Taking waffles to Belgians

By LIZ JONES

SNS Staff Writer

Shawnee businessman Doyle Beck, owner and operator of Beck's Waffles of Oklahoma, will travel to Europe on today to teach Belgium a thing or two about waffles.Beck, who opened the waffle plant in 1996, will attend the SIRHA 10th International Food Exposition in Lyons, France, and help his European distributor, Eddy van der Reeke of the Belgian company Smart Global Trading, promote his product to representatives from markets across Europe.

Beck said he already has a distributor in Cyprus, and another distributor in Greece has expressed interest in selling his products.

The company, which made frozen waffles when it began, now sells powdered mixes and waffle irons to restaurants, schools, and hotels around the country.

"We sent one to a monastery last week," Beck said.

Beck's Waffles of Oklahoma furnishes waffle irons to business that buy the company's mix.

Beck said David Hoffmeier, bid assistance coordinator at Gordon Cooper Technology Center, has been instrumental in helping him market and sell his product.

Hoffmeier designed the company's Web site, which led to Beck's partnership with van der Reeke. Beck said van der Reeke contacted the company and traveled to Shawnee a few weeks later.

Van der Reeke has already sold the product to 100 European customers, Beck said.

"I'm going over there also to present him and the distributor from Cyprus with a medal for handling a Made in Oklahoma product," he said.

Beck said Hoffmeier has designed a new package for the powdered mix. The package will have ingredients listed in five different languages.

In addition to the new packaging, Beck said his products will soon be certified as kosher in preparation for entry into the European market.

Also, the product will undergo a name change, from "Beck's Waffles of Oklahoma" to "Beck's Malty Maple Waffles."

Beck said he began building his own waffle irons in 1997, when he found he did not have enough irons to meet his production needs.

He said the irons are foundered in Oklahoma City, and then assembled and treated at the Beck's plant.

Beck said he sent the prototypes of his first waffle iron to former Gov. and first lady Keating.

He said that on Tuesday he delivered a waffle iron to the Governor's Mansion for the Henry family to use.

In addition to the waffle irons, the company produces powdered pancake and waffle mix, sugar free and fat free mixes, sweet potato pancake and waffle mix, funnel cake mix and corn dog mix.

The mixes are produced at Shawnee Milling Company and four employees build waffle irons in the Waffles of Oklahoma workshop. The company employs six people, counting Beck and his wife, Betty.

Beck said that when he opened the plant in 1996, he never imagined he would expand overseas.

He said imagined that if he expanded it would be into neighboring states like Kansas and Texas. Instead, he ships waffle irons and mixes to Hawaii and Maine.

"I thought it would just be Oklahoma," he said, laughing.