Hugo Feed Mill marks 100 years of 'helping the community'

Aug 16, 2023

Steve Marier, the fourth-generation owner of Hugo Feed Mill & Elevator Co., shows an old, but still working, milling machine in the feed mill at the business in Hugo on Wednesday Aug. 2, 2023. Founded in 1923, a celebration is planned for Aug. 11-12 to mark the Hugo Feed Mill’s century in business. (Pioneer Press)

The Hugo Feed Mill & Elevator Co. in Hugo, seen in July 2000, has been owned by the Marier family since 1923. They are constantly adapting -- from providing supplies and services for farmers to supplying equipment, lawn seeds and other items for suburban homeowners. (Neale Van Ness / Pioneer Press)

Steve Marier, the fourth-generation owner of Hugo Feed Mill & Elevator Co., admires an old seed bag used as wall decor in the feed mill of the business in Hugo on Wednesday Aug. 2, 2023. Founded in 1923, a celebration is planned for Aug. 11-12 to mark the Hugo Feed Mill’s century in business. (Pioneer Press)

Steve Marier, left, and his father, Joe, among bags of horse feed in their Hugo Feed Mill & Elevator Co. in July 2000. (Neale Van Ness / Pioneer Press)

Steve Marier, the fourth-generation owner of Hugo Feed Mill & Elevator Co., outside the business in Hugo on Wednesday Aug. 2, 2023. Founded in 1923, a celebration is planned for Aug. 11-12 to mark the Hugo Feed Mill’s century in business. (Pioneer Press)

Steve Marier checks on the pepper plants he grows in his garden in Hugo on Aug. 31, 2021. (Pioneer Press)

Steve Marier with a very small selection of the peppers he grows. (Pioneer Press)

Bob Schwarz stopped by the Hugo Feed Mill last week for some grass seed and advice on what to plant to attract deer to his property in Wisconsin. The Mahtomedi resident didn’t realize he also would get a master class in how to use the products from owner and resident expert Steve Marier.

“I’ve got a special shady mix of grass seed that is for growing if you get four hours of filtered sun a day,” Marier told Schwarz. “If it’s much less sun than that, you might as well plant hostas because it’s not going to grow. Direct sun is best, but even in four hours of filtered sun, they’re growing grass. I’ve got people growing it under oak trees.”

The ideal time to plant grass seed is Aug. 15 to Sept. 20, Marier told Schwarz, “so you’ve got time.”

Members of the Marier family have been helping customers at the Hugo Feed Mill since 1923. The business, which has two full-time and six part-time employees, will celebrate its centennial on Friday and Saturday with a series of events, refreshments, speakers and door prizes.

In the company’s agricultural prime, feed-mill employees bought and sold grain; ground and mixed feed; dried corn; did custom combining and sold heating coal. Today, they are experts in lawn care, pet care and home maintenance, said Marier, one of the company’s fourth-generation owners.

On a recent weekday morning, Marier fielded a phone call about a portable irrigation system, placed a special order for 50 pounds of Purina Game Fish Chow and loaded 400 pounds of shell corn into a customer’s Chevrolet Suburban. That was all before 10 a.m.

“I know a little about a lot of things,” he said. “That’s what running a feed mill is like.”

The business is a constant buzz of activity — from the phone ringing to the front door “dinging” to indicate a new customer has walked into the store.

“Once the phone starts ringing and customers come in, it’s game time,” said Marier, who works seven days a week during the store’s busiest months. “You may go in with a plan, but you need to make adjustments on the fly. I usually run out of day before I get done what I want to get done. There is what I need to get done and what I want to get done. Most days, I’m just picking my battles.”

Marier fields phone calls even while he’s on vacation. “If I can answer right away, I’d rather have that than have the guy wait on hold or wait until I get back,” he said. “I was on vacation in Arizona last winter, and an employee called, and I told them the price of something and where it was and hung up. One of the guys I was with said, ‘How do you know all that stuff?’ I said, ‘Well, I just do.’”

Many of the questions he’s fielding this time of year involve how much grass seed and fertilizer people need for their yards. “Answering that starts with me asking many questions: ‘Size of yard? Overseeding or new seeding? Irrigated or not? Sunny or shady? What are you looking for in a lawn? How often do you want to mow?’” he said.

Hugo Feed Mill employees keep detailed records of customers’ purchases. “A lot of times, the customers will say, ‘Whatever you sold me last year worked great,’” he said. “I’ll say, ‘Well, let’s do the same.’”

Among the famous customers who have shopped at the feed mill: the late legendary Vikings coach Bud Grant, former Gov. Jesse Ventura and professional wrestler Baron Von Raschke, he said.

One of Marier’s passions is growing exotic peppers: more than 275 different varieties in all. He grows peppers from all over the world, including Trinidad, Mexico, Peru, Brazil, India, Guyana, Colombia and Japan. They come in green, purple, red, yellow, orange, brown, white and peach. There are peppers as big as a softball and as small as a pea.

One of his pepper plants is 21 years old. “I’m planning to pour him a little bit of Guinness at some point this summer because now he’s old enough to drink,” he said.

Known as “Dr. Pepper” in gardening circles, Marier developed two different peppers — FM’s Gnarly Bhut Jolokia, an odd-shaped, cream-colored ghost pepper; and FM’s Hot Lemon, a lemon-yellow hot pepper. FM stands for “Feed Mill,” he said.

He also grows exotic tomatoes, more than 125 different varieties in all.

Customers come from all over the state to take advantage of Marier’s gardening knowledge and purchase his specialty pepper plants. The same goes for his knowledge of lawn care.

“I’ll tell people, ‘If I can give you some pointers and then also make sure you get the right product, then I’m doing my job right,’” he said.

The Hugo Feed Mill has continued to thrive in the age of online retail operations because of its customer service and knowledgeable employees, he said. “There’s a need for people like us. If I can help you save money, and you want to pay me for my expertise, hopefully, people understand that’s of value.”

Marier sends email newsletters on turf tips to regular customers and posts them on the company’s website at www.hugofeedmill.com. “Broadleafs like dandelion, plantain, and clover are best treated mid-August to mid-September,” he wrote in his August newsletter. “To control creeping Charlie, it is best treated between the end of August to the end of September while crabgrass, on the other hand, should be treated in early to mid-August.”

Marier, 69, started working at the Hugo Feed Mill & Elevator Co. when he was 15. He’s lived within sight of the business — now called Hugo Feed Mill & Hardware — for all but one year of his life.

“I first worked in the lawnmower shop and then moved to the hardware store and feed mill, and I never left,” he said. “I attended Lakewood (Community College in White Bear Lake) for a year, but my dad needed me at the mill, and I was working so many hours, it was hard to do both, and so I just stayed there.”

Marier owns the business along with his six siblings; he serves as general manager.

Joseph T. Bernier bought the Hugo Feed Mill from the First State Bank of Hugo in 1923. He sold it to his son-in-law, Joseph T. Marier, Marier’s grandfather, in 1927. Marier’s father, Treffle Joseph “Joe” Marier, took over the business in 1938 and worked at the feed mill until he was in his 90s; he died in 2020 at the age of 101. He ran the business with Marier’s uncle, Quentin Marier, for many years, he said.

Joe Marier helped oversee the transition from grain elevator to hardware store in 2013 when he was 94, Steve Marier said. “You have to adapt. You can’t be a one-trick pony. He decided that he wanted to put a hardware store in here, and I looked at that as being his last run at the table, so I wanted to get the next step done for him.”

Joe Marier insisted on climbing the “rickety old steps” to the second floor of the hardware store during construction, Marier said. “We came up here to look,” he said. “The plumber had just been here, and we had the Sheetrock guy coming, and my dad looked at it, and he goes, ‘Well, that pipe isn’t right.’ It was too level. We had to shim it up so the water would flow out. He saw that. He saw it right away. It was incredible.”

Steve Marier is not sure how many more years he will stay at the helm.

“I certainly wanted to get it to 100 — that’s what my dad would have wanted,” he said. “I hope I have a couple more years in me. My dad was fixing screens until he was, like, 95 years old. That’s not going to be me. Hopefully, I can have some other hobbies. All my friends who are retired keep telling me, ‘You have got to quit work. We’ve got things to do and places to go.’”

Marier’s daughter, Jessica Marier, is a naturopathic physician and will not be taking over the family business, according to Marier. “She didn’t go to med school to manage a feed mill,” he said. No other family members are interested, he said.

Marier said he hopes the family can one day sell the business to someone interested in continuing the operation.

“I would like to have somebody come in here who would buy it, but have the same interests, and keep it going the way it is,” he said. “We have a lot of customers who depend on us. … I don’t want to just leave everybody hanging. It would be nice to get somebody in here where I could work with them for a little while, and teach them some of what I know.”

“I love waiting on customers,” he said. “I like helping them with their projects. I like people. They come back and say, ‘Hey, it turned out great. I really liked your advice.’ I like that part of it. It’s nice to get that feedback, and I’d like to keep that going.”

Hugo City Administrator Bryan Bear said the feed mill is a treasured local business and a well-known landmark. When people ask for directions to Hugo City Hall, Bear tells them it’s “next door to the feed mill.”

“We’re very glad they still serve the community after 100 years,” Bear said. “In a growing community, where there’s been lots of change, the old feed mill has been constant. It’s been watching the community change around it. One hundred years is an incredible run for any business, but it’s safe to say people around here would love to see it stay for a lot longer.”

Marier said the key to surviving 100 years in business has been focusing on the fundamentals.

“We’ve basically been doing the same things they did back then: helping the community, helping farmers and doing service,” he said. “We’re been doing it all the way up to now.”

Hugo Feed Mill & Hardware will celebrate its 100th anniversary on Friday and Saturday with refreshments, children’s activities, guest speakers, door prizes, vendor samples and free knife sharpening.

Customers can purchase a special commemorative bucket for $7.95 and receive 20 percent off of hardware store items that fit in the bucket.

The store at 5582 146th St. N. in Hugo will be open from 7:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. Friday and 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday.

For more information, go to hugofeedmill.com/100th-anniversary.

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