More than 10,000 people filed into the Manchester Radisson’s Expo Center this weekend to taste test, try on, and purchase products made by 145 New Hampshire companies.
Stretch’s Pickles of Keene was one of those businesses.
Owners Glenna and Craig Hjelm say both Craig’s parents and their kids pitch in to make the business thrive:
It’s all in the family, our website was created by one of our sons, they all help out at the farmers markets, boxing pickles, picking cucumbers, everything.
Hjelm, also known as “Stretch,” says by Saturday they had sold more than 700 jars of pickles – far more than he was expecting – so they had to drive back to Keene to restock. He says he’s hoping connections made here with wholesalers and retailers will help his business branch out beyond the Monadnock region to Manchester, and northward.
Heidi Copeland – who owns the company that runs the expo – says that kind of business growth is just what the Expo is designed to promote.
We had one company, a couple years ago, launched a new product Planet Marshmallow. She got twenty wholesale accounts at the show, and by August she had moved the manufacturing from her home to a manufacturing facility. That is exactly what we want accomplish.
Planet Marshmallow was not in attendance in Manchester this weekend, because it was selling at a larger national expo.
