OLDS — A father and son duo took a chance and opened a local meat retailing business during the COVID-19 pandemic and thrived.
From 2019 when they obtained their business licence, Kolb’s Fine Meats & Sausage grew from two people – Brent Kolb and son Dilan – to 25 employees this year.
Along the way, they’ve contributed to the community by supporting local sports teams, non-profit groups and the Olds & District Chamber of Commerce.
As a result, the company was named Business of the Year in the 16 employees-plus category, during Business Beer and Burgers.
During that event, held at Olds College in late June, the Olds & District Chamber of Commerce handed out small business awards for 2021. The Chamber had been unable to present those awards last year, due to COVID-19 restrictions.
During an interview with the Albertan, Dilan said the business got off to a rather humble start. He and his father were cutting meat for themselves and for friends, more or less as a hobby.
"It started in dad’s garage,” Dilan said. "We just were a bunch of fools, having beer and cutting meat and cutting our own meat.
“And then what happened is the oilfield got a little slow and me and dad were kind of doing it as a hobby.
"Pretty soon I was out of work for a while, so I said ‘Hey, let’s go see if you want to go do this and see if we can go ahead and do that and see where it goes from there'.”
After some preparation, they opened shop, eventually relocating from their acreage just south of town to Olds, where they opened a full retail store in March, 2021.
"We started with two smokehouses. We added one more big one. We had three at one time. And then when we moved into town, we bought another big one,” Brent said.
However, he added that due to their business, “It’s not enough, definitely not enough.”
Dilan agreed, saying, "We could use more space, but we make do with what we have and we’ll just keep going forward with what we have."
The Kolbs agreed that opening a business during the COVID-19 pandemic was a risk.
“We weren’t sure what we were getting ourselves into,” Dilan admitted.
However, it’s been a great success, with the help of local suppliers, loyal customers, and some long hours.
The Kolbs are aware of today’s high inflation rate, especially when it comes to meat. They say buying meat locally enables them to keep that cost down as much as they can.
They also say their hard-working, loyal workforce is another factor in the company’s success.
“There would have been nothing there without these guys around us, for sure,” Dilan said.
