Fadler Foods new owners making a name for themselves in Tulsa

From the ashes of another high-profile bankruptcy comes a happier story. Fadler Foods was a longtime distributor for Hale-Halsell. And when Hale-Halsell went belly-up, Fadler's was auctioned off.

Thursday, February 17th 2005, 10:31 am

By: News On 6

From the ashes of another high-profile bankruptcy comes a happier story. Fadler Foods was a longtime distributor for Hale-Halsell. And when Hale-Halsell went belly-up, Fadler's was auctioned off.

The new owners have kept the Fadler name, but as News on 6 business reporter Steve Berg explains, they have a new idea.

Fadlerâ€™s Market just opened this month. And Art Clauss and his wife from Stigler are getting their first look. "We don't get to Tulsa nearly as often as we do Fort Smith, so we like to see what's new."

Fadler's has taken their distribution warehouse and attached a small retail operation that sells in bulk to the public. Sort of a mini-Sam's, if you will. John Conine is the owner. â€œWe are all Tulsa people, live here in the Tulsa community and plan on growing it into a good Oklahoma-based company."

It's really just an accident that Fadler's wound up so close to Sam's Club, but that is their major competitor, which is the understatement of the year. This David thinks he has some things that Goliath doesn't though. For one thing, he says Fadler's will have more consistency. John Conine: "We will have these products every week the customer comes in here. Where Sam's might have a special buy they've made on products and have them for one week and then the next week they don't have those."

And there's no membership fee at Fadler's. Art Clauss: â€œYeah, I like that. That's a savings right there."

Fadler's is geared toward institutions, but the Clauss' seemed to be loading up their cart just fine. The warehouse by the way still has its clients from the Hale-Halsell days. More than one company has salvaged a piece of the former parent. Many of the old Git-N-Go's converted into Fiesta Marts and Kum-N-Go's.

And now Fadler's has found its footing. John Conine: "And we think we can make some changes and make this an even better business for the City of Tulsa."