Premier 1 Supplies has been growing in Washington for 40 years

Truth be told, Stan Potratz never wanted to start a business. What started off as a way to bring in extra income turned into Premier 1 Supplies, a business that has withstood four decades and six expansions.

Potratz grew up on his family farm in Washington, then went to Brighton for school and Washington High School after it closed. For college, he took off for Iowa State University to study agronomy and made it six months before changing directions entirely and attending a fundamentalist theological college in Texas.

Form there, he ended up at a school in England and stayed on after graduation to help with the farm on campus. After the campus closed, he packed up all of his belongings and headed home to Washington. Once he got back, he was faced with the dilmena of what to do for work.

'I didn't have the money to farm like local people do, corn and beans and pigs required more capital than I had, so I considered that we should do something land-based,” he said.

Considering his family's farm was 160 acres, he decided to raise sheep for profit. After speaking with specialists at the Iowa State Extension and speaking to several people at seminars he attended, he decided he would need equipment he used in England, but was not available in the United States.

He also spoke at these seminars and showed pictures of the equipment- mesh electric fences, ear clippers and other equipment for sheep and goat farmers- and began to formulate an idea.

'I mentioned this equipment, showed pictures, etc. and noted the audiences interest and thought, ‘Hmm. If they're interested in it, maybe I should import more of it and sell it to them'” he said. 'So, I had no business background, my degree is in theology, but my interest is in farming.”

Needing a way to put food on the table, Potratz decided he would give it a shot and hopefully it would supplement his full time sheep farming that he was truly interested in.

'I saw it as an ‘out the back door' kind of part time business to supplement raising sheep,” he said.

When he first started, in 1979, he was living in a rented farm house in the country where UPS would not collect packages and he only had a party line to communicate with customers. He decided he knew how to write, describe products and ship them so he moved his family down to the farm house and opened a double wide trailer to sell, package and ship product.

'I had no money and I had no experience,” he said, explaining the lack of experience was actually a bonus because it prevented him from making bigger mistakes.

However, by 1981, one mistake had caught up with him: raising sheep.

'The concept of raising sheep for profit proved to be a mistake,” he said. The market collapsed in 1981, causing the profit model to go with it. Interest rates sky rocketed, so he decided to sell everything off and focus mainly on the business.

The first 10 years were rough, he said, as the business was slowly trying to get off the ground and for nearly 10 years they made no money nut continued to sell because they had customers who wanted their products. In 1988, Potratz got his first big break.

He decided to take a big risk and purchase a full-page ad in the back of a sheep farmers magazine, advertising his product. It worked.

'With that ad, the phone rang off the wall,” he said.

For the next 29 years, the business continued to grow and why it did, Potratz is, 'truthfully not sure.” What was supposed to be a part-time job expanded from a small production in a double wide trailer to now a 140,000 square foot facility that has seen six expansions and has had continued success in Washington for 40 years. Their most recent addition, a 40,000 square foot building is expected to add 40 jobs to the company.

Premier 1 is also responsible for physical growth in Washington County as their new expansion has allowed for a grant from the Iowa Department of Transportation (DOT) to update the county roads.

In July, the Washington County Board of Supervisors approved putting in for a RISE Grant (Revitalize Iowa's Sound Economy) through the Iowa DOT. The grant would be for $250,000 and would go toward roads utilized by Premier 1 Supplies.

According to the Iowa DOT website, RISE Grants are 'targeted toward value-adding activities that feed new dollars into the economy and provide maximum economic impact to the state on primary or secondary roads, and city streets open for public use.”

A letter sent to the supervisors states the road reconstruction is necessary because although the existing roads are sufficient for normal traffic, the rural sections of the roads are not sufficient for increased and heavier traffic that is expected to take place as Premier 1 Supplies moves forward with their plan.

This addition, came as a surprise to Potratz, who said he never dreamed his business would continue to grow, but now that it has, he would not change it for the world.

'I did not start this business with a five year plan or any analysis or anything like that. I just knew some equipment that I liked and that others liked and began selling it,” he said.