March

Pickles for profits?

The 9th Annual Executive on Campus event is March 28; Greg Skufca, founder and owner of Trü Pickles, will speak.

March 27, 2017

Greg Skufca, founder and owner of Littleton-based Trü Pickles will be on campus tomorrow (March 28, 2017) in St. Cajetan’s Center main hall, to talk with students and answer their questions from 12:30-1:30 p.m. as the ninth Annual Executive on Campus of the Department of Management in the College of Business.

Trü Pickles’ first customer was a tire shop in Boulder – an unlikely client. “They were a tire shop selling pickles – now they are a pickle store selling tires,” Skufca jokes. From that humble beginning, Trü Pickles has expanded its customer base to include more than 1,000 Ace Hardware stores nationwide. When the owner of the first Ace Hardware to stock the pickles was initially skeptical, Skufca says he told the owner, “If you don’t sell them, I’ll buy them back; give me a whirl. I never did have to buy them back. The next day they actually called asking for a second case.”

Skufca’s grandmother brought family recipes from Europe as an immigrant in the early 1900s. Her pickle recipe was passed on by word of mouth to successive generations, and Skufca finally wrote it down. He never had to add preservatives to the product; his grandmother never had them. At the bottom of each jar, instead of artificial chemicals, is a grape leaf, which keeps the pickles fresh and crisp. Each jar is hand packed with quality spices, such as pepper, garlic and dill.

“We want to be the Ben & Jerry’s of pickles,” Skufca says, and points out that their ice cream flavors started with strawberry, vanilla and chocolate, and then expanded. “We are doing the same with pickles.”

When: Tuesday, March 28, 2017
12:30 – 1:30 p.m.
Location: Main Hall, St. Cajetan’s Center