Miller Magazine Issue: 124 April 2020

69 INTERVIEW MILLER / APRIL 2020 We talked about the long journey of the Siemer Milling with Martha Siemer Stice, director and one of the mem- bers of the company's founding family. She tells how the company has developed over the decades and become a trusted flour supplier. Underlining the company’s tech- nology-driven character, “We have a strong relationship with the Bühler Corporation and have frequently worked with them to be the first( at least in the U.S.), to install their latest advancement in equipment that meets our particular needs as soft wheat flour producers.” she says. Here is the Martha Siemer Stice comments on Siemer Milling’s mission, state of U.S. milling industry and flour consumption trends in the country. Siemer Milling is a leading milling company in the U.S. It has been a flour supplier since 1882. Could you please provide us with some brief background infor- mation on that great history? Siemer Milling Co began as Hope Mills, Uptmor & Siemer, Proprietors. My great great great grandfather, Clemens Uptmor, built his second mill with his son-in- law Joseph Siemer, and his son Clemens Jr. This new mill used the latest technology- roller mills- and ran on steam power. That mill could produce 300 cwt of flour a day. True to our core value of continuous improvement, many updates and changes were made to the business throughout its history. The mill’s capacity doubled in the 1890s; a feed mill was added in the 1930s; and in 1950, the mill was converted to electricity. The Bühler corpo- ration was responsible for an extensive conversion to a pneumatic system in 1961. Bühler also installed a new mill in the late ’70s. The improvements and growth have only sped up since the ’80s, including additional plants and a flour heat treating facility. Throughout all this time, Siemers have remained ac- tively involved in the management of the company. Jo- seph and his son, Clemens J., bought out the Uptmor interest in the business in 1906 and the name changed to Siemer Milling Co. Clem J. led the company for sev- eral decades. His sons Quintin and Clemens R. Siemer spent their careers leading Siemer Milling Co., from the ’40s to the ’80s. My dad, Rick Siemer, has been President of the company since the early ’80s, and my brother Henry continues the tradition with almost 10 years of his career so far with SMC. I have been a di- rector of the company for thirteen years. Several other family members have been employees along the way. We have been family owned from the beginning and we added an Employee Stock Ownership Plan in 2006. Now we say with pride that we are family and employ- ee-owned. What can you say about the position of your com- pany in the U.S. milling industry? We are the tenth largest flour miller in the U.S., and we mill about 2.6% of the flour in the country.