M & R Ventures

Made in Michigan for the past 20 years, M & R Ventures has a reputation for creatively adapting traditional recipes to bring out the best in food quality. Little did they know that its latest endeavor would result in an increased geographic footprint in the state.

Since 2013, the Pure Michigan Agriculture Summit has provided companies throughout the state an opportunity to connect with one another by gathering key industry players in a single place. In 2018, M & R Ventures took advantage of this networking opportunity when it attended the conference seeking to grow its geographic footprint in the state.

Over the past 20 years, M & R Ventures has proudly maintained its “made in Michigan” reputation while creatively adapting traditional recipes to bring out the best in food quality. In 2018, the team was looking for a new challenge in the food industry, aiming to combine traditional Indian origin-foods with globally-influenced flavors to bring bold-tasting products to consumer kitchens.

Enter Pure Michigan Business Connect (PMBC) and the 2018 Ag Summit, hosted in partnership with the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (MDARD).

Thanks to the matchmaking opportunities available at the summit, M & R Ventures was able to connect with and later leverage the logistic services offered by Traverse City-based Cherry Capital Foods. Fast forward one year later and M & R Ventures has successfully expanded its reach, placing its products on more than 50 new shelves throughout Michigan.

“PMBC and their Agriculture Summit helped us primarily in securing a distributor,” said M & R Ventures Director of Sales and Marketing April Seltmann. “Thanks to this opportunity, we were able to expand our network within the food industry by connecting with other Ag Summit attendees.”

M & R Ventures experienced a 16 percent top-line growth because of this matchmaking success and has increased its brand recognition throughout the state by utilizing the services provided by Cherry Capital Foods.

“Hearing our customers come up to us and share with us the various places they can now find us has been very special,” Seltmann said of the increased awareness from consumers.

Building on the past year’s achievements, M & R Ventures continues to work with the team at Pure Michigan Business Connect to identify new opportunities and learn about summits throughout Michigan. For more information about PMBC or to find information about an upcoming summit, go to https://www.michiganbusiness.org/pmbc.