Success Stories

Jeff Hollander and Paul Pirner started a business with a simple premise: non-alcoholic beer should taste good and be made with quality ingredients and attention to detail. They enlisted the…

BY DAN LEMKE Founders of the Chippewa Valley Ethanol Company (CVEC) in Benson were among the first to ride Minnesota’s growing ethanol wave. CVEC formed in 1995 and began processing…

For most of AURI’s clients, hard work and perseverance are critical to success. Most recently, food client, Panache, which makes a variety of infused apple juices and ciders, proved this.

 By AURI Biobased products enable the transition from traditional petroleum-based materials to agricultural resources in the production of plastics, films, building materials and chemicals. AURI supports clients through hands on…

They may not raise corn, soybeans or wheat, or farm large parcels of land, but Minnesota’s Hmong American farmers have transformed the state’s urban agriculture and local food landscape.

By AURI Renewable energy is important to Minnesota and the world at large because it offers the ability to power society from a clean and diverse set of sources. AURI…

Seven years ago, Tom and his wife, Jenni, central Minnesota cattle farmers, began working with AURI to develop Minnesota’s first cold-press sunflower oil manufacturing company. Now, Smude’s Sunflower Oil is expanding into microwave popcorn.

If Willy Wonka made sandwiches instead of candy, says Tom Brossart, he might have started “Food Building.” But instead it was the real-life Kieran Folliard, of Kieran’s Irish Pub fame, whose eyes began to twinkle at the idea of an artisanal sandwich factory. You don’t need a golden ticket to see with your own eyes how Red Table Meat Co. processes its pork.

Idea to Reality: With the increasing demand for fishmeal in fish feeds causing increases in prices AURI client NutriVance wanted to explore alternative feed ingredients for use in aquaculture feeds to replace fishmeal and reduce the cost of fish production.

AURI’s Role: AURI assisted NutriVance in planning and executing feeding trials for this new, innovative product.

Research findings by the United Soybean Board, suggest that biobased road sealants have a positive impact on road quality, the environment and city budgets.

Idea to reality: EarthClean needed certification by the USDA Forest Service in order to use their corn-based firefighting product TetraKO to fight forest fires. The company also wanted to develop a…

Kay’s Naturals is a Clara City-based company that creates healthy snack foods that meet the nutrition needs of diabetics, those trying to lose weight and a general population that needs healthier food.