Meat+Poultry - November 2018 - 35

"I say I'm the third-and-a-half generation
because my father Ralph was just a young
man out of high school and started a lot of
butcher shops across the Toronto area,"
Cator says. "My father decided in 1966 to
focus on foodservice - restaurants, hotels and
institutional customers." He also bought out
six partners who were involved with him in the
businesses at the time. Ralph, Cator's father,
became a meat industry hall of famer. "He
was the first Canadian to be involved in what's
now evolved into the North American Meat
Institute (NAMI). I'm also a former president
and chairman of NAMI," Cator says. Right now,
John Vatri, vice president of operations for
Cardinal, is NAMI past-chairman - "He's my
right hand," Cator says.
Despite the Cator family history in the meat
industry, Cator wasn't sure he was going to put
on the family mantle and run with the business.
"It's true I had worked in the (family) business
as a kid. When I came out of university, the
Univ. of Western Ontario" - he was the first
in his family to graduate from university - "I
wanted to get management experience, not
necessarily in the meat industry, and maybe
even do something else," he says. He looked at
a lot of possibilities in the food industry, and
not only in meat.
"I had a US job offer and two offers of jobs
in Canada," he says. "My father put a board of
directors into the company, from the outside,
not family members. And you know what?
It was great to work with them." One great
lesson he learned by running his business
from working with that board is to surround
yourself with people who are smarter than you
are, Cator says with a laugh.

Brent Cator (left) and his
father Ralph both served
as president of the North
American Meat Processors
(now known as the North
American Meat Institute).

TAKING THE REINS
as well as his expertise in butchering and meat
processing to his son Ralph, Cator's father, who
founded Cardinal Meat Specialists Ltd. in 1966.
While Brent Cator's family has had a long and
rich history, starting on the farm, then running
butcher shops, and now producing some of
Canada's highest-quality and innovative meat
products, the current owner and operator
of this large, family-owned business looks
optimistically to the future with aspirations for
growth. One of those growth opportunities is to
expand into selected areas in the United States.

Eventually Cator and his brother Mark
bought the business from their father. Mark
eventually decided to do something else. "He
started a bicycle company here in Canada -
Cube Bikes."
So, Cator became the sole owner of
Cardinal Meat Specialists Ltd. At first,
the company specialized in ground beef
processing, making hamburgers. Eventually
it would expand to manufacturing stuffed
burgers with inclusions, and natural texture
forming of ground beef. But those areas have
expanded and today, Cardinal Meat Specialists
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