Meat+Poultry - July 2018 - ground beef - 9

CUSTOMER FIRST
Cardinal's roots are in foodservice and the benefit
of that is from a culinary perspective, most things
do start there. Cator notes that there's a talent that
comes from the foodservice staff and by working
directly with them, it can better find specific needs
and challenges that restaurants run into.
"Cardinal over the years developed into the
retail space, bringing the advantages of that innovation and leading-edge products from foodservice into retail," he says. "We are currently about
half retail and half foodservice and we are very
proud supporters of a lot of private label products for our customers.
"From an operational standpoint, we have
world-class food safety programs and manufacturing that is set up to be minimal-touch,"
he says. "Our operations are geared to focus on
value-added aspects that customers value. So,
from the time we open a box of raw material to
make burgers, to the time its finished, packaged
and leaving the other end of the facility, products
will only be in the line for 20 minutes."
This allows Cardinal's customers to get the
best cost while adding value to the end product.

ACQUISITION ACTION

Brent Cator

One of the things Cator is most proud of is
that Cardinal's growth has basically doubled
every five years for the last 15 years and it
continues on that trajectory. Even though this is
its first acquisition ever, the primary focus is to
grow organically.
"Cardinal's growth has come from bringing
innovation based on customers' requests to do
what others have really struggled with," he says.
"Our mantra at the company is, 'You can with
Cardinal' and that came about from customers
who were struggling to find a protein provider
who could do certain things and being told it
wasn't impossible."

100%
Maximized
Productivity Electric

760E

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Improved
Quality

Burgers

Perfect
Shapes

Vane-Style Rotor

Nuggets

In May, Cardinal acquired D&S Meat Products,
which owns Elite Meats, a sausage and bacon
company based in Ontario and operated by brothers Dan and Sasha Milanovic.
"With taking this baseline of products, we can
bring them into our operation and the Elite Meats
brand can benefit from our capabilities," Cator
says. "It was a raw protein business, but now it
can branch into fully cooked. It's a great use of
our capacities and innovation."
Elite Meats is the leader in peameal bacon.
The product is made from fresh Canadian pork
and with the added capabilities of Cardinal
Meats, the company will be in premium position
to sell the product at foodservice and retail.
The company is also trying to attract more
talent with the goal of further diversifying its
collective skill sets and create deeper links with
foodservice and retail - this applies to both its
leadership team and the broader employee base.

70%

of all burgers we
sell are under what is known as
Natural Texture Forming."

High Volume

as a one-off specialty item. Then there are people
who are looking for a great-tasting, satisfying
product every day, but also at a price range that
makes sense for them. And those are very different markets. We do an entire range of those and
starting to find the products people are truly after."

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Call Tom Tonra
today for details

(815) 722-2800
www.nutecmfg.com
MEAT+ POULTRY 2018 GROUND BEEF TRENDS + TECHNOLOGY

9
http://www.nutecmfg.com
Meat+Poultry - July 2018

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