Sauk Prairie Optimists get a Culvers update

Eric Skrum of Culver’s Franchising spoke with the Sauk Prairie Optimist Club on June 1 at the Jaybird Cafe. Updating the club, he shared that Culver’s is now in 26 states, with the recent addition of Arkansas, and that there are more than 860 individual restaurants in the US. As most people are aware, Craig and Lea Culver and Ruth and George Culver co-founded Culver’s. Ruth and George Culver, parents of Craig, were hard workers. George originally inspected milk bars. George was the risk taker and Ruth was the “queen of hospitality.” For a while they moved out of the area but came back to Sauk City in 1961 as they wanted their family to live here. They bought a “tiny” A&W root beer stand but sold it in 1968. They then bought the Farm Kitchen and Resort and that’s where Ruth earned her “Queen” designation, always greeting and seating people with grace and warmth. George’s health was suffering, and he asked Craig to run the restaurant but Craig said, “No thank you. I don’t want to work as hard as you (two) do!” Craig went off to college and graduated from UW- Oshkosh in biology and then applied for jobs all over. Eventually he got a management position with McDonald’s. Craig has always credited the business experience he gained from McDonald’s and his knowledge of hospitality from his parents. Eventually he didn’t want to work for someone else. He went to his parents and explained an idea he had about custard and burgers. Custard was not well known at that time but combining his love of Leon’s Custard in Oshkosh and Milwaukee’s bar burgers, he felt he had a good idea behind his vision. He asked his parents to join him in this new endeavor. George immediately said “Yes” and Ruth had a lot of questions and a few doubts. However, Culver’s was born and on July 17, 1984 they opened Culver’s in Sauk City. They knocked out the A&W on the oval sign and introduced the blue and white oval that exists today. Locally they competed with Hardees and McDonalds. DQ introduced their blizzards at this time also. The first year they didn’t even break even; the second year they just broke even; the third year they made a profit. In 1987 they were approached by someone in Richland Center about starting a Culver’s there. It closed after a year. Craig stated, “I’m never going to franchise again.” But people kept approaching him, the franchising process was changed with lots of support given to the franchisee, and soon Baraboo became their first franchise. Part of the reason franchises have been successful since, is that owners “must be engaged and present, must work so many hours per week, and must follow the core values of the organization.” Skrum said they are not interested in how many Culver’s open but rather the quality of the Culver’s that open. They help the franchisees develop their game plan, make recommendations for building size and assist them. A sixteen week franchise course has been developed to train franchisees to be successful in business plans and in the hospitality arena- just like the “marriage” of George and Ruth Culver’s talents! Their motto is ‘From Wisconsin with Love’ and it’s easy to see why! Culver’s Franchising’s Eric Skrum, left, and Bart Mauch, Sauk Prairie Optimist Club President, right, on June 1 at the Jaybird Cafe.