Meat+Poultry - March 2023 - 30

PROCESSOR PROFILE
German sausage is one of
the many items contributing
to the over 2 million lbs
of products Bear Creek
produced last year.
and the individual, their contribution to the
company and what they do.
" We've got a lot of quality people that we try
to treat like family helping us run this place, "
Shoults said.
Bear Creek's family advantage lies in willing
employees, family and non-family included,
willing to work hard. When the catering team
needs help with something at the on-site
event center, opened October of 2020, Shoults
only has to let the people know and someone
looking for a little extra money always steps
up. And sometimes it's immediate family doing
" We all need
to listen to
everybody's
input because
it does affect
everybody,
all the family
members. "
- ROBBIE SHOULTS
the stepping up.
" My wife will jump in there, I'll jump in
there if we've got multiple caterings at the
same time, " Shoults said. " We'll jump in there
and cook food or whatever it takes to get the
job done and make it happen. "
MOVING FORWARD
Last year the 46,000-square-foot processing
facility produced a little over 2 million lbs total
of poultry, pork and beef. The 16,000-squarefoot
general store, catering business and
regular events hosting between 300 and 1,000
people continue to draw shoppers, tourists and
all-around fans of the business to the grounds
and Bear Creek Smokehouse. But Robbie
Shoults is an entrepreneur and processor of
quality meat at heart.
In addition to everything else going on at
the Bear Creek Farm, Shoults raises cattle,
and does all the additional work that raising
cattle entails. He often starts his mornings
on the land away from his office. He and
30 MEAT+POULTRY | 03.23 | www.meatpoultry.com
Hunter might unload steel to add on to a barn
for equipment storage or cube the cows and
put out hay while conducting business on
his phone.
" It's such a great life, " he said.
He shared a dream of one day feeding out
his cattle, the farm contains about 300 head
with calves every year, to take to slaughter.
He wants to bring them back to Bear Creek to
break down the carcasses on site and sell the
beef to Bear Creek customers.
" We have got so much walk-in traffic at our
store we want to go right from farm to table
with our beef, " Shoults said. " We would just
sell it retail, we would never be big enough to
wholesale any of it, but I really think there's
a demand for beef from people who want
to know where it comes from and how it's
been treated and that sort of thing. I'm really
looking forward to getting that off the ground
and I've got a big den of calves right now from
last year. That's my intent for them. "
The Bear Creek family bond runs strong
through the five generations of the Shoults
family and remains at the core of not only the
success of the business, but more importantly
the commitment to stay together and
work together.
" Everybody's got a great work ethic and
that pays off, " Shoults said. " The other thing
that I never want to leave out is that my
granddad and dad worked with sweat rolling
down their backs for a long many years and
didn't reap any benefits off of this. So, what
we're doing now is building a great company
off the foundation they laid years ago. "
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Meat+Poultry - March 2023

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