Kettle Care Organics celebrates 35 years

Organic skin-care company, Kettle Care Organics celebrated 35 years of business in the Flathead Valley this month. The brand is produced, packaged and sold in Kalispell and known for its high concentrations of essential oils and natural ingredients.

Kettle Care was founded in 1983 by Lynn Wallingford, who named the company after the Kettle River mountain range of British Columbia and Washington.

In the fall of 2012, Klaus and Annegret Pfeifer, purchased the business, and have widely expanded its profile since then. Kettle Care was a grassroots operation in the early days, run mostly out of a kitchen, and later a shed and garage under its first owner.

When the Pfeifer’s took the helm, they wanted to bring the bevy of natural products to a wider audience. The couple, both originally from Germany, built a retail store along U.S. 93, north of Kalispell, and expanded the brand’s wholesale and retail presence. But before they became owners, Annegret was an avid customer for five years.

“I learned about the company when we moved to the Flathead Valley because I had been making my own skin care since my early 20s,” she said.

Her skin was sensitive to chemical ingredients present in many commercial lines, forcing her to develop her own products. But when she read the label on Kettle Care creams, she was surprised to see that the line was even purer than her handmade varietals.

When she and Klaus discovered that Lynn was ready to retire, they stepped up.

Klaus, a skilled physicist and chemist, was still working for the Swiss tech company Philips and retired just a couple months after they acquired Kettle Care.

“I told him, I have some work for you to do,” Annegret said, laughing.

While it was her personal experience that first drew the couple to Kettle Care, it’s Klaus who’s running the lab and crafting the products. They kept many of the brand’s original recipes the same, but made tweaks to increase production efficiency and standardization. Klaus said in the brand’s early days, production was smaller-scale — think on a stove with a whisk.

“I think before it was a lot more challenging to get the same product every time,” he explained. ”Now, we’re producing twice as much with half the amount of people power, without working longer hours.”

One thing that hasn’t changed is the high percentages of quality ingredients, which are as locally sourced as possible. They buy botanicals from area farms such as Whitefish’s Two Bear Farm and Terrapin Farms. Anything they use that can’t be grown in the state, they’ll source from the Northwest if possible.

“Our products carry very little water,” Annegret said. “In lotions, we have only 45 percent of water. When you look at other products that are made with emulsifying waxes, they carry 90 percent of water.”

In fact, shortly after purchasing the company, Annegret said she “almost fell out of my chair” when she realized how much essential oils and herbal extracts went into each skin-care product.

“A little goes a long way,” she added. “The lotions have been extremely popular in the winter because they hydrate.”

She said keeping the line as natural as possible is important, noting that 60 percent of whatever product is placed on the skin is directly absorbed into the bloodstream.

Another popular offering is the company’s environmental barrier lip balm which packs a bevy of herbal powerhouses like calendula, chamomile and peppermint oil along with neem oil for its antibacterial properties and zinc oxide for its protective properties.

“We have ingredients that you know and trust because they’re natural. There’s very little chemicals in there — and if we put chemicals in them, its only to stabilize them,” Annegret said.

Each product is tested by Kettle Care staff and select customers before making its way onto the shelf, and not every product makes the cut.

The company sells most of their lines outside of the Flathead Valley, and said their main focus has been developing a retail presence in smaller, natural food stores.

“When you go into a large store like a Natural Grocers, you go to their department for body-care products, you will see 200 different versions of shampoo and a couple hundred versions of creams and other things. .. that makes it very difficult to compete,” Klaus said. The smaller market provides less competition and more knowledgeable sales reps, which has helped Kettle Care develop a loyal following over the years.

Outside of the retail front, the company has also made a name for itself in the local community.

Every year, they teach botany students at Glacier High School about crafting natural skin care and have also begun hosting mostly community workshops where locals can learn how to make their own bath bombs and other items.

Looking forward, Klaus said he hopes to see continued, but measured growth for the company, and positive employee development. They hope to see enough profits to fund four full-time employees, plus health insurance.

“Everybody should have a living income and health insurance,” Annegret said.

“I used to work in a corporate environment …. I do not recommend that,” Klaus added.”I don’t think anybody goes home here and says ‘I hate my job.’ We’re not making millions …. if that’s what your goal is, this is the wrong business. …(but) we have a lot of products that are very effective and they help a lot of people.”

The next Kettle Care workshop will be held at 5:45 p.m., Nov. 9 at Kettle Care, located at 3575 U.S. 93 in Kalispell. To RSVP, call 406-257-6622 or email office@kettlecare.com. The cost for the workshop is $10.