Buyers say Mat Maid ignored them

MAT-SU - Some potential commercial buyers of Matanuska Maid milk claim the dairy was unresponsive to their attempts to buy locally, even though the buyers gave special consideration to Mat Maid. While the struggling dairy may have missed out on millions of dollars in contracts this year and last from government and private buyers, two local dairy industry players attribute that to factors beyond Mat Maid's control.

As the governor's office, a new Agriculture and Conservation board and a task force appointed by the governor all try to understand and remedy the state-run Mat Maid dairy's financial troubles, dairy players large and small are giving conflicting reports of how the dairy has conducted its business in the final months before a recent decision to shut down. Intervention by Gov. Sarah Palin and her new ag board has postponed that shutdown until August.

The Matanuska Susitna Valley School District buys out-of-state milk. But it's not for lack of trying to buy locally, said Terrie Erwin, school comptroller.

&#8220We went out of our way” to help the dairy make a successful bid on supplying the schools' milk, she said. When Mat Maid didn't submit milk samples by the deadline, the district gave the dairy another deadline.

&#8220They didn't return phone calls or submit anything,” Erwin said. &#8220We had to deem their bid nonresponsive.”

The district went with an out-of-state supplier for the more than 20,000 cases of milk purchased for the 2006-2007 school year.

Kaladi Brothers Coffee Co. spent close to $1 million dollars on milk last year, Kaladi co-owner Tim Gravell said. Beginning nine months ago, Gravell said the company repeatedly tried to purchase its milk from Mat Maid.

&#8220I couldn't get a response,” he said, adding Mat Maid quoted Kaladi Brothers a price two weeks ago.

Pacific Coast Espresso owner Debbie-Jo Bennett of Wasilla describes a similar situation. Bennett is a former farmer who wanted to use local products in her Wasilla espresso stand.

&#8220I seriously tried. I tried hard to get some prices [from Mat Maid],” she said.

Bennett estimates she made two phone calls a week for three months beginning in February without a response from Mat Maid sales associates. When a representative finally quoted Bennett a price, the representative said the lack of communication was due to the dairy's financial troubles.

That response didn't satisfy Bennett, but Palmer farmer Gary Beu said it sounds accurate.

Beu ran Windsong Farms in Palmer, a cheese producer and processor that went out of business this year when the U.S. Department of Agriculture foreclosed on the farm's loans.

&#8220While they were going through the shutdown, maybe they weren't communicative,” Beu said of Mat Maid's lack of response to potential customers. &#8220But you sure don't want to add a new account when your business is in trouble. That's not honest.”

Donna Love, a spokesperson for Arctic Sun Distributers in Wasilla, said it's also not the dairy's policy to deal directly with many small buyers. Arctic Sun delivers Mat Maid milk to Mat-Su Regional Medical Center and other Valley locations. Love said Arctic Sun deals about $40,000 a month in Mat Maid milk.

&#8220They're a manufacturer. They're not into retail,” Love said. &#8220They don't want a bunch of people showing up over there.”

Instead, Mat Maid mainly sells to a few distributers like Arctic Sun, which distributes the milk to many smaller buyers. Love agreed that the dairy was often uncommunicative leading up to its announcement of plans to shut down.

&#8220I have a little bit of a problem with it. It's impacting our business,” she said.

Arctic Sun lost one grocery customer because the store was tired of Mat Maid's changing prices with little prior warning and orders being canceled, Love said.

But Mat-Su Regional spokesperson Elizabeth Ripley said the hospital is satisfied with its experience buying Mat Maid milk through Arctic Sun.

Other large buyers can't get Mat Maid milk through their distributers. The state Department of Corrections spent close to $381,000 on dairy products last year, but could not get those products from Mat Maid because its distributor doesn't offer Mat Maid milk.

&#8220They're going to get the cheapest they can get,” department spokesperson Richard Schmitz said. That rules out the higher-priced local milk.

Ag board chair Kristan Cole said the board's first mission is to sift through accounts like the school district's and find out what exactly has been going on at the dairy.

Mat Maid officials declined to comment for this story.

Contact Will Elliott a 352-2252 or will.elliott@frontiersman.com.