Ground floor: Business offers fresh ground nut butters

Tracey Norman founded Butter Me Up to fill a void she saw in the local food market.

Norman has included fresh ground peanut butter and almond butter as healthy sources of protein in her diet for a while now. Her problem had been finding fresh ground nut butters locally.

'A friend of mine would bring orders back from a shop in her home town an hour away,” Norman said. 'I thought why doesn't anyone in the Cedar Rapids area sell it?”

Norman looked into what it would take to make nut butter for personal use, but discovered the grinding equipment was expensive. She decided that if she was going to make the investment, she might as well offer her product for sale to the public.

Norman purchased a large capacity industrial grinder and taught herself how to use it. She launched Butter Me Up last summer at the Cedar Rapids, Marion and Iowa City farmers markets.

'From a business standpoint, it was a great opportunity,” said Norman, who previously owned and operated a direct sales jewelry business. 'There was nothing like this in the area.”

Norman started with honey-roasted peanut butter and almond butter and gradually expanded her line.

'I started with what I knew,” she said. 'Then I came up with different flavors. My signature flavor is white chocolate almond. It's great to mix with fruit like apples, bananas or strawberries.”

Norman uses nuts to make her all-natural nut butters, with chocolate added to some flavors. There are no added oils, sugar or salt.

Norman's business really took off when she was approached by representatives from Hy-Vee, who asked if she would be willing to supply her product to some of their stores.

'I looked into what it meant to be a wholesaler and found I needed a food processing license,” she said.

In order to get a license, Butter Me Up needed a commercial kitchen. Norman began renting kitchen space in October and started selling nut butter to local Hy-Vee, Fareway and Nutri stores.

Butter Me Up products can be found in about two dozen stores in the Corridor and Quad Cities.

In April, Butter Me Up became one of the newest anchor merchants at NewBo City Market. All Butter Me Up products are produced on site at NewBo.

'It's been great exposure,” Norman said. 'The grinder is right there and the customer can see how the product is made. They know that it's made fresh and locally.”

Butter Me Up also will be available at area outdoor markets through the summer.

Know a manager or company in business for less than a year that would be ideal for 'Ground Floor”? Contact George Ford at George.Ford@sourcemedia.net

At a Glance

'Owners

: Tracy Norman

'Business

: Butter Me Up

'Address

: 1100 Third St. SE, Cedar Rapids

'Phone

: (319) 721-7533

'Facebook

: www.facebook.com/NutsAboutNutButter