Frontier Soups of Waukegan is celebrating its 25th year in business with a robust forecast for a 30 percent increase in sales this year. Last year, it had revenue of $3 million.
From just three kinds of soup mixes when it started in 1996 as a home business, the privately held company at 895 Northpoint Boulevard has grown into 36 varieties.
And, it has expanded steadily from an obscure local business into a one whose products are sold across the country and in Canada.
“The downturn economy has worked to our benefit,” said Trisha Anderson of Lake Forest who grew up in Northfield, majored in English, and worked as caterer and cooking instructor before plunging into the soup business.
“More people are eating at home and soup is clearly recognized as nutritious, easy to make and a money saver. It feeds the whole family,” she added.
Her soups are nothing soupy. They are award-winning and many come imbued with regional history.
She chose “Frontier” for the name, she said, to keep alive the cooking of American settlers who were known to have made soup in an iron pot, but also to preserve and improve on America’s regional cooking.
Examples include the firm’s Dakota Territory Beef Barley Bean Stew, Illinois Prairie Corn Chowder and Minnesota Heartland 11 Beans. The Illinois Prairie Corn Chowder won top honors in 2005 in a national competition.
She keeps on pushing the soup frontiers. Her recent introductions include Colorado Campfire Chicken Stew, Little Italy Wedding Soup and Wyoming Fireside Beef Goulash.
However new, the emphasis is the same: Convenience, nutrition and great taste. The company, she said, uses all-natural ingredients with no salt, MSG or preservatives added.
Her soups also enable consumers to be creative. In addition to just adding water and boiling, you can add fresh vegetables, for instance, to customize the soup to your liking. The mixes, she said, are “a short-cut to homemade.”
The soup mixes, all assembled at Frontier’s 9,000-square-foot plant in Waukegan, are sold nationwide through distributors. They are available locally at Sunset Foods, Dominicks and Jewel stores. They can also be bought on line at www.FrontierSoups.com.
Frontier celebrated its 25th birthday last week with a cake for its 24 employees, followed by a Mexican-style picnic.
“We really have a fantastic team of people. Everyone in the company is involved in striving to achieve,” said Anderson.