat Hall of Fame following his grandfather Edward C. Jones and great-great grandfather Milo C. Jones. CHAPTER
1996 2024
CHAPTER NINE: KNOWING THE CUSTOMERS
John Hollinger prepares bacon for pressing prior to slicing. Jones Dairy Farm bacon is cured in a family-crafted brine blended onsite, then naturally smoked in small batches over real hickory or cherrywood chips for hours, and air-dried and dry-aged to create an intense flavor.
state-of-the-art
The
Jones Dairy Farm Culinary Theater at Fox Valley Technical College was the first teaching facility of its kind in Wisconsin.
The Culinary Institute of America named the high-volume-production teaching kitchen at its New York campus after Jones Dairy Farm in recognition of the company’s ongoing support of the college.
Below left: In 2023, Philip was appointed as one of ten Governors of the Académie Brillat-Savarin, a committee founded by the Chaîne des Rôtisseurs, the world’s oldest international gastronomic society.
Below right: Philip with Ryan Jones from the shipping department at the Jones Dairy Farm plant
CHAPTER NINE: KNOWING THE CUSTOMERS
CHAPTER TEN
2001 2024
BEHIND EVERY GREAT LEADER THERE IS AN amazing team. The success Jones Dairy Farm has enjoyed over the years is due to the hard work of dedicated personnel at every level of the company. From the sanitation staff who ensure that the plant meets the highest standards of hygiene, to the skilled workers who cut the meat, blend the spices, and prepare the products, to the accountants, salespeople, packers and drivers who ensure Jones products are delivered on time, to the members of the board who guide the company: every person at Jones Dairy Farm plays a vital role.
“We will treat our employees as family. They are our greatest asset.”
Jones personnel removing nets from naturally smoked hams.
CHAPTER TEN: OUR GREATEST ASSET
The Jones Market company store team
Back row, left to right: Brandi Ferkovich, Mariah Hadler, Leslie Willitz, and Connie Miller
Front row: Thomas Atwater, Jodi Moerer, Pam Koeppke, Sienna Collins, Aliyah Collins, and Jenna Broege
Erika Jelinek, Barb Rayno, and Karie Martin discuss plant operations with Philip H. Jones.
Anne Mitten and Fedora Pollay, family interns, accompany Karla Kruizenga to Jefferson County Fair and meet Kaitlyn Robbins, 4-H member, who raised the hog purchased by Jones Dairy Farm.
CHAPTER TEN: OUR GREATEST ASSSET
Left: David Breihan (right) gives a tour of the Jones Dairy Farm plant to scholarship students at Fox Valley Technical College.
Above: Matt Hensel, Jeff Theder, Karie Martin, Kevin Kostroski, and Ryan Robinson discuss Jones operations over dinner.
CHAPTER TEN
2001 2024
Jones Dairy Farm has supported the Fort Atkinson Food Pantry since 1982 and provided rent-free space since 1992. Pictured are Lisa Caras, Marketing Director at Jones Dairy Farm, and Debbie Kutz, Food Pantry Manager.
Cookout, September 2024
Back Row, left to right:
James Lazar, Jamie Schieber, John Lewicki, Luke Purucker, Dustin Moldenhauer, Ryan Robinson, Dan Garity, and Philip H. Jones
Front Row:
Jeanne Schulenburg, Karie Martin, John Crowley, Destiny Roth, Rick Kozulla, Amy Castro, William H. Jones, Mariah Hadler, and Becky Cambridge
CHAPTER TEN: OUR GREATEST ASSET
Jones personnel celebrate the company’s 2023 Great Place to Work certification.
CHAPTER TEN: OUR GREATEST ASSSET
Left: Stephanie Pederson and Demetrius Samuels sport their snazziest holiday sweaters.
Right: Jones Dairy Farm personnel Bryon Coleman, Rick Lowry and Jim Glynn with Chef Bruce Mattel (wearing toque), senior associate dean at the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York
Left, left to right: David Kiernan, Dave Collins, Karla Kruizenga, and Patrick Klingbeil
Right: Sara Johnson, Jodi Lipperer, Mary West, and Anita Freeman
Jones Dairy Farm shareholder’s meeting, 2015
Seated: Anne
Back Row, left to right: Elizabeth C. Jones, Denice Jones, Emily Moncure, Thomas Jones, Jennifer Jones, Cole Jones, Frances Jones, Philip H. Jones, Margaret Jones, William H. Jones, Susan McComb, Keith Douglas, Richard Jones, Catherine Paddock, Milo L. Jones, Ewa Moncure, and Mary Jones
Mitten, Adele Donaldson, Edward C. Jones, Jr., Patricia Jones, Joan Jones, Frances Highsmith, Milo C. Jones, and Elizabeth Mitten
Kneeling: Alex Stahl, Eliot Stahl
CHAPTER
CHAPTER TEN: OUR GREATEST ASSET
Back
Center
Seated: David Von Iderstein* and Bryon Coleman * from TryAngle Foods.
CHAPTER TEN: OUR GREATEST ASSSET
Above: Jones Dairy Farm personnel gathers with colleagues from TryAngle Foods.
row, left to right: Mike Dawson*, Brian Reilly*, Tom Gallahue*, Mark Heitpas, and Mike McGinley*
row: Rick Lowry, Mike Beccaria*, Don Murphy, Janine Drake, Mike Naticchioni*, Mike McAndrew and Mike Coleman
Left: Dennis Rosenthal and Jamie Schieber, maintenance personnel at Jones Dairy Farm
“We will tell the truth.We will be realistic.No surprises. We will execute our stated objectives.”
ONE OF PHILIP’S FIRST ACTS AS CEO WAS TO HIRE
Rick Lowry, Ph.D. as Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing. A 17-year veteran of Sara Lee, where he managed packaged pork products under the Hillshire Farms, King Cotton and Bryan Foods brands, he brought to Jones both an unerring business sense and a deep understanding of meat science. Philip and Rick worked as a team. Philip and Rick were supported by Chief Financial Officer Loren Gray, and Roger Borchardt, who had joined the company in 1978 as a meat cutter and worked his way up to Senior Vice President of Operations. Together, the executive team brought Jones Dairy Farm to new heights, and when Philip split his duties to appoint Rick as President in 2021 – the first person outside the Jones family to hold that position, becoming preferred vendors to major retailers worldwide. Between 2003 and 2023, the company doubled its volume and increased its revenues threefold.
Jones Dairy Farm president Rick Lowry, Ph.D., presenting his class on Meat 101.
Jones Dairy Farm products are sold by retailers and wholesalers nationwide.
Jones Market opens.
Ryan Robinson becomes president of Jones Dairy Farm.
COVID-19 disrupts meat packing industry.
Rick Lowry hired as Senior VP of Sales and Marketing, later rising to President of Jones Dairy Farm.
Jones Dairy Farm introduces antibiotic free product line.
Left to right: Ryan Klopcic and Chef Mike Scott of the Fireside Dinner Theatre, Fort Atkinson, tour the Jones Dairy Farm plant tour with Bryce Neupert and Philip H. Jones.
2001 2024
PHILIP JONES AND HIS TEAM PAIRED THEIR unrivaled expertise in meat with considerable business acumen. Under their leadership Jones Dairy Farm grew considerably, both physically and financially. In 2008, the company built its West Addition, adding almost 58,000 square feet of production space, including a state-of-the-art smoked meat processing facility, plus
another 14,000 square feet of freezers to accommodate rapidly growing demand. In 2017, the company made another major acquisition. Since 1964, the Moore Seafood Company, originally of Milwaukee, had been a good neighbor to Jones Dairy Farm. The company specialized in frozen fish, French fries an onion rings; later, the business passed to Ore-Ida and then finally to McCain Foods. When the company shuttered in 2015, Fort Atkinson lost one of its major employers, and the empty complex stood as a sad monument to a once bustling enterprise. Two years later, Jones Dairy Farm brought the facility back to life, retooling it as the company’s new South Plant.
Left: Philip H. Jones renovated the company’s original Plant 1, built in 1907, to pay tribute to the past and shape the future. The building hosts the Jones Market – a traditional store where Leslie Willitz (left) and her colleagues vend fresh meat and other Wisconsin products to customers like Jenna Broege (right). The building also hosts a stateof-the-art test kitchen where accredited chefs develop new products to delight discerning eaters.
CHAPTER ELEVEN: REALISM AND RESILIENCE
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Above: As part of its commitment to a greener future, Jones Dairy Farm partnered with Wisconsin-based WEC Energy Group in 2021 to install a 12acre energy field on company property, pictured here just after construction. Comprising 7,128 solar panels, the array produces 2.24 megawatts annually –enough to power more than 400 homes, making a sizeable dent in the state’s carbon emissions.
Left: One of the company’s newest facilities is now the locus of operations for one of its oldest technologies – the careful blending by hand of Jones Dairy Farm’s signature spice mix, unchanged since 1889. Here Beverly Wolfram ensures the seasonings are in correct proportion.
In 2008, Philip H. Jones undertook a massive overhaul of the company’s Plant 2, bringing older technologies up to date and positioning it for future growth and the addition of Plant 3.
An extensive addition to Plant 2 greatly increased freezer and production space to ensure that Jones Dairy Farm could continue to meet the demands of hungry customers worldwide.
2001 2024
IN 2015, JONES DAIRY FARM CONVERTED ITS ORIGINAL factory, Plant 1, into a product development center and retail market featuring Jones meats and other Wisconsin farm products. Helmed by Mariah Hadler, Jones Market recreates the original experience of the first years of the company, when Milo C. Jones and his family sold products fresh out of their kitchen to their neighbors in Fort Atkinson. Behind the market is the Product Development Center, out of which company develop new retail and food service products, which includes an antibiotic-free product line, introduced in 2016 and most recently, pork and chicken meatballs, poultry sausage and other products. In keeping with the company’s long record of civic engagement, Jones Dairy Farm has donated meat to local food pantries and charitable organizations, as well as shipped thousands of pounds of product to victims of natural disasters like Hurricanes Katrina and Ian.
Left: President Ryan Robinson, VP of Human Resources
Karie Martin, and Senior VP of Operations
Roger Borchardt
Right: Philip H. Jones, Dan Garity, Dennis Rosenthal, Kate Konen, Nick Wagner, Dwayne Phillips, and Brent Hagen gather at
CHAPTER ELEVEN: REALISM AND RESILIENCE
Jones Market and Customer Engagement Manager Mariah Hadler
CHAPTER ELEVEN
the Jones farmhouse to celebrate their years of service.
Family gathers on the family farmhouse porch as the snow gently falls, 2022.
The Jones
Back row, left to right: Adele Donaldson, Fedora Pollay, Martha Pollay, Parker Pollay, Peter Pollay, Keith Douglas, Frances Jones, Carmen Garcés, Lisa Caras, Thomas Jones, Michael Ferro, Peter Jones, Mary Jones, Chris Ferro, and Alexis Ferro
Center row: Patricia Jones, Catherine Paddack, Alex Stahl, Elizabeth B. Jones, Milo L. Jones, Philip H. Jones, Cynthia Weber, Gabriela Llort Jones, Nolan Jones, Richard Jones, Alexandra Jones, Margaret Jones, Milo C. Jones, and Joan Jones
Front row: Cole Jones, Elizabeth C. Jones, Eliot Shahl, Jennifer Jones, Ewa Moncure, and Milo Brown
EVERYONE HAD TO PULL TOGETHER TO WEATHER THE COVID-19 pandemic, which caused major disruptions in the meatpacking industry. Jones Dairy Farm approached the crisis by putting employees first, temporarily cutting the product lines that placed the greatest demand upon the workforce. It was one of the rare companies in the industry that had no layoffs. Today, a new generation prepares to lead Jones into the future. To include the new president, Ryan Robinson, the grandson of the man who first organized the union at Jones Dairy Farm in the 1960s. Rick Lowry tells the story of the time a customer came up to him. “I love Jones,” he said, “because you’ve never changed. The sausage that you make today is exactly like I remember as a boy. I can always count on you to be who you are.” As they look towards the future, the next generation of the Jones leadership and family plans to grow the company by remembering exactly who they are.
CHAPTER
Philip H. Jones reviews marketing data with seventh-generation family member Lisa Caras
CHAPTER ELEVEN: REALISM AND RESILIENCE
Above: Philip H. Jones (orange hat), and Ryan Robinson (far right) host a cookout at the Jones farmhouse with members of the Madison College chapter of the American Culinary Federation.
Right: Members of the Jones sales team prepare to serve some of their finest products.
Back row, left to right: David Coppinger, Ken Klahn, Delano McKamey, and Mike McAndrew
Front row: Kate Konen, Bill Skeels, and Eric Estes.
Left to right: Cole Jones, Adele Donaldson, Ted Jones, Philip Jones, and his dog Reggie
CHAPTER ELEVEN: REALISM AND RESILIENCE
Seventh generation family member William H. Jones serves as Project Manager for the company.
THIS BOOK WAS MADE POSSIBLE THROUGH THE DEDICATED WORK OF MANY PEOPLE.
JONES DAIRY FARM IS DEEPLY GRATEFUL FOR THEIR DEDICATION, EXCELLENCE AND TEAMWORK, WITH SPECIAL ACKNOWLEDGEMENT TO:
Company Store & Customer Engagement Manager JONES DAIRY FARM
Sixth-generation family member, (retired) General Manager and Vice President of JONES DAIRY FARM’s plant-based initiative
Sixth-generation family member, Chairman & CEO JONES DAIRY FARM
