New owners look to transform Sullivan Country Store into hub for local food

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Megan Lafaso Hercher and her husband, Will, weren’t anticipating what was in store for them when they moved to the Monadnock Region to reopen a conveniently located business along Route 9.

The co-owner couple are eyeing January as the month they finally reopen the Sullivan Country Store at 140 N.H. Route 9, using their combined 30 years of retail leadership experience to transform the store into a hub for area-sourced foods.

“Being relatively new to a rural community, I had no idea ... how many people maybe don’t have access to fresh or local foods close by,” Megan said. “When there’s a snowstorm coming and you’ve already run to get the bread and milk at Hannaford and realize you forgot one thing, we will be that place.”

Customers they envision visiting include commuters, summer lake traffic and skiers once resorts like the nearby Granite Gorge Mountain Park open. Megan said they will be in contact with the N.H. Department of Fish and Game to have a hunter check and licensing station available. She added that they also hope to receive a grant to install electric vehicle charging stations after the initial opening, which is nearing as the two have completed new flooring in the building after a myriad of other projects.

A replacement septic system on the property and installation of a new heating and cooling system in the store and the home they live in adjacent to the business delayed the opening from what the couple expected would be a January 2021 launch.

“All the HVAC systems in the store and home stopped working, and because it got so cold in the store, pipes burst and flooded the store,” Megan said. “Then, as we began filling out applications with the [N.H. Bureau of] Food Protection and the Liquor Commission, when it came to the point of ... proving that our septic was up to date, we realized the state or town of Sullivan didn’t have any records of it.”

Megan said she had to track down former owners for about three months who could talk about the existing septic system on site, which she estimated was about 40 years old. She said she was told by the state Department of Environmental Services the system likely preceded regulations on documenting systems enacted in the mid-1980s.

“Even though we knew where the system was located, which happened to be right across [and] under the highway, we were told that because it’s outdated it has to be reinstalled,” Megan said. “... We quickly realized that the allotment of our savings for what we were assuming would be simple repairs ... was not going to be adequate.”

After completing a real estate sale in California, the couple had used a lump sum from their transaction there to purchase the Sullivan property, which included the store and their now-home. In an attempt to afford the necessary renovations, the Herchers looked toward banks and credit unions for loans, but the land zoned fully as commercial meant that for many of the loans they were seeking, they needed an established business history, which they didn’t have.

“The application processes were made more difficult because of COVID,” Megan said.

That’s where external financial support came in through several different mediums. First, they connected with the Regional Economic Development Center in Raymond to develop their expectations for the store.

“For three to five months, we worked to really home in on making three to five years’ worth of projects and really look at our business plan and make sure it was really clear,” Megan said.

With assistance from the REDC, they were granted a small loan from the N.H. District of the Small Business Association and U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Intermediary Relending Program in the state, which offers 1 percent low-interest loans to local intermediary lenders that re-lend to businesses in rural New Hampshire communities.

But then, their problem became finding a contractor to replace the septic system. Megan suggested that many who might usually be readily available were booked by others that moved to the area at the time, and she said it took about 10 months from the start of designing the system to contractors finishing the job.

And to make matters more complicated, they discovered the electrical system also needed to be replaced.

“Many of the electrical systems in the store and in the home were vastly outdated, some of which were teetering on dangerous,” Megan said. “We have sort of forged a relationship with a neighbor of ours who is an excellent electrician, and he has been working with us probably for over a year and a half now to update that.”

The total cost of renovations and repairs was in the range of “a couple hundred thousand dollars,” according to Megan, who said the REDC’s $75,000 loan was helpful but only covered about a third of what they needed to reopen their locally produced food stop.

The additional influx of funds they needed came in the form of a U.S. Department of Agriculture grant as part of the agency’s Healthy Food Financing Initiative. The program issues grants to fresh food retail businesses in underserved areas to expand healthy eating access and grow economic opportunities, according to the USDA.

Megan said the Sullivan Country Store was one of about 134 HFFI grant recipients nationwide, with the store being the only recipient in the Monadnock Region. She called the grant the “lifeline for all the physical manifestations of what has to be done in the store.”

“[The grant] will allow us to purchase all new equipment for the store and the kitchen, so new refrigeration and some pieces of commercial kitchen equipment that we would like to have,” she said. “The allotted money we had for inventory is paying for commercial windows in the front of the store.”

The Herchers received their final grant agreement this past week and anticipate being able to access their funds in about two weeks.

Additional grants they received came from Cheshire County, which disbursed upwards of $20,000 to the store through American Rescue Plan Act funding. Megan and Will also worked with The Local Crowd Monadnock, a coalition of regional economic development groups in the state that seeks to embolden individuals to crowdfund businesses in their communities.

In the meantime, Megan has worked as the events and education coordinator at the Monadnock Food Co-op in Keene for the past year and a half, which she said she intends to maintain as a dual role while also running the Sullivan Country Store.

“We have forged and created connections with individuals and organizations and vendors through my time at the co-op,” Megan said. “... I enjoy our reach that the co-op has in the community and its emphasis on supporting other local small businesses and organizations. It just pairs perfectly [with the store].”