Brandon couple brings two separate businesses under one roof

Jill Meier

Journal editor

Marriage vows aren’t the only merger of a Brandon husband and wife, Jason and April Kelling. Through the acquisition of property at the intersection of Aspen and Sioux boulevards, the Kellings are operating two businesses under the same roof.

And one business has nothing to do with the other.

April Kelling oversees Tribute Equine Nutrition, while Jason heads up Redstone Insurance Brokers, which provides high-risk coverage through national carriers to insurance agents across the Midwest.

Tribute is exactly what the name suggests, a nutrition source for horses.

April first learned about Tribute, a family-owned business established in 1964 in Ohio, while on the hunt for quality nutrients for her horses.  

“I found Tribute and paid a ridiculous amount of money to get some feed for my own horses and my friend’s horse, and we couldn’t believe the difference,” she said. “It’s like everything else: we are what we eat.”

Initially, April had no intention of becoming a dealer for Tribute, but after using the product, she said they saw its benefits. 

“Their product was superior, and it’s been nothing but a blessing, it really has,” she said. “When people have more of a high-performance horse or ask a lot of ou of their horse compared to just being a pasture ‘garment’, it’s like you’re feeding an athlete, and so their nutrition is very important like it would be to an athlete. So, if they’re spending money for entry fees and going down the highway and traveling to various competitions, whether it’s rodeo roping, cow horse performance like my daughter (Lana) does, you want your horse to feel and look its best so it can compete, because that’’ what they are. They are athletes along with the person. That’s why we are doing it.”

April said she saw a difference in horses within the first month. They saw the dull coats of their horses transition to a shiny, bright coat.

“That was one of the first things that we noticed within the first bag when we made the switch. It was the middle of summer, which most horses, because of the long daylight hours, fade just like everything else will fade. The health of their hooves improved, too,” she shares.

“That’s why we kept buying it for ourselves,” she said. “Then we started learning more about their products and telling people and the results are proven, which makes it easy to sell or market a good product.”

Soon, they found themselves selling Tribute products to friends and colleagues in their circle of horse owners. And soon, they began hearing similar testimonials from their clients. With each new client, April helps them determine the right formula for their horse.

“They have various formulas, and we always try to advise on the lowest feed rate. To get their results, we can always add. You always want to start with the lowest feed rate. We have formulas and only a pound a day provides all of their daily requirements. So, it just kind of depends on what the owner desires for their horse, or what kind of condition the horse is in prior to getting on a feed plan with us, and then there’s specific formulas to meet that desired outcome,” she explains.

Although Tribute has a strong presence in the East Coast, April is the lone distributor in the Midwest. 

“We got to that point where we were buying in a larger quantity, so then we could take advantage of the dealer pricing, but they’ve been very, very good to us. There’s been other people that have wanted to become a dealer, and they’ve protected us,” she said. 

The Kelling’s daughter, Lana, a senior at Brandon Valley High School, works with her mother in the business. She’s a horse fanatic, like her mother, April says.

“There was a span of probably about eight, nine years where I didn’t have a horse, and then I gave my daughter some riding lessons, and she loved it. I feel very blessed that my daughter shares the same passion as I do, because we’ve created a lot of good memories and fun times with the horses and showing and all the people that we’ve met through 4-H and our local horse associations,” she said. “We’re just really proud to be able to bring a quality product to our part of the world. I always say just because we live in South Dakota doesn’t mean we can’t have access to quality things, and that goes for a lot of things. It’s been a neat journey, and hopefully can continue.”

Redstone Insurance Brokers

Jason Kelling brings 20-plus years to the insurance brokerage business, previously working for other firms before acquiring Redstone Insurance Brokers in 2021. The past six years, they’ve been doing business in an office space at Splitrock Square. As the company grew – there are currently 16 on staff – they outgrew their space and began about a year-long search for their own stand-alone building.

“We know that there’s been kind of a buzz, because we’ve heard from the neighbors, we’ve heard from the City of Brandon, what is going on here on this corner, an obviously visible corner, so we just wanted to let people know what we’re doing here,” he said.

They’ll do just that at their open house this Saturday from 2-6 p.m.

Their daughter Lana also helps out with Redstone, and son Logan, who graduated two years ago from Brandon Valley, interned there this past summer. It is Jason’s hope Logan will want to join the business one day.

The bulk of Redstone’s employees work remotely, and are scattered in Minneapolis, Nebraska, Rapid City and Sioux Falls.

“We are in about a 14-state geographical area that we service agents mainly in the upper Midwest,” Jason said. 

The business name reflects the quartzite stone the Sioux Falls metro area is known for and Jason’s red hair.

Their new location

Their new location was originally a combined home-photography studio that was built by Dan and Kari Elliott. It’s since housed two separate dog kennel businesses. The Kellings gutted the interior, transforming it into several work spaces and meeting rooms, and are using the garage to warehouse Tribute products.

“It turned out great”, April said. “The fun part has been to have Dan and Kari come back and see what it was, and then what it was after they departed, and then when we changed it.”

There will be a bit of the “Elliotts” in the building, as Dan’s photography will be displayed on the walls.

“It’s kind of come full circle,” April said. “They have already presented a bunch of images, and we just said, ‘Here’s the key, make it your gallery.’” 

As for the big red rock on the building’s north side, the Kellings have plans for that, too,

“We’ve talked about putting some aspen trees along the boulevard and kind of kicked around the idea of having the rock engraved that says, ‘Home of the Lynx’ or something community minded, because it’s going to be there a long time, even when we’re not here, it’s still going to be here,” Jason said.