'For I know the plans I have for you,' declares the Lord, 'plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future.’
As most of you know, on the night of April 18, 2022, a raging fire destroyed our Azure Headquarters. The facility, which included our liquid pour room, carob production, and fruit packing facilities, as well as our offices, was a total loss. In the immediate aftermath, the logistical challenges, not to mention the financial loss and resulting space constraints, had us reeling. But not for long! With determination and faith, we moved forward with plans to recover and rebuild.
First and foremost, we want to thank you, our Azure community! We are blessed by each of you who share our passion for better health and abundant living, and who partner with us to change the food supply chain in our country. We are thankful for the many ways you supported us through this challenge—from increased orders to messages of encouragement, you lifted us up!
We are also grateful for the new opportunities set before us. Exciting developments emerged from the fire—renewal, growth, and hope we see on the horizon. On the anniversary of the fire, we’d like to take you along for a rearview mirror look at the challenges of the past year, and give you a sneak peek at what we’ve been up to lately and what you can expect from us in the not-so-distant future!
The front of Azure Headquarters incorporated an artistic, organic element into its balcony, stairway, and pillars.
BEFORE THE FIRE
It’s been a wild ride over the past couple of years! Just before the fire, we had begun planning a warehouse expansion with hopes of improving our efficiency, stocking, and prices. We’d been working round the clock to keep up with the huge growth we experienced during Covid-19 shutdowns, and mitigating transportation restrictions and supply chain shortages. (At that time, we struggled even finding plastic bags and labels to package our bulk products—not to mention keeping food in stock!) In an effort to revitalize our small community and also provide housing opportunities for Azure team members, we had also just purchased an old schoolhouse, with plans to remodel and convert it into apartment housing. Below are excerpts from David’s Corner writings at the time:
This year here at Azure, we have experienced phenomenal growth from brand-new customers and loyal customers broadening the types of products they order from us. We are thankful that you have trusted us as a partner in your journey to healthful living. You have challenged us to be more productive and innovate in the best way possible!…I see that now is the time for Azure to expand for the greater purpose we serve in supporting healthful living. Part of our innovation is to build a new warehouse, and I am having a lot of fun looking at designs that will make us more efficient and able to do more with less. Not only is this good environmental stewardship, but it benefits our team in terms of work efficiencies and our customers in terms of costs. Another innovation is building apartment housing for our team members. Our town is very small and has limited resources. I would love to provide housing opportunities for those who wish to live in the Azure community.
Over the course of the past two years, our output has more than doubled. As you probably know, this fall we couldn’t pull orders and process products fast enough to keep up with demand. We are grateful that you stood beside us, bearing with drop delays and scheduling snafus. We have analyzed our processes and worked hard to become more efficient. Supply chain and demand increases have played a part, but it is clear that space constraints under increasing demand is slowing us down. To avoid this becoming a long-term problem, we have to increase our stock—AND our space. We have made the exciting decision to enlarge our current warehouse in Moro. We will be doubling its size and capacity! Enlarging our warehouse will enable us to keep more products in stock and our trucks loaded and running on time. If all goes according to plan, allowing for delays associated with building in the supply chain crisis era, our goal is to have the expansion complete by fall 2022!
Ah, but the best laid plans. . . . Little did we know the warehouse expansion progress would be considerably slowed, as we would also be juggling rebuilding our HQ after a fire! It would be a longer process than we could have imagined.
Looking back, we got chills reading this (also written before the fire):
Spring’s mesmerizing warmth and promises always convince me that this will be the best year yet, and that is as it should be. Early in spring, you don’t know what you’ll be up against, but it is important to begin by looking for the brightest, most favorable outcome. It is excellent to keep this same perspective in our lives—spring always returns, bringing hope, abundance, and fresh beginnings. We have the opportunity to start anew, too.
Isn’t it great how an optimistic outlook can cushion you from life’s unexpected blows? We sure didn’t think we would be up against the challenge of a devastating fire, but that was what we would soon face!
THE FIRE
It was around 11 or 11:30 at night that I got a phone call from Tom, the night shift manager at the mill. I was in the basement putting labels on for Ellie’s Eden, which we do every night after the orders come in. Tom was the first one to see it, and told me it looked really bright over at the HQ, that he thought we had a fire. HQ is about a mile from my home, so I hopped in the car and sped up the road, while making calls to others. When I got there, the fire was just in the northwest corner, but it was burning good, flames were coming through the tin roof. We got all the trailers pulled out of the docks, pulled equipment away from the building, and hauled out what we could from the opposite side, but in the end, the fire company couldn’t save the building.
Today, a year later, we know little more about the cause of the fire than we did at the time. The fire marshals and investigators ruled it accidental, speculating that totes of corn temporarily stored in the HQ building may have spontaneously combusted. One fire marshal commented that it would be impossible for that to happen without a noticeable smoldering odor for days beforehand—we had been in the building within hours of the fire, and did not see or smell anything unusual. According to the investigation, there were no signs of arson, and no clear evidence of internal electrical mishaps either. We will probably never know definitively what happened, but as many of our customers have said, it is worrisome and troubling that so many food warehouses at that time burned. A potato processing plant not too far from us also burned (home of Spud Love potato chips, which Azure carries).
Originally built in 1954, our headquarters served many purposes for Azure through the years—it was our first real warehouse. We remodeled it twice to serve various purposes for us, and many of us had memories around that building. Back in the early days, our kids would pull orders as they glided through the aisles on rollerblades. Ah, the good old days! At the time of the fire, our HQ building housed our main offices and conference rooms (including computers and records), as well as storage. But it also housed some of Azure’s key production lines.
As most of you know, we faced quite a blow with losing our headquarters to a disastrous fire. In addition to our main offices, our liquid repackaging operation, carob factory, and fruit packing line were all destroyed. The total loss of these three areas has directly impacted our customers. We lost all our liquids, such as oil, honey, syrup, and our packaging and labeling equipment. Our team custom-built the carob equipment, so all carob is out of stock until we can fabricate new machinery. And our fruit packing system, too, was customized for our needs. We have had to do a lot of rapid innovation to keep operating, and we have been stretched to our absolute limit trying to get everything up and running.
The fire caused a great deal of loss in terms of time, money, and energy. As we walked through those days and weeks, we reminded one another that dwelling on the loss would bring nothing good. Instead, we resolved to frame it in a positive light and grow from the challenge.
First, and most importantly, we fixed our thoughts on gratitude that there were no injuries and no lost lives! For that, we can never be thankful enough. Losing our building, records, and stored products impacted us in the short term, but we count our blessings that the damage was limited in scope and manageable.
David, our CEO, framed it this way: “Yes, it was a little emotional watching it burn down—we had deep memories there—but dwelling on the loss is not productive. When you think about it, you really can’t fight darkness with darkness; we can only fight it by bringing light!” He added, “You know the verse about not letting the sun go down on our anger? I feel the same about sadness, depression, and losses like this. It was a blessing nobody was hurt. Lives are not replaceable; buildings are. The amount of grief we face for this is pretty small. We can allow ourselves to feel some grief, but I don’t want to make it a two-day deal.”
The fire also brought an incredible outpouring of support from our customers, community, vendors, and more. In a time of upheaval and stress, we were heartened, encouraged, and humbled by the appreciation and support expressed by the Azure community. We were deeply touched by thousands of messages, letters, calls, and visits. It was a great example to us of how a community comes together to support one another in times of need.
At Azure, our goal is to make everything better: rebuild what we need to rebuild, repurpose what can be reused, and make the best decisions we can to improve ourselves, our community, and our world. Our focus is always to move forward, bringing something positive out of every circumstance.
Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.
Our headquarters in the aftermath of the fire.
AFTER THE FIRE: REIMAGINING OUR SPACE AND EXPANDING
A year later, we can see a lot of good coming from the fire. Was it a challenge? Yes, it was. We had to completely raze the site and start again, literally from the ground up.
“Many of you have asked how we are doing post-fire: We continue working to rebuild our headquarters following the April fire that destroyed it. During recovery, we quickly repurposed other buildings to get back up and running, and have decided to keep our operations split into different locations; this way our eggs are not all in one basket. We are waiting on delivery of our new building, which will house fruit packing and cold storage, with some space for Ellie’s Eden, fertilizers, and other ag materials. We are excited that there will also be room for us to develop a glass canning line. I have wanted to make pickles, tomato sauces, salsas, and more for a long time, so this is a silver lining for me!
As of writing, we are still working on rebuilding, and we are excited to share with you some ways this shake-up is working out for good!
We had a lot of great things going before the fire, but we had grown so much and we were getting cramped. By splitting up the functions into different spaces, we will have room for expansion and greater efficiency on every front. Hey, when life gives you lemons, make lemonade, right?
In retrospect, I can see that we were grateful for what we had and were making good use of our space. We were comfortable, too. It turns out that providence knew we needed to break out of that comfort zone to be forward-thinking. I choose to look at what happened as an opportunity to frame things differently and to inspire us to rebuild with expansion in mind. In our lives, sometimes if we don’t disrupt ourselves we get disrupted, but it all works for our growth and for good in the long run—if we allow it to.
As of this printing, the new warehouse frame is up! We are making progress on it, and the entire space will end up being more focused and organized for our needs as we continue to expand our company for the future. Here is how things will look different!
✽ CAROB
Right after the fire, we moved our carob and liquid repackaging operations into our downtown Dufur Main Street building. This was a building that was included in our purchase of the downtown gas station, years ago. It was a blessing we had it and could quickly move in! We think having this arrangement brings a bit more vitality to downtown Dufur, and we have decided to keep our carob production in this space permanently—it gives us plenty of room for expansion. Compared to our old facility at HQ, everything is much more automated, and we now have twenty times the efficiency we had before!
All the equipment for the carob coaters and carob cups is finally complete and installed, and we’re getting all our products back in stock. While it certainly took longer than expected, and we were unable to supply customers with our crave-worthy carob treats for some time, in the long run this will be a good outcome! We will be able to do a lot more for our carob-loving crowd.
✽ LIQUID REPACKAGING FACILITY (AKA the pour room)
We lost every bottle, valve, label, and fitting in the fire, in addition to a lot of our liquids.
As a quick fix, we moved our liquid repackaging facility to Dufur, too. It was the first thing we got up and running after the fire. However, it isn’t quite as automated as it was at HQ, and we don’t have expansion room long term. So while we are not in an ideal situation yet, once our warehouse expansion is complete, the goal is to build a modern liquid pour room there in Moro, right in our expanded warehouse. It makes a lot of sense to have it there.
✽ AN EVENTS CENTER?
HQ housed our offices, too, so we immediately moved everyone over to our call center in Dufur. Because most of our call center reps work remotely, we are going to keep our offices here for the foreseeable future. We’ll give more thought to how best to build a new space for offices, conference rooms, and other business needs. Over the years, we have had a lot of requests for hosting on-site learning opportunities, training, health and homesteading events, and conferences. It’s thrilling to think about creating space in a designated new structure which can be customized for these sorts of events!
You have turned for me my mourning into dancing; You have put off my sackcloth and clothed me with gladness.
David and Kimberly Stelzer watching as the new foundation is poured for Azure HQ.
NEW HORIZONS
Here at Azure, we continue pursuing the goals we set out to accomplish and are excited to see what lies in store for us. There have been a number of other awesome developments, some of which are a direct result of the fire, and others that we see as blessings which have popped up along the way. Are you ready to see how we are growing post-fire?
✽ Sweet Creek Acquisition
Our produce processing is expanding . . . into a cannery! We are excited to announce that Azure has bought Sweet Creek Foods, a vendor we have worked closely with for many years. Our goal is to expand the brand and use the equipment to create additional Azure branded products, maybe bulk sizes, and we may increase products available under the Sweet Creek label, too.
Azure is not typically in the market to acquire small businesses. In fact, our efforts have always been to help support small vendors and give them a larger platform for selling their products when they align with our standards. But Sweet Creek was a special case. When it came time for its owners, Paul and Judy, to retire, they approached us to carry on the Sweet Creek brand.
We have always dreamed of having our own glass canning line, so this was an ideal match-up. We could have gone ahead and built a line from scratch, but purchasing Sweet Creek allows us to save a valuable, trusted, independent brand that's been in the marketplace for three decades. This way, instead of watching it become a corporate mass market brand or get shut down altogether, everyone benefits.
We have a vision for expanding our offerings in a big way, though it will take a little while to get set up and operational. In the meantime, keeping Sweet Creek products in stock over the next year or so will take most of our time. In the future, we will expand our produce offerings and begin our Azure cannery—pears, cherries, and peaches right off the Azure farm! Oh my! These are exciting times!
✽ New Orchard
There’s more! We traded the farm in Kimberly to buy an orchard closer to Dufur, which will almost double our fruit production. Our fruit & veggie packing and processing lines that burned up are being rebuilt right now and will be housed in the new HQ building. We will be able to move our newly purchased Sweet Creek cannery line there, too, so we can process our produce to be sold in three forms—fresh, frozen, or canned. We also hope to make room for our garden seed processing, which has grown in popularity with our customers!
✽ Dufur Mercantile by Azure – an Azure Grocery Store
But wait! There are even MORE silver linings! This one is really cool! We were blessed with the opportunity to open a local store! Our community, Dufur, once boasted a small local food store, which later morphed into more of a convenience store than a grocery store. In recent years, it did not offer produce or real food ingredients, and it eventually shut down altogether. We believe every town needs a good, independent food store—these stores can be the heart and soul of a community! As is the case in many small towns, no one in our area had the ability to buy the little Dufur store and revive it.
So we mulled it over for a good while and decided to lease the space. We’ve seen a lot of small stores come and go over the years, many of which get displaced by larger, corporate box stores. We never like to see that happen. Whether you are growing your own food, buying from small local stores, or ordering directly from Azure, we fully support and encourage you. We just don’t want you to buy it from Walmart or big box stores (even the organic ones) that offer second rate quality and cheap imports while undercutting hardworking business owners.
Dufur Mercantile is our way of creating a model for people in small communities across the country, especially those who want to use Azure as a primary supplier, to create their own successful independent food markets. We have no intention of competing with mom-and-pop shops; our goal is to model for folks how to successfully operate a store in their own hometowns. From what we have seen, most similar communities don’t have good options. We want to help change that, and that’s our goal with the Dufur Mercantile!
We expect to be up and operational by the time our one-year anniversary of the fire rolls around.
Azure Headquarters rebuild is coming along!
THE BIG PICTURE
Where do we see all this going? And how have these developments impacted our vision for Azure? The way we see it, a lot of GOOD is coming from what seemed like a setback.
What was a huge loss and looked terrible for us in the short run is beginning to look like the nudge we needed to grow and improve in the long run. As David said, “We never could have dreamed what was coming on the horizon for us—a larger orchard to expand our fruit production, acquiring a glass cannery, and opening an Azure grocery store! The fire brought growth and expansion in ways we never imagined.”
Those of you who have been along this journey with us over the years will know that we believe the best way to make things better is to get out there and do things the way you believe they should be done. Cursing the darkness never helps—the only way to conquer darkness is to bring light.
Likewise, the only way to fight corporatization of small food manufacturing and monopolization of the food supply chain is to get out there and create independent options.
Acquiring the new canning line and piloting a small local food store demonstrate Azure’s values put into action—supporting small food manufacturers and family-owned businesses for an independent food supply.
Ultimately, these strategies promote cost-effective means to support healthy families through high quality foods and healthy living. We figure if we don’t work for the change we want, the corporate model is going to continue changing us (and our foods) in ways we don’t want it to! We are committed to using our time, talent, and treasure to bring positive change.
At Azure, we encourage you to find the positive in your circumstances and in our world, and take deliberate action at every opportunity to create more of that using your voice and your example. We thank you for supporting us, and likewise, we’re here to support you every step of the way!
They shall build up the ancient ruins; they shall raise up the former devastations; they shall repair the ruined cities, the devastations of many generations.