Tim Omer
President
DCI Cheese Company
3018 Helsan Drive, Richfield
Industry: Food
Revenue: Average 20-percent compound growth over the last 15 years
Employees: 450 nationwide, including 300 in Wisconsin
Tim Omer joined Dan Carter Inc. in 1986, working as a consultant to specialty food companies. He was offered the opportunity to purchase the company on several occasions by the founders and kept turning them down. Omer finally decided to accept the offer in 1993 after completing his executive MBA program at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and assumed the role of president.
He has since grown the company 20 percent.
“We had five employees at the time when I bought the business,” said Omer.
Recognizing the need to define the business, Omer immediately consolidated the company’s focus on specialty cheese.
Omer began working on partnerships, joint-ventures and consolidations within the industry. In 2003, Dan Carter Inc. changed its name to DCI Cheese Company and continued to establish partnerships.
In 2005, Omer sold the company to Fairmount Food Group LLC and its equity sponsor, GTCR Golder Rauner LLC. With the added capital, he began rapidly expanding the company and acquired additional manufacturing plants, growing the operations out of the Midwest to California and New Jersey.
“My vision was to be the one-stop shop for supermarkets and sell them 50 to 60 percent of products and to give them 100-percent access to imports,” he said.
Today, Richfield-based DCI Cheese Company employs 450 nationwide, and it is the largest importer and marketer of specialty cheese products. The company is the leading provider of specialty cheese to America’s top 20 retailers.
“We are doing well in the food business. I’ve never seen such stable growth,” he said. “We are a value-added business. We see what is happening and offer proactive solutions to our clients.”
According to Omer, the next focus is growing the company’s export business and online sales.
