Dustin (above left) and Austin (above right) are partners in Stanton Brothers, which supplies eggs to restaurants, college dining halls
and grocery stores in mid Missouri. Austin (opposite page), a college freshman, handles most of the feeding chores while Dustin’s duties
include record-keeping.
Today, Stanton Brothers supplies eggs to more than
40 outlets weekly, most of which are in mid-Missouri.
Included in the lengthy list are grocery powerhouses
HyVee and Schnucks as well as the dining halls at
Columbia College and University of Missouri. A host of
downtown Columbia restaurants and the Isle of Capri
Farmers Pick Buffet also feature Stanton Brothers’ eggs.
Dustin’s entrepreneurial endeavors earned him
National FFA’s 2014 American Star in Agribusiness
Award.
cornering the market
“We have a lot of customers and neighbors who bring
their family members here to take pictures,” Andrew
explains. “They cannot believe the chickens run on the
road. It’s a marketing tool, though.”
8
HEARTBEAT | WINTER 2015
And, marketing is the name of the game in today’s
agriculture.
While word of mouth serves as the biggest return on
investment for Stanton Brothers, Dustin says networking
and building a rapport with their customers is what pays
in the long run.
“We don’t operate on contracts,” Dustin notes.
“You gain a ton of rapport in business by not having a
contract. If you do business with a handshake and look
your customer in the eye, that means so much more than
having something written on paper.”
The young entrepreneur admits, though, that
philosophy might be different if they just had one
customer. However, he realizes there is selling power in
having a branded product. “If one store doesn’t want us,
tomorrow we could have our eggs in the next store down
the road.”