King Berry changes ownership after 40 years

WAUPACA – In 1983, Steve Scheller opened up a self-serve roadside stand to sell raspberries while he was in college. The side hobby to earn some money for school soon became his full-time career and after 43 years he is now passing the keys on to new ownership.
Scheller started the stand on his parent’s property, which he later purchased to continue to grow the business.
Scheller is originally from the Waupaca area and had worked at Turner’s Market prior to starting his raspberry business, the experience proved to be invaluable in helping him navigate the planting world.
Scheller headed to college in Stevens Point and with his success in selling his raspberries, a college professor convinced him to pursue the gardening business instead of teaching.
From there he focused his energy on building the infrastructure you see on the King Berry property today at E2076 on King Road.

Scheller said the name King Berry was created because they were on King Road and the two varieties of berries he sold were called century and royalty.
Scheller said he grew a lot more then than these days. He often takes customer suggestions for things to grow for them to buy.
“Each customer kind of helped us develop what we grew, they would suggest something and a lot of times the next year I would have it,” Scheller said.
Things like sweet corn and melons were customer suggestions that became quite popular.
Scheller also plants tomatoes in two of the greenhouses, which gives him supplies that are ready earlier than other gardeners.
From peppers and pumpkins to mums and flowers, he also built a wholesale business and secondary markets at Amherst Family Foods and Christensen’s Orchards, as well as a working relationship with Woods Restaurant.
Scheller, along with his wife, Patty, recently sold the property turning it over Sept. 19 to Travis Bremer, a ten-year resident of Waupaca, originally from Iowa.
Bremer said he grew up on a farm that grew grain, corn and soybeans, eventually going to school for agriculture science and has worked within the agriculture industry ever since.
When he saw that King Berry was for sale he decided to throw his hat in the ring at the opportunity for ownership.
Bremer said he has had a long fascination and interest in plants and wants to not only continue what Scheller has been going for the past 40 years, he is also wanting to start looking into plants to sell that will work for the area.
“I will hopefully introduce new varieties every year, then also I’m thinking of things like unique varieties that thrive in this area,” Bremer said. “Finding things that do well in sandy soil for example, is somewhat challenging to weed through everything at a Garden Center. There’s things that are definitely hardy here that are deer resistant, trying to solve customer problems they might have.”
Bremer said he wants to expand the berry and vegetable business as well with things like leafy greens, lettuce, spinach and potentially black and purple raspberries.
“The nice thing is he’s grown raspberries in the past, so he knows that stuff and has the fresh take on it, because things change,” Scheller said.
Scheller said he will still be staying right on the property and helping Bremer with the following year of planting.
Bremer said he wants to keep doing what the Scheller’s have been doing for the last 43 years and has welcomed the collaboration for next year’s planting season.
“It gives the customers a little confidence that things aren’t going to change that much,” Scheller said. “Travis is looking at continuing what we do, that’s why he asked me to help him out for next year.”
Scheller said that Bremer became their first choice after meeting with him, due to the wealth of knowledge he has with planting and competence and saw him as a good fit to step into the role of owner.
Bremer said he is looking forward to being more involved in the community, saying he encourages anyone with suggestions about things they would like to see they can stop in until the end of October or head to their website and fill out a form from there.
Anyone looking to send in a suggestion to the website can head to www.kingberry.net.