Alternative fuels company receives Initiative Foundation financing

The Little Falls-based Initiative Foundation recently announced plans to provide funding support to Oak Creek Pellets.

The Hillman-based company will use the financing to help build a new facility in Buckman. Oak Creek Pellets manufactures wood pellets from sawdust waste obtained from local cabinet shops. Owners Jeff and Ivy Thommes started the company a year and a half ago from their home.

The cleaner-burning pellets are used to supply a growing demand from people using corn and wood pellet burning stoves, the Initiative Foundation reported. The rising costs of energy and corn have caused orders for the pellets to outpace their production capacity.

"We're getting calls from all over the country," Jeff Thommes said in a news release. "The East Coast is out of pellets and one distributor wants 400 tons now."

The new facility will enable the company to increase its production from a ton of pellets an hour to three tons an hour. It is expected to be operational this month and will employ three full-time people in addition to the Thommes, with the potential for added positions in the near future.

"The Thommes' have created a true value-added product," said Sandy Voigt, program manager for Technology Finance at the Initiative Foundation. "It's exactly the kind of inventiveness and entrepreneurial spirit we strive to support and encourage through our programs."

Pine Country Bank of Little Falls, Community Development of Morrison County, and Farmers and Merchants State Bank of Pierz are also providing financing for the expansion.

"Keeping businesses like this in the community is good for everybody," said Curt Ganz, senior vice president at Farmers and Merchants State Bank.

The Initiative Foundation serves 14 counties in central Minnesota and offers business loans, grants to nonprofits and a variety of leadership programs aimed at enabling citizens to build stronger communities. Through its financing programs alone, the foundation has invested more than $33.5 million in 811 locally owned businesses since 1986.