New owners begin businesses in Goessel
By Delbert Peters
Contributing writer
Keith's Foods, LLC and Goessel's Main Street Station opened for business Nov. 29. These new businesses will be in familiar settings as Mid Kansas Co-op (MKC) sold the grocery store and station in Goessel.
"When the decision was made to divest of these assets, we were concerned of the impact on the patrons of these communities," stated Dave Christiansen, CEO of Mid Kansas Co-op.
In both cases the sale of the Newton station and the Goessel facilities individual owners from within the local community were sought as buyers of the assets.
"MKC sincerely hopes that the local communities will support the new businesses. The Co-op looks forward to improving the service around Goessel in the areas of agronomics, feed, grain, and petroleum," Christiansen added.
The station was closed Wednesday, Nov. 24, in order to count inventory and have MKC remove the items that Brandon Unruh and Brad Hiebert (new owners) did not desire to handle. The merchandise, pet food, tire service, and light mechanical service that customers were used to will be basically the same, only now sold under the new business name of Goessel's Main Street Station.
Customers that have card-trol cards for the fuel pumps in Goessel will not see any differences in billing. Cash fuel customers will pay the new business directly. Farmers that purchase dry fertilizer will still get invoiced from MKC. The grain and anhydrous ammonia facility by K-15 are not included in the assets that were sold.
"We will do a lot of cleaning and painting inside the store during the Thanksgiving weekend. On Monday the 29th, we will be opened for business," said Hiebert.
Hiebert and Unruh will run the station and hire part-time help when needed. Payments for MKC monthly statements should now be mailed directly to the Moundridge office rather than dropped off at Goessel's Main Street Station.
"In the future we may expand the amount of vehicle repairs that we do, but for now, we will try to offer the same service our customers are used to," said Hiebert.
Keith Banman will be the owner of the grocery store and will operate under the name of Keith's Foods LLC.
"We have had positive feedback from the community. The support for keeping the grocery store open is unreal," Banman said.
Customers will see the same variety of products in the store under new ownership. The plan is to keep the Shurfine and Associated Groceries products in the store. Banman will continue to operate the catering service that was started several years ago.
"We can do full meals and full service for groups wanting a banquet, or we can do a deli menu for events that need a sandwich lunch. There are so many communities our size that don't have a grocery store, we feel fortunate to be able to keep this store open," he said.
Banman, one full-time employee and one part-time employee will operate the grocery store for now, with hopes of making improvements as funds allow.
The Goessel community will have a large part in keeping these businesses going.
