High school sweethearts Brian and Angie Ziegenhagen have just become new business owners for the second time.
Ziegenhagen Meats, which offers a wide variety of cold cuts and other specialty items to the residents of Litchfield and surrounding communities, is now open for business off the main stretch in downtown Litchfield. The meat shop, housed in the former Huikko’s Custom Tile and Flooring store on Second Street, opened its doors June 18.
But this is a rodeo the couple has already been through before.
“It was a part of our five-year business plan,” Angie said. “We started talking to friends about doing it all over again, and everything just fell into place.”
The Ziegenhagens also own and operate Hector Meats and Poultry in Hector, Minnesota. They bought the business two years ago, after the previous owner — Kevin Fluhrer — retired after 40 years of owning the business.
From there, the Ziegenhagens worked to keep Hector Meats running smoothly, and it wasn’t until recently that they jumped on board for Ziegenhagen Meats.
A longtime employee of 3M in Hutchinson as a crew coordinator, Brian grew up on a farm in Brownton with a lifelong dream of owning a business in the meat industry. He worked with Fluhrer on weekends to learn the “meat stuff,” as Angie put it, necessary to owning and operating a meat shop, and by June 2016, they started full time at Hector Meats.
Angie, a Litchfield native, had all the while kept her full-time job as a scheduler at the Orthopedic & Rehab Clinic for Hutchinson Health. Even as Ziegenhagen Meats launched, she maintained her full-time schedule in Hutchinson. Now she’s swinging into the schedule for Ziegenhagen Meats.
But she’s not alone. According to Angie, three of their four children have been extremely helpful with the transition. Sons Tyler, 23, Trevor, 19, and Tanner, 17, have all clocked in hours at both the shops.
Beyond the family, there are no other employees.
“It just comes to finding people,” Brian said of potentially hiring outside the family.
There’s also the scale in which Ziegenhagen Meats operates, which is a smaller production than that of Hector Meats. The Hector shop is one of just a few chicken processing plants in the state, where they butcher about 30,000 chickens, according to Angie.
“We didn’t really want to jump in all the way,” she said about bringing Ziegenhagen Meats up to speed in comparison to Hector Meats. “We wanted to take it step by step.”
The pace seems to be working, with customers coming in daily. Annie’s highlight since opening the Litchfield location has to do with her roots in the city.
“The biggest thing has been reconnecting with people in the town,” she said. “People think we’re from Hector, but I’m a Litchfield graduate, and our kids go to school here.”
Since its opening, the Ziegenhagens reported, their business has been met with predominantly positive reactions.
“I’ve had one complaint,” Angie said. “Other than that, we’ve had a really good response.”
“It’s been a pretty good reception. We’re glad there’s a meat market here,” Brian said. “We just wanted to make sure that we’re here.”
And that’s not bad for the only standalone meat shop in town.
