Twenty years ago, Rob Armstrong decided to paint one of his milk delivery trucks like a Holstein cow. When his grandfather saw the black-and-white design, he thought that Rob and his father, Bud Armstrong, were out of their minds.
Today, the unique design of Munroe Dairy’s delivery trucks helps to set the business apart. Munroe is one of only four dairies providing home delivery in Rhode Island today, down from 62 when the business was started by Alfred B. Munroe in 1881.
Rob Armstrong’s grandfather bought the company in 1936, and while business is growing, Armstrong said that to survive today “is a challenge.”
Munroe’s milk processing plant on Brow Street in East Providence blends the old and the new. Built in 1952, the plant has machinery that dates back as far as 1962, and two black-and-white painted silos built a few years ago hold the raw milk the dairy buys from a collection of small farms in Connecticut, all part of New England’s Agri-Mark Co-Op.
Armstrong, president of Munroe Dairy since his father retired about 20 years ago, is unassuming and quiet, and when he sits behind the big wood desk in his office it seems he might be more comfortable back on the cow trucks that he drove for 10 years.
After leaving Boston University, Rob Armstrong traveled a lot, working odd jobs, including construction and welding.
At age 29 he decided to go into the family business and became a truck driver. He had ridden along with the drivers in the summer during high school, learning how to sell Munroe product.
Now that he’s in charge, he said, knowing the road and knowing what the company’s 12,000 customers are looking for is a benefit. He also takes a different approach with the staff than his hard-line grandfather did, he said.
“I try to give employees trust,” said Armstrong.
Independence for Munroe’s 28 truck drivers is important because it is their responsibility to recruit new customers and inventory product, as if their trucks were stores on wheels.
While milk remains Munroe’s mainstay, accounting for 50 percent of its business, the company also sells products ranging from blueberry pie and ice cream to chicken sausage and lobster bisque.
“Milk gets us in the door,” said Armstrong. Everything is fresh, and the milk comes in the trademark reusable glass bottles.
Unlike most dairies’ milk, Munroe’s milk is not ultra-pasteurized, a process that Armstrong believes takes out nutrients and flavor. The glass bottles also protect the flavor, and the products are not given an expiration date but are guaranteed fresh. If the milk sours by the next week’s delivery, it’s replaced free of charge.
But Munroe Dairy has embraced some changes in recent years. It now has a Web site (www.cowtruck.com) that Armstrong said accounts for 30 percent of its business. And this month, after years of resisting pressure from his wife, Libby, to sell low-fat chocolate milk, which he felt was inferior to the whole-milk version, he relented.
A customer survey found that overwhelmingly, customers prefer low-fat. Imagine the “I-told-you-so” moment at the dinner table.
But you try not to take it home with you, Rob Armstrong, said.
Like many business owners, Armstrong said he struggles to keep up with rising fuel, health care and workers’ compensation costs. But he also sees the market for Munroe Dairy continuing to grow, and he’d like to expand the facilities. The challenge will be to find the room to grow. Munroe sits on four and a half acres in East Providence, half of which is designated for waterfront development.
Armstrong said he’s happy running the family business, and he looks forward to its staying in the family.
“If it’s your own company,” he said, “you’ve got no one to blame but yourself.”
