R.R. Branstrom Daily Press At Cloverland Distributing in Escanaba, Emily Hossele and Katie Sundstrom load some wholesale products for delivery onto a hand truck.

EDITOR NOTE: The Daily Press will be featuring a series of articles on local businesses, highlighting their history and what makes them unique. The series will run on a regular basis in the Daily Press.

— — —

ESCANABA — Cloverland Distributing’s current management, a relatively youthful bunch, are working to modernize the workings of a more-than-90-year-old business while still maintaining exceptional customer service, which includes free deliveries across almost the entire Upper Peninsula.

Formerly Cloverland Paper and then Cloverland Paper and Supply Company, the operation has long been supplying wholesale goods to businesses and more. The focus over the years has shifted as far as what items are sold — paper, of course, is in less demand than it used to be — and now, janitorial products make up the bulk of their catalog. Most transactions are business-to-business, or to facilities like elder care, schools, and municipalities — but individuals are customers, too. Cloverland also sells, rents and services some equipment.

Leonard Stade, who had worked as the circulation manager for the Daily Press, founded Cloverland Paper in 1933. In those days, they sold strictly paper: newsprint, receipt paper, cardstock, cotton paper, you name it.

When a car accident took Leonard’s life nine years later, his wife, Ella Stade, assumed ownership but soon passed the reins to man named Harold Lindsey. Once again, just shy of a decade later, the owner died. Myrtle Lindsey ran the business from the time of Harold’s death until 1964, when she hired one Lowell Sundstrom — who had previously been the advertising manager of the Daily Press.

Lowell soon purchased the business from Myrtle, and his family has guided its direction ever since. Today, Lowell’s great-great-granddaughter handles customer service and marketing, and cousins direct sales and the business as a whole.

Fred Sundstrom, Lowell’s son, came on board to help out in ’66. A couple years later, Fred’s younger brother Michael, who was in high school at the time, also worked at the store in the ’70s.

When Fred started, Cloverland had already begun to incorporate more supplies into its offerings. When Fred took over the business from his father, he rebranded to “Cloverland Paper and Supply Company.”

It was under Fred’s ownership that the ground under the business was also added to his inventory — Ella Stade had retained ownership of the property itself until Fred purchased it from her in the ’70s.

Fred ran Cloverland successfully for upwards of half a century. A small plaque on the wall of their office at 1806 6th Ave. N. recognizes over 55 years of membership with the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB).

During Fred’s time, he built many strong relationships, gained a lot of customers and donated to organizations around the community. Current owners Katie and Jon Sundstrom intend to do the same.

“When Fred owned it, he had — all his sons worked here, lots of other family members worked here — so it was very family-oriented,” said Cloverland Distributing Customer Service and Marketing Director Emily Hossele, who is also Fred’s granddaughter.

The business wasn’t just inherited by a succeeding generation, though. A couple years ago, Fred, in his 80s, was ready to retire and looking to sell the business.

Simultaneously, but by happenstance, Jon and Katie — at the time living in southeastern Pennsylvania — were interested in buying a business. Jon, who had worked in sales for years, had been inquiring after operations all over the country. Most of them, he said, were asking for far more money than they were worth.

“We ran into that left and right,” Jon lamented. “Then my dad got a phone call one day…”

Being cousins, Jon’s father and Fred chat, so the fact that Cloverland was for sale came up in conversation. When it did, “I think I got on a plane and was here a week later,” Jon said.

After spending most of a year hammering out the details, the sale was finalized in December of 2022. Fred showed Jon and Katie the ropes and retired in February 2023.

The business was rebranded as “Cloverland Distributing” to mark its new era.

Katie is primarily the acting owner; Jon is a sales and marketing manager but also works another job. Hossele — the one people are most likely to see when walking in the door — was their first hire.

“The core focus has stayed the same with taking care of customers,” Jon said. “We have expanded — they only had a couple sales people; we now have four.”

The full-time warehouse manager, Tom, remained on board.

Since acquiring the business, the new owners have begun some digitizing and modernizing, in addition to optimizing space.

Katie said that there had been a ton of paper products, decades old, no longer even sold by Cloverland, that they purged.

“We sold what we could,” she said. There were boxes upon boxes of specialty paper that they sold cheaply to artists; other stuff they donated to schools and daycares; what was left was recycled.

The goal, the new management said, is to continue to focus on excellent customer service, and raise awareness of their complete product line, because some clients who have been ordering just toilet paper from Cloverland for years only recently learned they carry chemicals.

Cloverland recently opened a distribution hub in Sault Ste. Marie, so while deliveries used to be made from Escanaba all the way out to the eastern U.P., “now the Sault is basically handing handling that overlap, so we only go about as far as Munising now,” Jon explained, “which, you know, limits our time on the road, allows it to be spent better with customers.”

To the building itself, they added one small addition, and are working on remodeling the interior of the main area, which still looks the way it did before the new owners were born.

It’s got an interesting story, though — the building that forms the main office area used to be Room 11 of the Blue Roof Motel, which was located on U.S. 2 and 41 and M-35. When the motel closed, part of it was trailered to the lot on Sixth Avenue North.

One curious claim to fame for the Blue Roof Motel, Hossele relayed, was that Wisconsin-born actor Meinhart Frank Raabe, who played the Munchkinland coroner in the original 1939 “Wizard of Oz” film, once stayed there.

As it stands now, Cloverland Distributing is going to continue to make gradual upgrades without dramatic changes. One plan is to paint the exterior of the building and make it stand out, because even though it’s not exactly hidden, people drive down the street every day and don’t even register the business’s presence. In case the reader is one of those, it’s between Pomp’s Tire and Gene’s Towing.

The office is open weekdays from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Their phone number, reachable by call or text, is 906-786-2950. Businesses or individuals curious about products, prices and more may also email sales@cloverlandup.com.