Wisconsinites love their meat and cheese, especially if it’s from a local business. Add in the combination of a unique product offering and multi-pronged marketing approach and you get Union Grove-based Two Creek Farms LLC, a rapidly-growing company specializing in premium meats and cheeses. Justin Miklaszewski, founder of Two Creek Farms, is only 22 years
Wisconsinites love their meat and cheese, especially if it’s from a local business. Add in the combination of a unique product offering and multi-pronged marketing approach and you get Union Grove-based Two Creek Farms LLC, a rapidly-growing company specializing in premium meats and cheeses.
Justin Miklaszewski, founder of Two Creek Farms, is only 22 years old but has run his business for six years. He's grown the company to serve 18 counties in Wisconsin and Illinois while simultaneously earning a degree in general business and finance from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. Miklaszewski grew up around animals while living at his family home and farming has always been a part of his life as he participated in programs like 4-H.
In 2016, his family took two pigs to the Wisconsin State Fair in the hopes of selling them at the Governor’s Blue Ribbon Livestock Auction. However, the pigs did not end up qualifying. To seek potential buyers, he ended up making a Facebook post to gauge interest.
“Within about an hour I had over 250 comments on that post. That kind of was the start of it (Two Creek Farms),” Miklaszewski said.
In 2017, he raised a few extra pigs to sell. This process continued over the next several years, with Miklaszewski continually increasing his number of pigs and adding new animals like steer. He also started attending the Racine County Farmers Market to broaden his audience.
[caption id="attachment_556189" align="alignleft" width="249"] Two Creek Farms' teriyaki beef sticks. Photo courtesy of Two Creek Farms.[/caption]
“We had some customers come up to us one day and ask if we sold beef sticks or jerky or summer sausage. Right there, it kind of clicked in my head,” Miklaszewski said.
From there, Two Creek Farms continued to grow as customers sought out products ranging from chicken and steak to brats. Miklaszewski began purchasing even larger volumes of animals to keep up with demand. Those animals are raised on a property in Franksville. Two Creek Farms then works with a processing company in Rio, Wisconsin called Johnson’s Sausage Shoppe, to create its recipes and make its products.
Two Creek Farms now offers approximately 250 products, including unique finds like cherry brats and Bloody Mary beef sticks, at its brick-and-mortar location at 1360 15th Ave., Union Grove. Aside from a $10,000 loan from the Racine County Economic Development Corp. to move into the current building, Miklaszewski has not received any outside funding.
The company’s total number of employees ranges from five to over 20, depending on the time of the year. Summer is Two Creek Farms’ busiest season as farmers markets wind up for the year.
“Basically, anything you would get at a meat market we now physically do,” Miklaszewski said. “It took off.”
Since being founded in 2016, Two Creek Farms has seen over 300% growth. Miklaszewski attributes some of that growth to the decision to join the online farmers market Market Wagon in 2019. This further broadened the company’s exposure and provided a constant flow of sales.
“For me, it was more of a safety net at first and then it kind of kept growing and growing,” Miklaszewski said.
He wants to take advantage of the company’s continued growth and is working to identify a second storefront for Two Creek Farms. Whitefish Bay and Oak Creek are being considered as options for a new store, which could potentially open at the start of next year.
“For me, it’s always 100% about trying to promote and get the word out to different people,” Miklaszewski said.
