MEAT+POULTRY - August 2024 - 33

With trusted plant managers, the corporate team and Bormann remain
ready to support the facilities when needed, giving the company time to
look toward the future.
The
Burlington,
Iowa, facility
aims to process
about 65,000 lbs
of meat snacks
daily.
" I'm constantly thinking about what's next, " he said. " What's the next
build? What's the next acquisition? Who's our next partner? What does the
market look like for the customer landscape? Who do we want to target
and build a relationship with next? That frees me up because the operations
team and the corporate team that supports us do such a great job of carrying
the water on the day-to-day that I get to think about what's next. "
After the acquisition, Western Smokehouse looked to Nancy Cortez, the
longtime operations manager at Golden Valley Natural, as a crucial person
to lead the new Idaho plant.
" We just want to empower her to kind of really take over the lead even
more than she was already, " Bormann said of Cortez.
Western held a town hall meeting with the entire production and office
team and clarified that Cortez was still in charge and the person on the
production floor, even with the change of ownership.
" Nancy is going to make a lot of the calls on what happens at this
facility and how the facility goes, " Bormann said. " We'll support her in any
way possible. "
JERKY CAPABILITIES
An exciting addition to this partnership for Western Smokehouse is
bringing jerky capacity online. At its current facilities in the Midwest, the
company does not have jerky processing available, which will change with
the Golden Valley plant.
Bormann expects to look at the jerky space with private labels and
co-manufacturing. However, he wants to ensure the company evaluates
the jerky market before making major commitments.
" We want to understand the opportunities to expand jerky with the
elevation of beef prices and round prices recently; you just have to
understand the competitive dynamics a little better, " Bormann said. " We're
still a little new to that evaluation of jerky, so we need to know whether
we're going to wait a little bit or expand jerky. "
Even with the great possibilities of jerky, Western Smokehouse still
places much of its business at its four other facilities, where there is a high
demand for meat sticks, high-claim grass-fed beef, antibiotic-free pork,
free-range, no-antibiotic chicken and turkey.
Even though Western Smokehouse mainly works with those four
proteins, the pack formats of these products continue to shift frequently as
people want to pick them up at convenience stores and grocery retailers.
" That's the biggest challenge with our growth is continuing the
evolution of how it's going be packed out, " Bormann said of product
packaging. " The count sizes and the pouches versus caddies and that
whole evolution. So that's really what we're trying most to get our arms
around as we continue to service those growing formats. "
BURLINGTON BOOM
Outside the Golden Valley acquisition, Western Smokehouse has seen a
significant step forward with its Burlington, Iowa, meat snack plant hitting
its stride.
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