BIAD 2016

2016 Recipient of the Business and Industrial Award

Business & Industrial Appreciation Day Banquet

Tuesday, October 25, 2016 from 11:30 am - 1 pm

Thank you for attending the 33rd annual Business & Industrial Appreciation Day honoring this year’s recipient, Carlos Creek Winery!

Welcome................................................................................................................. Mark Grandgenett, President

Alexandria Area Economic Development Commission Board

Invocation.............................................................................................................................. Pastor Jeff Schmidt

Lunch

Introduction...................................................................................................... Bruce McKirdy, Board Member Alexandria Lakes Area Chamber of Commerce Board City of Alexandria.............................................................................................................. Sara Carlson, Mayor City of Alexandria

Douglas County.......................................................................................................... Jim Stratton, Chairperson Douglas County Board of Commissioners

MN House of Representatives Resolution......................................................................... Rep. Paul Anderson Rep. Mary Franson

MN State Senate Resolution ........................ Senator Bill Ingebrigtsen Senator Torrey Westrom

Carlos Creek Winery Presentation

Kim Bredeson, Owner and CEO

Tami Bredeson, Owner and President

Tyler Bredeson, Vice President of Operations

Michelle Bredeson, Vice President of Sales

Presentation of Business & Industrial Appreciation Day Award

Alexandria Lakes Area Chamber of Commerce........................................... Bruce McKirdy, Board Member

Alexandria Area Economic Development Commission..................................... Mark Grandgenett, President

Concluding Remarks

Thank you for joining us as we celebrate the contributions made by local businesses to enhance the vitality of our community and beyond.

Special Thank you to Arrowwood Resort and Conference Center, Livewire Entertainment, Joe Korkowski and the Central Lakes Symphony Orchestra

An unexpected start

Carlos Creek Winery has grown a reputation for not only producing award-winning wines, but also offering a popular venue for weddings, hosting a Grape Stomp that attracts 15,000 people over the three-day celebration, and is constantly adding new customer-friendly attractions at its 160-acre site north of Alexandria.

Oh, and the winery’s owners and staff have a lot of fun too – from experimenting with different varieties of wines based on customer feedback to coming up with inventive names for their products, such as “Hot Dish Red.”

But the success didn’t happen overnight. There were some unexpected twists along the way.

2016 - Carlos Creek Winery

ONE CRAZY IDEA

Owning a winery wasn’t in Kim and Tami Bredeson’s plans a decade ago.Tami was in the banking industry and Kim was a woodcarver who also served as a county commissioner.

One of Kim’s clients was a woman from the East Coast who was a distributor for Robert Mondavi, the famous California winemaker. Kim carved her a mantle for a fireplace and she was so impressed with the work, she sent him a bottle of Mondavi’s top-shelf wine, Opus One, along with a note, “Our masterpiece for your masterpiece.”

SUCCESS

CARLOS CREEK WINERY MILESTONES

1997: Carlos Creek Winery established by Bob and Deb Johnson

1999: Carlos Creek Winery opens (sixth winery to open in Minnesota)

2000:

Alexandria Lakes American Viticultural Area established (first federally designated viticultural area in Minnesota)

2007-2008:

Kim and Tami Bredeson purchase Carlos Creek Winery, release first Hot Dish Red

continued on 6

“We found out that the bottle of wine was about $180,” Tami said. “That’s more money than we’d spent on wine in our lifetime.”

They didn’t drink the wine right away but they were intrigued. They started to visit wineries on their vacations, “invested” in a corkscrew and started reading classified ads for wineries.

“We were no longer tethered to a school district – our kids were grown,” Tami said. “So we decided to do something crazy like buy a winery.”

The Bredesons purchased Carlos Creek from Bob and Deb Johnson in Fall 2007. They toasted the purchase in April 2008 by opening the bottle of Opus One.

EXPLOSIVE GROWTH

Since then, the Bredesons have been busy growing a business in a red-hot industry. When the Johnsons started the winery in 1999, it was the fifth one in the state. When the Bredesons took it over, Carlos Creek was the 23rd one in Minnesota. Today, there are more than 70.

“The growth has been explosive,” Tami noted.

Carlos Creek’s production has also soared, increasing from 3,000 cases in 2008 to 15,000 this year.

During the first few years the Bredesons had the winery, the economy took a nosedive, people were losing jobs, foreclosures were rising and gas prices were around $4 a gallon. But, good times or bad, people still like to enjoy wine, Tami said. She added that the high prices at the pump helped Carlos Creek because more Minnesotans explored attractions that were closer to home.

“We hit our targets 18 months before we thought we would,” Tami said.

One of the secrets to Carlos Creek’s success is that the Bredesons have focused on diversifying – not relying on one stream of revenue – wine sales – but many. It sells wine at a bulk wholesale level. Its apple wine, for instance, goes into cider products and its merlot is used in a Schwann’s beef sauce.

Weddings are another fast-growing part of the business. The winery now hosts 50 weddings from May through November. Live bands also draw people to Carlos Creek, where they can sip on wine while

- Carlos Creek Winery

“So we decided to do something crazy

enjoying the music, outside during the summer and inside during winter, yearround.

The Grape Stomp is another example of the winery’s growth. The first Grape Stomp in 2000 included a dozen or two vendors. This year, they sold all 165 available vendor spaces. Attendance was up more than 1,500 from last year and they sold out all the grape stomping teams – 720 people signed up for Saturday’s competition.

The Bredesons are willing to try new ideas and make changes. When the winery started, about 90 percent of the grapes for the wines did not come from Minnesota but from other regions, such as California.

One of the Bredesons’ first goals was to use at least 51 percent of Minnesota-grown grapes in their wines. They met the goal in their second harvest. Today, Carlos Creek wines contain 70 to 75 percent Minnesota-produced grapes.

LISTENING TO CUSTOMERS

Customers have an impact on the kinds of wine Carlos Creek makes. Early on, Tami discovered that most casual wine drinkers in the area seemed to prefer sweeter, non-aged wines over dryer reds.

But just how sweet could they go? To find out, the Bredesons made three versions of a red wine, which they referred to as “sweet,” “sweeter” and “nobody would ever bottle something this sweet.”

The clear winner was the third option. The Bredesons decided to listen to the customers, not themselves, and they bottled the sweetest option and named it Hot Dish Red.

“We sold out of it in eight weeks,” Tami said. “And it’s still our most popular wine.”

A NEW PASSION

While Kim still enjoys working with wood, the winery revealed a new passion for him – horticulture. “I love it,” he said,” but apparently, I never knew it.”

Kim likes the challenge of growing Cold Climate grapes. Currently, they grow Marquette, Valiant, King of the North, Petite Pearl, Crimson Pearl, Verona, Frontenac and Frontenac Gris.

His efforts, bolstered by wine makers, Russ Funk and Brett Murphy, have paid off. Carlos Creek has won a slew of awards. Its Double Gold Medal Winning Wines include Vintner’s Blend, Marquette, Peach Street and You Betcha Blush. Five of its wines were recently named Best of Class, including Apple, Apple Cranberry, Minnescato, Raspberry

and You Betcha Blush.

Its cider also earned the top honor in a national competition.

The winery’s philosophy of “serious wine, serious fun” was recently recognized by WCCO-TV, which named it Minnesota’s Best Winery.

The Bredesons said the winery not only offers a fun, casual atmosphere but grounds that are inviting and well-maintained.

“When people come here, their first impression is that it looks great, a place where they can expect to have a good time,” Tami said. Kim’s handiwork can be found throughout the winery. He helped build the outdoor gazebo, made furniture and crafted the bar in the tasting room.

The interior of the winery is also appealing. The tasting room was recently expanded by 1,500 square feet, giving visitors plenty of room to sample the wines and talk to the servers.

The Bredesons also added a self-guided cave tour – a kind of underground museum that showcases the winery’s history, processes and products.

A newly opened demonstration vineyard offers details about the grapes that are being grown.

SUCCESS

continued on 21

Angie Saurer

Minnesota Nice

After staying at home with her children for 10 years and sending her youngest child off to school, Angie Saurer decided she was ready for something different. So the then stay-at-home mom started looking for a job, and she had her sights set on Carlos Creek Winery.

“I decided I wanted to get a job outside the home and set my sights on Carlos Creek Winery. When I first called them, there were no openings,” recalled Saurer. Undeterred, she continued to contact them and six months later landed the job of Tasting Room Manager, which she held until she was promoted to her current position as Director of Retail and Human Resources. Six years have passed ... and Saurer says she couldn’t be happier with her position as well as the progress the winery has made.

“It’s changed a lot since I’ve been here,” she said. “It was really small, our staff was really small. It’s grown a lot in just sales and number of people who come through the door. … We’ve made a lot of changes, which is always exciting, and it continues to grow.”

One of Saurer’s job responsibilities is running the Minnesota Nice Wine Club. Club members receive a 15 to 20 percent discount, including wines not sold in liquor stores, new release wines and “club only” wines. The winery also holds four parties per year for Minnesota Nice Wine Club members.

“Our Wine Club members are up to about 850 people,” Saurer said. “We have parties for them to come pick up wine. We get about 400 people here four times a year for apps, sampling and to pick up wine at same time.”

Saurer says one of the reasons she enjoys her job so much is simply because of the people she is surrounded by each day.

“I think we have a group of people who not only get along really well at work, but they’re people who you also hang out with at the end of the day or go out for a drink after work together,” she said. “It’s just a place that’s fun to come to work to. … We just genuinely care about each other. I think any one of us would do anything for each other.”

Recently, Carlos Creek Winery signed an agreement with the Xcel Energy Center to be the sole provider of single-serve wine sold at Wild hockey games and other events at the venue. Saurer says deals like this make her hopeful for the future of her career and of the company.

“I see my future here,” she said. “I continue to see it [Carlos Creek] grow. We just added another assistant wine maker to the team. We’re getting our wines out more in wholesale, more restaurants. Getting into the Xcel Energy Center is a huge deal so that’s exciting for us. I just see upgrading and growing.”

“I think we have a group of people who not only get along really well at work, but they’re people who you also hang out with at the end of the day ...”

Trina Wolfe Offering more

When she started working at Carlos Creek Winery two years ago, Trina Wolfe was under the impression it would be a parttime job while she found her footing in post-college life.

But that part-time job quickly pulled her in, and two years later, she is the senior Tasting Room manager and buyer at Carlos Creek.

As the senior Tasting Room manager and buyer, Wolfe is responsible for various tasks.

“I do all of the ordering, the merchandise, the clothing, help the staff out, train everyone, get everyone ready for the day,” she said.

Because her position is in the Tasting Room, Wolfe interacts

with customers often, which she enjoys.

“My favorite thing is the people who come in, like crazy families, or the reunions, or groups of people from all over who come here,” she said. “We’ve had people from France and Australia and the Netherlands.”

In addition to interacting with customers, Wolfe enjoys the atmosphere provided by her coworkers each day.

“People like their job here, so everyone is happy when they come in,” Wolfe said. “Even at the end of the day, when we’ve gotten slammed by hundreds and hundreds of people, they’re still laughing and smiling, just making jokes all the time.”

BIAD 2016 - Carlos Creek Winery

Though she has only worked at Carlos Creek for two years, Wolfe has already seen the winery undergo some changes, including their remodel.

“The bar used to have a doughnut bar in the middle and it was hectic running around in circles,” she said. “Now we have the big straight bar, so you can manage customers better. You’re not bumping into people. You’re not spilling bottles all the time.”

The future may also hold some more changes for Carlos Creek, as the winery would like to expand the activities they offer.

“A big thing we have talked about is just offering more things to do for people,” Wolfe said. “We have the live music, the tastings, people can do self-guided tours now, but a lot of people want to do more.”

The hope is that eventually more activities will be offered so that visitors will spend more time at Carlos Creek.

“We’re trying to add on more things that they can do,” Wolfe said. “Just to kind of bring people and their families here to spend the whole afternoon rather than just a couple hours.”

“A big thing we have talked about is just offering more things to do for people. We have the live music, the tastings, people can do self-guided tours now, but a lot of people want to do more.”

Paige Meier Always planning

For nearly three years, Paige Meier has been working on the wide variety of events at Carlos Creek Winery. She started as an event coordinator and worked her way up to director of events. She currently handles all inquiries, tours, and booking, all while still planning a majority of the on-site events. The event team does include two event coordinators who help execute each event at the winery. Weddings happen every Friday and Saturday during wedding season with other days of the week becoming more and more popular for ceremonies and receptions. In

addition to weddings, the event department handles many private dinners, Corporate meetings and off-site dinners, murder mystery theaters, and many local company Christmas parties. The largest portion of the event team’s time is still spent on weddings. What sets Carlos Creek Winery apart from other venues is their inclusion and services. The rental at the winery includes reception and ceremony décor with floral, shuttle for the guests, a coordinator and much more. The couples can modify and change as much or as little as they want.

Meier said some of her favorite weddings have been the “outside of the box” weddings. She recently planned one where the bride wanted the dance to be held outside. The

Co mmu ni ty Serv ic e

bride took a risk on the weather and everyone crossed their fingers, but the dance went very smoothly outside. “It’s fun when someone is so brave and outside of the box,” Meier said.

We are humbled and honored to have been recognized for our community service by Business Industrial Appreciation Day and would like to acknowledge all of the other fine organizations that have been recognized over the past thirty-three years, as well!

Congratulations All,

“ Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”

~Margaret Mead

However, had there been a storm the night of the wedding, there would have been a plan B for the dance. “We have a plan B for everything,” Meier said, adding that each plan B is almost as beautiful as the original plan.

The package doesn’t include a photographer, videographer or DJ, but Meier has a list of professionals who have been there before, have done a nice job and are trusted. Because of everything Carlos Creek Winery offers to couples getting married and the high demand for the beautiful landscape, they have weddings booked one to two years in advance.

Meier and her team ensure a bride and groom don’t have to worry on their wedding day. They make sure they know the processional lineup order so a bride doesn’t have to do it last minute. They give advice on a schedule of the day and what makes sense with weather. They even have people set up and tear down the wedding so the bride and groom can focus on their wedding day.

“People are often taken aback at the beauty,” Meier said. The natural outdoor features draw hundreds of couples to the venue. “They want an outdoor venue. They want that natural environment.”

There have been recent renovations to the winery that have made an impact on wine production, wine tasting, and the overall look of the main building. “Everytime we renovate, we try to make everything look better,” Meier said. “For me, it’s more envi-

ronmental. It’s more about landscaping and enhancements to the event center,” she said, when asked how the renovations impact her work in the winery.

They renovate every winter and Meier mentioned there are changes coming that she hopes will add even more to what Carlos Creek Winery has to offer. When asked what changes would be coming, she said they wanted most of it to remain a surprise. “We hope to be able to offer some fun aspects to the social hour area that we haven’t been able to offer before,” she mentioned, but said little else.

One of Meier’s favorite parts of her job is seeing the photos and videos a few days after. “It’s fun while you’re doing it but you don’t see all the beautiful details because you’re behind the scenes,” she said.

Prior to working for the winery, Meier was program director for a large company providing housing and support for individuals with mental illness, developmental disabilities and brain injuries. In that job, she also got to plan corporate events and other fun events for clients and staff. After having her second daughter, she decided to shift focus to bridal events.

Meier now has three young children at home and appreciates the flexibility the family-run business has given her to work from home and at the winery.

Everyone works really hard but at the same time everyone respects family,” Meier said.

WINE BY THE NUMBERS

10 clusters of grapes equals 1 bottle of wine

1 acre of grapes equals 4 tons of harvested grapes

1 ton of grapes equals 150 gallons of wine

1 gallon of wine equals 5 bottles of wine

1 bottle of wine equals 5 glasses of wine

Carlos Creek Winery bottles roughly 150,000 bottles of wine each year, slightly more if there is more white wine than red. They can bottle a little more than 1,500 bottles per hour.

Russ Funk

Challenging and rewarding

At Carlos Creek Winery, a whole year’s worth of wine is typically “made” in about two months time.

Russ Funk, head wine maker at Alexandria’s one and only winery, said September and October are typically when all the wine is made – or when the actual fermentation process takes place.

Funk, who started working at the winery in 1999, had nothing to do with the wine making process at first. He did however, plant trees, clean the holding tanks and even helped with cleaning out the horse barn.

BIAD 2016 - Carlos Creek Winery

After some schooling and an apprenticeship, Funk got the distinct honor of being named head wine maker, a role he has now been in since 2008.

When it comes to making the perfect wine, Funk said one of the challenges is knowing they basically have one shot to get it right because there is only one harvest period per year.

“You can’t mess it up,” he said. “And sometimes, that’s the stressful part. You fear that you won’t get it right.”

Funk said, however, that not every batch goes perfect every single time and that is just part of the wine making business.

Part of Funk’s job is the balancing of the wines, meaning if it’s too dry, he knows he has to add some sweeter wine and vice versa.

Once a wine is developed and a blend is made, Funk said it has to be tested for stability. This means, he noted, that he doesn’t want the wine to change after it’s been bottled.

Instability in a white wine, he explained, would be when there are crystals or what he called “wine diamonds.”

“Our customers don’t want to see that,” he said, adding however, that the “diamonds,” which are actually called tartrates, doesn’t mean the wine is bad. “You can still drink it.”

By February, the blends of the previous year’s wine is usually figured out and the bottling process can begin. Although, Funk noted, the bottling process can actually take all year with the exception of September, when the “crush” or harvesting of the grapes is taking place.

Roughly, Funk said, Carlos Creek Winery bottles 150,000 bottles of wine each year, slightly more if there is more white wine than red. He added that they can bottle a little more than 1,500 per hour.

Funk shared a little fun fact about the winery’s yearly event, the Carlos Creek

Winery Grape Stomp. The attendance at the very first grape stomp, which took place in 1999, was about the same as what the winery now sees on a typical weekend today.

“That’s exciting,” he said. “Working here is rewarding. It doesn’t really feel like work. And to win an award, that’s an accomplished feeling.”

Funk said he has a love of wine and is passionate about what he does. He said, “I’m always working to make it taste good for our customers.”

Brett Murphy It’s a science

Brett Murphy called his job exciting, fun and never boring.

“It’s very unpredictable and that’s exciting,” he said. “I never do the same thing each day and I like that.”

Murphy, who is now the assistant wine maker at Carlos Creek Winery, started his career at the winery in 2011. He started off pruning trees and doing what he called, “grunt work.”

Just three short years ago, however, he started helping the wine maker. And since then, has taken online classes in viticulture and enology, which is the science, production and study of grapes, as well as the study of wine. He also has attended con-

ferences and seminars. And now, he assists head wine maker Russ Funk in making the award-winning wines found at Carlos Creek Winery.

“I also spend a lot of my own time doing research,” said Murphy. “It’s fun and doesn’t really seem like work.”

One of the challenges Murphy faces being the assistant wine maker is learning all there is to know about making wine – from the science behind it to growing the grapes to knowing when to harvest to the bottling process –because there is always so much unpredictability. But he also said that is one of the most rewarding parts of his job as well.

16 BIAD 2016 - Carlos Creek Winery

“We are always looking for a better way to do something,” said Murphy. “The new methods of making wine and making it better is always a challenge. But that’s what I like about it, it gives me the freedom to be creative.”

Recently, Murphy got the opportunity to take on a solo venture – making the winery’s first hard cider, which is called “Apple Hopper.”

“To express my creativity, that means a lot to me,” he said. When it comes to making the wine, Murphy spends a good portion of his time doing lab work, where he tests the sugar, Ph and acid levels. He is continually doing juice wine analysis to make sure the levels are where they should be. The testing of the sugar, Ph and acid levels starts with the grapes, he noted. When the sugar, Ph and acid are at just the right level, Murphy said it’s time for the grapes to be picked.

“We keep a very close eye on it,” he said, adding that checking the levels is a constant process and once the crushing and fermenting process is complete and the levels are again, “just right,” the finishing

process can begin.

A huge part of the process, according to Murphy, is figuring out the blends.

“But that’s where it gets fun,” he said, “because everyone participates in this.”

He said it can take 35 or more tastings or trials to figure out one blend of wine, a process that usually starts in November. When the wine is complete and the blends are figured out, the aging process begins with red wine being stored in barrels and white wines stored in tanks.

Before the bottling process takes place, Murphy said, once again, everyone tests it to make sure the wine is ready.

“It’s always a team effort around here,” he concluded. “And that’s what makes it fun.”

“The new methods of making wine and making it better is always a challenge.”

Raising up a new generation

Young couple learns ins and outs of running a winery

Owners Kim and Tami Bredeson have run Carlos Creek Winery with a solid plan from the start, but as they paved the way for Minnesota wineries, they’ve been aided by their son, Tyler, and his wife, Michelle.

Tyler and Michelle started fresh out of college and soon developed a complete working knowledge of the winery ways. Someday, they may take that experience even further.

A FAMILY AFFAIR

Tyler was a senior at the University of North Dakota when his parents purchased the winery. At the time, he already had a plan for what he wanted to do, but curiosity won him over. He decided to try it out for a year. After all, he could just go back to school if he changed his mind.

“I ended up staying,” he said. “And I really, really do like it.”

Michelle, just a junior at the time, was finishing up her degree in marketing. When deciding where she should go next, Tyler said to her, “We’re thinking about maybe starting weddings and events out here.” The position piqued her interest, so she packed her bags after graduation and joined the winery team.

Because Carlos Creek is a small familyowned business, the first few years found the couple working not only in their individual areas, but with other staff in all aspects of the winery, from harvesting grapes to working the tasting counter to managing the vineyard.

Tyler & Michelle Bredeson

“My favorite thing about this winery specifically is probably the staff,” Michelle said. “It really does feel like a big family here. The camaraderie that we have here and the relationships that we have developed are really enforced here.”

“And I would add on top of that,” Tyler said, “because really the staff and

that family feeling is one of my favorite parts too, but another thing that (I like) … is the variety of things to do here. It really helps so that you’re always interested. One day, you might be crushing grapes. Another day, I might be working on finances. And another day, we’re trying to figure out something better to do with the weddings.”

And of course, the wine is also a bonus.

“My favorite one right now is our new one, the petit sirah, which is actually not released yet,” Tyler said. “It is a very dry, very tannic and heavy red wine.”

“That’s such a hard question because day to day it changes,” Michelle said with a laugh. “On a hot day, the Harvest White is probably my favorite. The Minnescato’s really fun sometimes if you want something a little bit sweeter.”

Tyler and Michelle got married on March 6, 2015, but decided to forego a Carlos Creek Winery wedding.

“It was just too much,” Michelle said with a smile. “We also live on property here. We thought it would be nice for someone else to have to deal with everything. And we wanted staff to be able to come and enjoy it, not feel like they have to work.”

THE MIDWEST WAY

Now that Tyler and Michelle have gotten several years of experience under their belts, they’ve moved into roles on the managerial side of the winery.

As vice president of operations, Tyler does a “little bit of everything.” He mainly focuses on the production building, ensuring they have the right materials and equipment for bottling. But he also works in finances, payroll, troubleshooting and coordinating out-of-state grapes from New York and California.

Michelle, vice president of marketing and sales, also has a hand in many areas of operation. Mainly, she coordinates the wholesale accounts for restaurants, liquor stores or any place that carries Carlos Creek wines. Not only that, but she works

frequently with advertising development and label designs.

In all that they do, Tyler and Michelle try to keep the overall feel of a familyowned winery in Central Minnesota at the forefront.

“We try and make everything look and feel who we are, which is Minnesota-made wine,” Michelle said. “We always try to have fun with our wine, not be too serious. Obviously, we still make high-quality wines, with all of the awards that we’ve won. It’s a very Midwest way of going about wine, very laid back.”

continued from 19

THE FUTURE

Tyler’s parents place a large emphasis on expanding the staff’s education. For instance, Michelle recently completed the first level of sommelier training through the Minnesota Grape Growers Association, which teaches about tasting and detecting faults in wine, as well as about wine regions and grape varieties.

Opportunities also are available to other staff, but training for Tyler and Michelle is

especially relevant. Though Tyler’s parents may be many years from retirement yet, he and Michelle work with the mindset that the winery could someday be theirs.

“That’s sort of the direction that things will be going,” Tyler said. “All of our organizational structure at least has an eye toward how that’s going to look down the road, whether that’s five years, 10 years or whatever it is.”

In preparing for when that day might come, Tyler and Michelle have kept tabs on what Kim and Tami currently do and compare that with what they enjoy doing.

“If I didn’t think it was fun, we wouldn’t be here, but it’s scary too,” Tyler said. “Just because we’re going from four family members who have really worked well with each other to at some point, we’ll only have two. And there will be a vacuum that we’ll have to fill at some point. It will be interesting. I’m confident that we can do it.”

Tyler and Michelle are aware that a change in ownership one day would be a huge shift in their mindset, but that day is still far in the future.

Until then, they will continue to hone their skills and keep running the winery the Midwest way.

Carlos Creek Winery was selected as the recipient of the 2016 Business and Industrial Appreciation Day (BIAD) Award by the Boards of Directors of the Alexandria Area Economic Development Commission and Alexandria Lakes Area Chamber of Commerce.

The BIAD event has honored a Douglas County company each year since 1984. Annually, one company from the region is selected as the BIAD recipient based upon the following factors:

· Growth in number of employees; the impact of the business on the job market.

· Increase in sales and/or unit volume; an indication of continued growth.

· Capital investment; an indication of commitment by the business to increase community capacity.

· Community contributions; evidence of the business investment of time, skills, and resources to assist in community-oriented projects.

A salute from these local businesses below and the advertisers throughout this publication.

Ace Hardware 406 Broadway – Alexandria – 320-763-5200

Hampton Inn & Suites by Hilton 2705 S Broadway – Alexandria – 320-763-3360

Swenson Lervick Syverson

710 Broadway – Alexandria – 320-763-3141

BlackRidgeBank

3313 State Hwy. 29 S – Alexandria – 320-335-6004

Alexandria Area Economic Development Commission

324 Broadway, Suite 101, Alexandria, MN 56308 Phone: 320-763-4545

aaedc@alexmn.org

www.livingalexarea.org

Alex Rubbish & Recycling

1301 36th Ave. W – Alexandria – 320-763-7550

Viking Garge Door Company

706 S McKay Ave. – Alexandria – 320-762-2528

Neighborhood National Bank

803 N Nokomis St. NE – Alexandria – 320-763-8366

Depot Express

104 Broadway St. – Alexandria – 320-763-7712

Alexandria Lakes Area Chamber of Commerce

206 Broadway, Alexandria, MN 56308 Phone: 320-763-3161

info@alexandriamn.org www.alexandriamn.org

Publisher: Jody Hanson Layout / Design: Raeshel Betterman Editor: Jeff Beach Photography: Lowell Anderson

Congratulations Carlos Creek Winery!

People come from far and wide to crane their necks at the amazing views around here. But some of us are lucky enough to wake up and enjoy it every day—which is why we choose to work right here in the heartland. We love it here just as much as you do. And we plan to stick around a while. Which means, not only can you live in the shadow of a world-class skyline, you can also count on world-class medical care from physicians you know and trust.

All of that with no 45- oor elevator commute.

THANK YOU

We are so pleased, honored and humbled to be this year’s BIAD recipients and to join past recipients who we have long admired and respected.

A very special thanks to the Alexandria Chamber of Commerce and the Alexandria Area Economic Development Commission for selecting us.

We did not make the journey here alone. Numerous people and businesses have supported us along the way.

May we all continue to work together, nurture and support each other and help grow Alexandria as a dynamic and creative place to live and work.

Kim, Tami, Tyler&MichelleBredeson