KALAHEO — Hawaiian Kukui Brand, a company founded in 1931 by a Kalaheo family has gotten a facelift, but promises that their decades-old homemade, secret recipes have been untouched. Greg Schredder is the proud new proprietor of the timeless business
KALAHEO — Hawaiian Kukui Brand, a company founded in 1931 by a Kalaheo family has gotten a facelift, but promises that their decades-old homemade, secret recipes have been untouched.
Greg Schredder is the proud new proprietor of the timeless business and went through a little over a year of blood, sweat and tears to revamp a company that had almost become obsolete during its previous ownership.
“We’re reviving and revitalizing something that everybody has known on Kaua‘i and in the Hawaiian islands and grew up with,” he said. “It’s amazing the attachment of this product to the community.”
The products he’s referring to are the jams, jellies, syrups and sauces that make Hawaiian Fruit Specialties so unique, especially their authentic Guava Jelly.
The business had almost gone “belly up” before Schredder, owner of Koloa Rum Company, decided that the best thing he could do was save the enterprise, along with all of its employees.
“A basis of us going into business on Kaua‘i was to make some jobs and help the local people,” he said. “Anything that I can do to give back to the community.”
One of the employees thankful to still be employed at a company which almost laid off all its workers and liquidated business before Schredder stepped in is production worker Diana Villatora.
“The company’s been around since I was a little girl. Ask anybody and they’ll go for Kukui,” she said while taking a break from making Pineapple Papaya Coconut Jam. “I always tell them it’s the best.”
She even reminisced of the days where people used to pick and bring in bags of wild guavas to earn extra money.
“It really has a tremendous history and we’re just uncovering it,” said Schredder.
Kimberly Morey, director of sales and marketing, couldn’t agree more.
“It was a legacy in the state,” she said. “Everybody is so excited and happy to hear that it’s back because it truly is everybody’s favorite; the one that’s been around their whole lives.”
According to Morey, Koloa Rum is the company that saved and resurrected the Hawaiian Fruit Specialties Kukui brand, keeping the products lining the shelves of grocery and specialty stores across the Hawaiian islands.
“Greg’s purpose in Koloa Rum and then later in Kukui was to benefit the island,” she said. “He was actually retired, so when Koloa Rum ended up buying Kukui, he was able to save this deeply rooted Kaua‘i company and all the jobs which was really a cool thing.”
Apparently, the resurrection was not an easy task, as Schredder took what was an old, dilapidated building and restored it to a shiny, new red factory building filled with custom equipment and sweet smelling jams and jellies.
“We had to do a lot of work that we weren’t really anticipating doing,” he said. “It took over a year to refurbish and refinish, and work is still going on.”
Schredder plans to launch his rum business soon and has begun to set up the distillery.
“We’re in the midst of facilitating the rum,” he said, adding that he expects it to hit stores sometime in the near future.
For more information visit www.kukuibrand.com
• Coco Zickos, business writer, can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 251) or czickos@kauaipubco.com
