New adventures in urban and rural business

Nik Blosser

If there is a direct correlation between the size of a deal and the secrecy with which it is carried out, then the plans for UTW must be huge.

“I won’t talk with you, but I can’t wait to read what you write about them,” was pretty much the universal response I received.

Culled from a variety of sources, here’s what I’ve dug up thus far. According to an employee email, UTW is the current name of a “technical outdoor sports apparel and lifestyle clothing company.” Several sources confirmed the company would have 18 employees by the end of October, but product was not expected until early 2007.

Jill Zilligen is the company’s vice president of environment. She was formerly at Patagonia and also operated Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard’s nonprofit organization One Percent for the Planet. In a brief phone conversation, Zilligen stated that UTW was “founded on specific, stringent values of sustainability and corporate responsibility.” She also said UTW won’t be the name the public ultimately sees. With 18 employees and product over a year away, that equals a significant cash burn rate.

According to Ian Yolles, UTW’s vice president of marketing, the company has primarily individual investors “who believe in the team, idea and values.” Some of the investors are from the Pacific Northwest, but Yolles declined to name names.

The company also recently received its first institutional investment. Yolles’ previous experience includes stints at Patagonia, the Body Shop, the World Bank and Nike’s brand marketing team. Former Nike rising star Eric Brody announced in October that he has departed the Beaverton company after six years to become UTW’s sustainability manager.

UTW Inc. is a Delaware corporation registered to an address in Portland’s Pearl District by Chris Van Dyke. Van Dyke — who, according to the outdoor and fitness industry newsletter SNEWS, is Dick Van Dyke’s son and had significant stints at Patagonia and Nike — is the company president.

SNEWS Editors Michael Hodgson and Theresa Iknoian wrote of UTW: “If this team can pull off the business we believe they are in the process of developing (and if they can’t we’d be hard-pressed to imagine anyone else who could), it will be revolutionary in concept and execution, and it will have the potential to shake up the current retail and manufacturing marketplace.”

On the other side of the mountains, the dryland wheat farmers of eastern Oregon need rotational crops for their wheat fields, and peas were long the preferred choice. My father-in-law has fond memories of working in the eastern Washington pea fields as a young man. But the pea processors don’t want dryland peas much anymore, so the wheat growers went looking for other options.

One that worked well was canola, a brassica (the family containing broccoli and cauliflower) with a large taproot that allowed for excellent water penetration in the soil. You can also make biodiesel from canola seeds. Pendleton Grain Growers (PGG) is an $80 million, 2,400-member grower cooperative with expertise in growing, seed cleaning and diesel oil distribution.

Company President and CEO Al Gosiak didn’t see much of an opportunity when oil was at $40 a barrel, but at $60 or $65 a barrel, biodiesel “starts to really pencil out.” Gosiak grew up in the Columbia River Gorge when the pioneers of organic fruit production where just starting.

In 2004, one of PGG’s farmers grew organic mustard seed. The farmer needed a place to process the seed, so Oregon Tilth certified PGG’s seed cleaning plant for a day. When the buyer got four times the market price for the mustard seed, people started to pay attention and look for other opportunities. With the decline in demand for dryland peas, the increase in the cost of a barrel of oil, and PGG’s existing expertise and infrastructure, biodiesel began to look like one of those opportunities.

The cooperative had all the pieces they needed, except they weren’t sure how biodiesel was actually made. It turned out the sister of the former head of the University of Idaho’s biodiesel program lived in Pendleton, and, well, the rest is soon to be history.

This fall PGG is receiving delivery of a German-made oil seed processor. They plan to crush 1,000 tons of seed and produce 80,000 gallons of biodiesel in the first year. One of the byproducts of biodiesel production is glycerin, which they’ll use for dust control in the fields.

As demand grows, they’ll add more processors. They might even try processing grapeseed this fall. According to Gosiak, grapeseed flavor is as unique as the wine made from the grapes itself. Here’s to Pendleton Grain Growers, and to making sure they don’t accidentally mix their two newest oilseed products. And if UTW has any need for bio-based materials for their apparel, I’d suggest they give Al Gosiak a call.