Briana Pace | Southern Indiana Business Report
Marking the milestone with an official ribbon cutting and grand re-opening August 5, Krodel Wholesale in Jasper is under new ownership.
Before taking on this business venture, Fred and Jared Sermersheim, the new owners, owned Sermersheim Vending, a similar operation to Krodel. One day, the previous owner of Krodel stopped by Sermersheim Vending to tell them he was selling the vending portion of his business.
He wanted to know if they were interested in purchasing extra machines or parts.
“We started asking questions about what he was going to do with the wholesale,” Jared said, “He said he was looking to sell that business as well, so it kind of just went from there.”
Jared said purchasing the business seemed like a good way for he and his father to continue growing their operations.
“It’s something that was similar to what we were doing, but kind of on a bigger scale and a little different operations,” Jared said.
Krodel Wholesale supports a variety of operations, ranging from small businesses to large retailers, and everything in between. Products they carry include paper products, cleaning supplies, food and beverages, concession stand food, restaurant supplies and more.
They also run a few different delivery routes for clients.
The company has a long, established history in Jasper. It was founded in 1910 by Carl Krodel and passed down the family line ever since, until it was sold to the Sermersheims on May 4.
The Sermersheims plan to continue the company’s legacy while modernizing its processes. They want to simplify the ordering process with new software systems.
“Let’s just say youth baseball season,” Jared said, “at the beginning of baseball season, we could come in and get with whoever is running that concession stand and set up on a tablet; get set to how much they want to keep in stock.”
Then after a busy weekend, a Krodel salesperson could go in, see what is left and order what the stand needs. If the concession stand was supposed to have 30 of something, but only had 20 left, the salesperson could auto-order the difference.
Jared hopes to progress the customer ordering process to be as automated as possible, with Krodel doing the rest. He wants the only thing clients have to do is look over and approve the order.
The biggest goal Jared has for Krodel is to become a sort of local Amazon. He wants to develop Krodel’s capability and manpower to where anyone within a certain area can place an order on an app and it would show up later that day or the next. He also wants to expand the products Krodel carries to where people could get on their app and find anything they needed.
Born and raised in Jasper for generations, the Sermersheims ultimately want to contribute to improving and growing the local community. Taking over Krodel Wholesale and modernizing its business practices is how they plan to do that.