Core values are key to Temple-Belton Feed & Supply’s success

By Don Cooper | Photos by Skeebo and courtesy of Temple-Belton Feed & Supply

There are a lot of reasons for Temple-Belton Feed & Supply’s success. Lots of hard work. Great customer service. Willingness to change.

But more than anything, the family business has thrived for 40 years because of an adherence to its core values.

Ron and Christi Lucksinger came to Central Texas in 1979, taking advantage of an opportunity to purchase Belton Feed and Produce, the local Purina Feed store. Four decades later, their children, son Adam Lucksinger and daughter Lindsey Strait, are running the Temple and Belton stores, working to keep them current, growing and involved in the community.

“I know the reason we’ve been successful is because of our core values,” Christi says near the end of a discussion in which Ron, Adam and Lindsey talked about how the business has evolved to meet a changing market and customer needs.

“Our first core value is always that we give honor to God,” Christi says. “None of this is possible without His guidance and His blessing. We are a family that prays together. Whenever we come to big decisions we always come together in prayer and ask for Him to lead us in those decisions.

“We work to form relationships with our customers,” Christi says. “They’re not just customers, they’re like our partners. We have a real desire and we instill in our employees a real desire to serve, to give our customers what they want, what they need, to find it for them if we don’t have it.

“And we have the most wonderful employees that any business could have. They also have to share our core values of integrity, the love for customers and the love for the business or they won’t make it. They’re part of our family too,” Christi says.

Ron, who is originally from Burnet, and Christi, who grew up near Lubbock, met at Tarleton State University where Ron earned a degree in agriculture and Christi received a degree in English with a minor in journalism. They were married in 1972 and moved to Oklahoma where Ron started as a representative for a fertilizer company and later managed a Purina feed and grain business.

Purina was the ‘top of the line’ feed company with about 5,000 dealerships in the country at the time. It was through Purina’s dealer network that Ron and Christi learned of the opportunity in Central Texas and they bought a store in Belton.

When the Purina dealership in Temple was going out of business in 1983, Ron and Christi wanted it. “When a dealership like the one in Temple came up we jumped at it. We knew we would have the exclusive,” Ron says.

If “location, location, location” is important to a business, the location decision for the Temple store was genius. A 40-foot by 60-foot rock building on Second Street was purchased. Its greatest value was its proximity to a railroad spur.

“We chose the location where the Temple store is now because of the railroad tracks,” Ron says. “You could ship rail freight out of Fort Worth for $2 a ton. If you were on a truck it would cost you $10.”

While Ron managed two stores, Christi handled the advertising and focused on caring for Adam and Lindsey. Then an opportunity came up for her.

The president of Tarleton, the couple’s alma mater, offered Christi a position as the director of alumni affairs. They sold the Belton store and moved to Stephenville in 1984, giving Christi a chance to pursue her career. Ron continued to be involved in the Temple store, which was managed by business partner Charles Casebolt.

“By 1986, (Christi) could see that I was bouncing off of the walls … so we came back to Temple,” Ron says. Charles and (his wife) Kay wanted to be in the ministry full time. They wanted to leave so that was part of the reason we came back.”

The business has thrived ever since. Between 1986 and 1998, Ron and Christi, who worked as the communications director for the McLane Company in the early 1990s, grew the Temple store, earning awards from Purina as one of the nation’s top dealerships and growing support from Central Texas customers. But retailing can be a drain. Ron was contemplating selling when Bell County Farm and Ranch on Wall Street in Belton came on the market. “It was a godsend. I don’t know why … I was wanting to sell one, why buy another one?”

The couple bought the Belton store, which was renamed Belton Feed & Supply, just in time for the next generation to get involved — even though they didn’t realize it at the time.

After receiving his master’s degree in biology from Tarleton, Adam, who wanted to be a doctor, came back to the store to work during the summer of 1999 while he was applying and interviewing for medical school.

“When I came back I did think it was temporary,” says Adam, who is celebrating his 20th year with the family business. “For the first couple of years, I didn’t really know if this is what I wanted to do. It turned out to be a good fit for me. Dad had confidence in me from the very beginning. It has been a great opportunity.”

Meanwhile, Lindsey earned a business degree with an emphasis in management information systems from Texas A&M University. She worked in Dallas for five years doing computer programing when she realized “it wasn’t a good fit for my personality” and came back to Bell County in 2004.

She started working in the business and enjoyed the chance to serve customers and employees instead of programing computers. “I looked back at my upbringing and the blessing that God bestowed upon us as we were raised. This is a great area to raise a family.

“Dad’s hard work put us through college, took care of us growing up,” says Lindsey, who is celebrating her 15th year in the business.

Adam, who is responsible for the Belton store, and his wife, Jessica, have two daughters, Abby, 17, and Tori, 13. Jessica is senior strategic human resources initiative manager for Reynolds Consumer Products.

Lindsey runs the Temple store and is responsible for the accounting, advertising and marketing for both operations. She is married to Todd Strait, a teacher at High Point Elementary in Belton. They have three children, Madilynn 10, Cooper, 9, and Ali, 6.

While Ron and Christi ‘retired’ in 2015, Adam and Lindsey continue to seek and respect their advice. “This business is his passion,” Adam says of his dad. “He’s valuable counsel to us on all major decisions. He may not have gotten a paycheck for years, but he’s still working every day.”

The two stores have continued to evolve and expand. A 12,000-square-foot showroom and warehouse was added to the Belton store on Wall Street in 2007. With a footprint five times larger, it would feature a lawn and garden center, deer stands and feeders, fencing supplies and outdoor accessories. More recently, a new warehouse was built this fall at the Belton store.

A grand opening was held in 2014 at the newly remodeled Temple location with a 4,300-square-foot addition that enlarged the retail showroom and office. It included space for new lines of pet food and supplies, horse products, lawn and garden, wildlife items and gifts.

“When Lindsey and Adam both came back they took over the future of our business,” Ron says. “There’s been nothing but growth since then.

“I’m the old guy,” Ron says. “In the retail business change, changing with the times is so important. When they stepped into the store in the early 2000s, their change, their insight on what was happening as far as technology or products is what has run these stores farther than what I could ever have run them.”

Bell County’s changing landscape has prompted some of the evolution. “Now when an old rancher sells out or passes away, they build a bunch of houses on his land. They don’t put a bunch of cows on it,” Adam says. “With all those houses going in, we have to sell them dog food and fertilizer for their yard.”

“The relationship that we have with our customer is so important … that there is trust between us that we’re going to be able to serve them and have the products they need,” Lindsey says.

More than anything, the family is grateful for the community support it has received. “How blessed we are to have a business in this area,” Adam says. “The people of Bell County are so wonderful and so loyal. They’ve embraced us, embraced our family. I hope they look at us as friends. If you do business with honesty and integrity, people of Bell County will support you.”

Community involvement

• In 2001, the Lucksingers hosted their first wildlife seminar for hunting and game enthusiasts. The annual event is the largest Purina wildlife seminar in the country, drawing more than a thousand people to the Bell County Expo.
• Adam launched the Venado Grande Deer Contest in 2004. It has grown to nearly 800 entries in more than 25 categories. Hunters young and old compete for prizes in the annual contest.
• The company also hosts seminars for horse owners and cattle producers, plus special events like pet adoptions, dog dips and backyard poultry workshops.
• Ron has served on the executive board of the Bell County Youth Fair for 20 years.
• The family business donates thousands of dollars every year to help support local youth agriculture programs like the Bell County Youth Fair and local 4-H and FFA clubs.
• In 2007, Lindsey was selected to organize and chair the Bell County Youth Fair Scholarship Committee. The program has raised money to provide college and trade school scholarships to 119 local students. She continues to chair the committee.
• In 2018, Belton Feed & Supply received the first Belton Area Chamber of Commerce Spotlight Award for business excellence and community service.

Temple-Belton Feed & Supply timeline

1979 — Ron and Christi Lucksinger move from Oklahoma to Texas and purchase a Purina Mills dealership in downtown Belton.

1983 — The Lucksingers open a second store, Temple Feed & Supply, in an old warehouse on South Second Street in downtown Temple.

1984 — The Belton store is sold and the family moves to Stephenville, where Christi becomes director of alumni affairs at Tarleton State University. Ron stays involved with the Temple feed store, which is managed by business partner Charles Casebolt.

1986 — Charles Casebolt decides to enter Christian ministry full-time. The Lucksinger family moves back to manage the Temple store.

1988 — The company is recognized by Purina Mills as one of the top dealers in the nation. Over the next 31 years, Temple/Belton Feed earns the distinction eight times.

1998 — The Lucksingers purchase Bell County Farm and Ranch on Wall Street in Belton, renaming it Belton Feed & Supply.

1999 — Son Adam, who has a master’s degree in biology from Tarleton State University, joins the family business.

2004 — Daughter Lindsey, who has a business degree from Texas A&M, joins the family business.

2007 — A 12,000-square-foot showroom and warehouse adjacent to the old location on Wall Street opens in Belton.

2014 – Grand opening for the remodeled Temple store, including 4,300-square expansion of the retail showroom and office area.

2015 — Ron and Christi retire.