Kallas Honey Farm began in 1941 when John Kallas developed an interest in bee keeping while helping a neighbor in Fox Point, Wisconsin tend to his hobby hive. As payment for Kallas' efforts, the neighbor gave him a hive to try beekeeping for himself. In only a few years, Kallas had close to 100 hives and a small processing operation. He enlisted his sons James and Gerald to help him sell the family's honey through door-to-door sales calls, farmers' market, and county fairs. Later, James and his dad expanded the business by tapping into the retail market, first negotiating with tiny mom-and-pop grocers, then pairing up with bigger supermarkets.
By 1955, Kallas Honey Farm operated out of a small facility behind the family home and had almost 1,000 hives scattered across Wisconsin. As the business continued to grow, Kallas needed to start buying honey from other local honey producers to keep up with demand. By the early '70s, the Kallas family stopped keeping bees entirely in order to concentrate on the processing, packaging, marketing, and distribution of their honey.
Kallas Honey Farm is now in the third generation of family ownership and recently celebrated their 80th year in business. Today the company operates out of a 30,000 square foot facility in Milwaukee, WI. Kallas Honey continues to market and distribute their honey and related products to retail grocery stores as well as supply bulk honey and more to food and ingredient manufacturers around the world.