Maple Country Meats sells local meats, other food products at Kirtland store
Dec. 25—Richards Maple Products recently opened a new grocery store in Kirtland, providing an outlet to sell goods from local farmers and other producers.
Maple Country Meats opened in September at 7955 Euclid-Chardon Road.
"We decided to start a meat market due to the lack of ability to get quality meats from local farmers," said Richards Vice President Fred Ahrens.
Ahrens said that the store currently sells around 1,100 items, including beef, pork, fish, chicken, trail bologna, sausages, hot dogs and eggs. It will also occasionally sell elk, lamb and goat.
He added that other products include drinks such as cider and coffee, sauces, honey, cheese, gluten-free goods and other products from a variety of producers and brands, with plans to add milk after Jan. 1. It also sells maple goods from Richards Maple Products.
"Probably a third of the products are within 50 miles of the store, and then over half is within Ohio," Ahrens said. "Some are lower Michigan. So, not too far away, and we try to keep it fairly local, local as possible."
"There are some things that are outside of the state, but we try to primarily source everything from Ohio and support Ohio-made products," he added.
The company plans to expand the grocery store and add more production space in the future.
The store is currently located towards the back of the building. Ahrens said that the company intends to expand the store in the front, which will bring it to around 12,000 square feet. It plans to offer more than 10,000 items, including deli and rotisserie meats.
"Eventually, we want to do processing for the farmers, and do custom processing by halves and quarters, so this is a small start of what we're going to do for the future as we move forward into the front section," Ahrens said.
He added that the timeline for the expansion is "in the future, at some point," and the company hopes that it will be "within a year."
"It depends on how fast business grows to accommodate the public," Ahrens said.
"The goal is that we have a higher quality of product at a reasonable cost, that there's healthier options and locally-supporting other businesses within Northeast Ohio, primarily, and for sure throughout the state, to help support those family businesses and let them grow," he added.
Richards Maple Products opened in 1910. Ahrens said that his business partners, Jen Freeman and Matt Barham, are the fourth generation of their family to own the business.
The company began looking for expansion options around 2018, Ahrens added, as it was outgrowing its location at 545 Water St., Chardon. Richards opened a second location at the preexisting Kirtland building two years ago.
He said that both stores sell the company's more than 150 maple products, which are produced in Chardon. Richards also sells and ships equipment for producing maple syrup.
The company's website stated that both stores are open from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Monday-Friday. The Chardon store is open from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday, while the Kirtland store is open from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday.
The company's maple syrup goods are also available at stores throughout Ohio, along with a few West Virginia stores and one store in Massachusetts. A list of stores can be found on its website, richardsmapleproducts.com.
