Building a world-class business out of goat milk

Amber Hofstad of Windrift Hills spoke at the annual meeting of the Havre Area Chamber of Commerce as their keynote speaker Wednesday about her journey as a small business owner building a business with goat's milk that sells to customers around the world.

Chamber Executive Director Jessica Fagerbakke said Hofstad, whose company makes natural skin care products like soap, lotion and body butter using goat milk, is a second-generation business owner who was the driving force behind its sales and marketing and expansion before becoming its owner and operator.

Windrift was named business of the year in 2019 and 2020 by the Conrad Chamber of Commerce and has won a number of awards throughout the state, including a Best in Show win at Made in Montana.

Hofstad said the business was started in 1999 by her mother, Deena, who, after years of experience as an occupational therapist, noticed a need for natural and effective skin care products in her patients and wanted to find some way to help them.

She said her mother had wanted to start her own business since finishing college.

Amber Hofstad said she was skeptical at first.

"I remember her saying, after she graduated college in 1996, 'I'm going to own my own business one day.' I thought she was crazy, but it was her dream," she said.

The business was started as a hobby with the family harvesting milk from just three goats and making soap in their farmhouse kitchen at their property west of Conrad and, as people who had very little experience with livestock, it was a bumpy start.

But, Hofstad said, her mother was determined and they refined their products using feedback from their friends and family and they quickly outgrew the kitchen with the operation expanding throughout the house and eventually the shop.

She said all of this was being done as the family was working full time or going to school and for the first eight years most of the work was being done by hand, but as demand for their products grew the family increasingly shifted toward the new business.

Hofstad said she eventually left college to go work at the business, opting for "the school of hard knocks."

In the early days, she said, she mostly focused on marketing and trade shows doing most of the traveling, putting 70,000 to 90,000 miles on a pickup truck in a year, while her mother mostly handled manufacturing and product development.

She said she sometimes wishes she could go back to that time, but it was a lot of work.

"It was long hard days, with even longer and harder nights, we worked seven days a week between producing and traveling for shows," she said.

Hofstad said her mother had a very keen sense of the brand she wanted to create and despite how much work it took to make it happen she never gave up, and in 2004 and 2005, Hofstad's brothers both came home to work at the burgeoning new business as well.

After taking over so much of the house and shop, she said, they needed more space but her mother felt very strongly that they shouldn't risk going in to debt to expand - something she'd seen destroy other businesses, so they saved diligently to buy a new space in town.

She said they knew this location wouldn't last them long with the rate the business was expanding, but out of respect for her mother's aversion to debt, they used it as they searched for a more permanent location.

Indeed, by 2016, they were out of space again and found a new place that would accommodate their manufacturing needs, a place that is already full, and long before they expected.

In 2018, her mother began going into semi-retirement, and the reins of the business passed to her, Hofstad said.

Since then, she said, she's had to learn a lot, about the management of production and employees, and how to delegate, which took her a while to start getting good at, as well as growing their presence online.

She said her mother still works there developing new ideas for products like their beard oil that's still in early development.

Hofstad said they have a staff of 12 full-time employees along with a few high school students who help out while learning about the business, and the company's benefits package has ensured they have little turnover.

Over the years since the business started in a town of only 2,600 people, she said, they've seen the reach of their products extend to other states and now other countries and seeing people around the world use their products fills her with immense pride in the business and in her mother for making it all happen.

"Windrift still operates because of a vision she had one day," Hofstad said.

She said she's also incredibly thankful to have had the opportunity to work with organizations, such as the Great Falls Development Authority, which have all helped her business thrive over the years.

She thanked the group for the opportunity to speak before taking some questions about the business.

Fagerbakke said her story serves as inspiration for business owners and demonstrates that if people work hard they will come out on top.