Meat+Poultry - July 2021 - 91

said Karl Geier. " I began working in the meat
business at the age of 14 and learned as an
apprentice the skills of the meat business. In
1959, I came to the United States to work for a
large sausage company in Michigan.
" By 1981, I was ready to move to the
warmer climate in Florida. Since I had a
non-compete agreement with my former
employer, Florida was a good choice. We
built a small shop on a mini golf course and
sold our sausages there. We later bought the
whole thing. "
The small shop has seen numerous
expansions in their enterprise in southern
Sarasota and eventually they constructed a
plant in the northern part of the city where
they moved most of their production to keep
up with demand.
Karl, now 82, even returned to Germany
to earn his master sausage maker diploma,
known as the Metzgermeister, over a two-year
period. Then he went full bore into meeting
the demands of European expats and former
servicemen and women who had been posted
in Europe and longed for the taste of authentic
Old World products they learned to love abroad.
SPECIALTY SAUSAGE
It is the nearly 7,000-square-foot retail shop
that attracts customers with astounding
varieties of specialty sausages and products
with the flavors of Germany, Poland, England,
Hungary, and even South Africa. German music
is piped into the retail store and is played on
the phone if their customers wait on hold. The
retail area is a tourist destination unto itself,
but the variety shoppers can peruse is an
experience unto itself.
Three generations of the Geier family work
under one roof and Gisa, who ran the retail
side of things for years, asserts that she is not
ready to retire until she teaches the rest of the
family and employees " everything I know. "
Geier's Sausage Kitchen leaves shoppers
in awe with the quality and vast selection of
its specialty meats. One gentleman from New
York tasted their weisswurst 30 years ago
and was crying tears of happiness because it
reminded him of authentic German sausage
he never thought he'd be able to enjoy again
outside of Germany.
Karl and Gisa's daughter, Caroline Martin,
serves as the company president. Their
granddaughter Sierra Chadwick, who earned
a degree in agricultural economics from the
University of Florida, is the office and plant
manager, while another granddaughter Nakita
Chadwick handles the retail area, marketing,
customer communications, special events and
is known as the company spokesperson.
Under this close-knit management team,
Geier's Sausage Kitchen, and its corporate
entity Geier's Choice Meats, has grown
tremendously, but because of COVID-19, has
dropped to 38 employees.
If the dazzling plethora of products they
produce, which can be seen and ordered
on the website geier-sausage.com, doesn't
adequately introduce customers to Geier's
specialized offerings, they should plan to
visit one of the many tourist attractions and
events, or even theme parks, in the area
where their authentic and beloved brand of
meat abounds. Marketing, almost as much
as their special products, is a true strength
for this family-owned-and-operated meat
processing business.
Karl says about 70% of the company's
business is now wholesale, thanks to their
product popularity at events like Oktoberfest, a
two-week-long promotion they used to stage in
their retail store that attracted as many as 6,000
attendees in a single day. Now they just supply
festivals nationwide, the largest being an
Oktoberfest in Florida that draws over 40,000
people. For that event they supply authentic
items such as bratwurst, schweinshaxe
(German-style pork shank), German potato
salad and more.
www.meatpoultry.com | 07.21 | MEAT+POULTRY
91
" For so
many
years we
never bought
spice blends for
our sausages...
we made our
own. "
- KARL GEIER
http://www.geier-sausage.com http://www.meatpoultry.com
Meat+Poultry - July 2021

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Meat+Poultry - July 2021
