A family business requires maximum emphasis on both: more family and more business. The Rurkas, a local Chevy Chase family, are no strangers to this dynamic. They’ve spent the last 33 years running the Spring Mill Bread Co. Now, the youngest Rurka, Ben, is stepping up in the hopes of continuing his family’s business.
Spring Mill Bread Co. was started in 1993 by Katherine and her late husband Steve Rurka as a dream of escape from their corporate jobs. Living in Chicago at the time, Katherine was in pharmaceutical sales. Steve was a tax lawyer. After a friend of theirs started a bakery, Katherine and Steve seized upon the idea as a way out of the draining corporate lifestyle.
Emboldened, the Rurkas scoped out locations, and ended up settling on Bethesda––setting up the first Spring Mill Bread Co. location on Elm Street.
At the time, the grocery store landscape was very different, explained Katherine. With less in-house bakeries in grocery stores, Spring Mill Bread Co. could more easily compete on the shelves. Over the years, the Rurkas’ operation has had to adapt as well. Now, in addition to selling bread to stores, the Spring Mill Bread Co. operates out of two coffee and sandwich shops in Gaithersburg and Takoma Park.
“It’s a tough industry,” Katherine said.
Even still, the family business has endured through all sorts of challenges, including personal ones. In 2009, Steve passed away following a long battle with appendiceal cancer. In the years since, Katherine has managed the multiple store locations, tens of employees, and daily operations.
Now, the youngest of Katherine’s four children, 26-year-old Ben Rurka, is helping his mom run the business in the hopes of one day taking it over.
Ben, like his mom, had found corporate America less to his liking.
“Never again,” Ben said about his experience in medical sales. “I hated it.”
Ben, a St. John’s College High School and University of Virginia graduate, never thought though that he would be back at the family bakery. Growing up, Ben and his three older siblings had witnessed just how much hard work it took to run. Ben remembered long Thanksgivings and Christmas Eves making endless pies.
And, while a lot of work, Ben also recalled just how special those times were. Ben remembered long drives with his dad dropping off deliveries around town, and baking bread with his mom and siblings. So, when he was 25, Ben came to his mom and told her he wanted to give it a try.
Katherine was thrilled.
“I hope Ben will keep it going,” she said. “It would be awesome to keep the business.”
These days, Ben is running the Spring Mill Bread Co. in Takoma Park, while his mom runs the store in Gaithersburg. The plan, he explained, is for him to one day be managing both so his mom can relax a bit more.
Days at the store begin early. They start baking at about 5 a.m. Ben says each day presents new challenges. Some days he is placing orders, tracking inventory, or doing payroll. Some days he’s thinking of new sandwiches, drinks and scones.
“In this industry, you always have to be changing and evolving or else you get left in the dust,” Ben said.
Innovating new products has been one of the most satisfying and successful aspects of the job for Ben. Under Ben’s leadership, the bakery recently added new items like a chorizo breakfast burrito, strawberry matcha bread, and a maple pecan scone. Right now, Ben explained, they do about twice the revenue in sandwiches and scones as they do in bread
Ben and his mom will meet up four or five times a week to talk business. They’ll grab dinner together or just go for a walk and talk through ideas. And while Katherine is always there to help out, Ben appreciates that she’s letting him do it his own way.
“She gives me a lot of leeway,” Ben said.
And while the bakery may necessitate long hours and weeks without a day off, Ben seems happier than ever.
“It’s the most fulfilling job I’ve ever had,” he said. Growing up in Chevy Chase, Ben explained that there was pressure to do something different with his life then work for his parents’ business.
“There’s a bit of a stigma in going to work for your family’s bakery,” Ben said, but he’s glad he’s followed his own sense of a career path. Ben explained he likes being able to make a direct impact on the business, and enjoys interacting with the regular customers who drop by every day for their favorite coffee and scones.
Sometimes when Ben wears his dad’s old work shirt to the store, some of the longtime customers will pause for a second.
“Probably once a month,” Ben explained, “someone will come in and say ‘Are you Steve and Katherine’s son? You look just like your dad.’”