Meat+Poultry - September 2023 - 37

they can add meat processing to their portfolio,
but often the answers to those questions aren't
what they want to hear. This has become an
increasingly common request.
" There are a lot of livestock producers that
are in for a rude awakening in the next three
to five years, " Zarling said. " Many are of the
mentality that 'it's just cutting meat. What's the
big deal?' "
The fatal flaw in that thinking is in
approaching a meat processing operation as
just a side hustle.
He said that often, aspiring entrepreneurs
don't realize that meat cutting and meat
processing is a manufacturing-based business.
" Manufacturing is a science; it's not farm
work. And to be a profitable enterprise of any
size you need to treat it as a manufacturing
operation and implement those best practices,
regardless of scale, regardless of if you only
have three employees - you still need to treat
it like a manufacturing facility. "
In those scenarios, Zarling said, NMPAN
focuses on being the voice of reality to those
whose hopes and dreams might cloud good
business decisions.
FAMILY DYNAMICS
Family-owned-and-operated companies
present a whole other set of dynamics when
it comes to surviving or thriving as a meat
processing company.
Zarling said family-owned businesses
might consult NMPAN for a variety of reasons,
including succession planning and exploring
options for passing the torch to the next
generation or options if there is nobody in the
family interested in taking that torch. Other
challenges family businesses navigate involve
failing to achieve some predetermined metric
for success and the stakeholders get to the
point where the blood, sweat and tears are
simply not worth it and perhaps there is no
exit strategy. In those cases, owners are often
willing to cash out and sell for pennies on
the dollar.
" They're exhausted. It has affected their
relationships and more, and they just want to
be done, " he said.
The common denominator in these
scenarios, he added, is usually a case of a
family owner or owners devoting all of their
time and energy working extremely hard in the
business but not on the business. Times have
changed and continue changing, and some
companies aren't equipped to survive in today's
business climate.
" We don't just have person-to-person
freezer beef sales the way that we used to for
these smaller processors, " said Zarling. " I think
that there's a certain level of financial hygiene
and acumen [required] and a lot of folks maybe
didn't have access to the resources that it
would take to be viable today and it just ran
out of steam. "
In some family businesses, family members
opt to first work outside the company in an
unrelated field and come back home later
in life to join the business. In those cases,
they're coming to NMPAN asking, " 'The
business world outside of small agriculture
functions this way. We want to bring some of
these principles in, but how do we do that?' "
Zarling said.
BRIGHT IDEAS
Regardless of an entrepreneur's background
and even when they hear what sounds like a
viable and promising business idea, Zarling
said he and Thistlethwaite make every effort
to not squash dreams but encourage them to
pause and look at all the possibilities.
" I see it all the time: 'I'm an entrepreneur
and now I'm going to get into the meat industry
and we're going to knock this out of the park.'
" Rebecca and I tend to try to tell them to
pump the brakes, " Zarling said.
Instead, the team encourages aspiring
startups to first identify who their target
market is, which includes recognizing the labor
pool available and if there are enough people
to work for the company.
A common refrain, Zarling said is " 'We're
just going to hire migrants.' And that doesn't
make any sense, and that's not going to
happen; it's not reality, so you really need to
identify the target markets and one of the
markets are the employees. "
He says early-stage planning can be
enhanced by enlisting the expertise not only
of NMPAN and other university outreach
programs but advisors like Kitchen Table
Consulting LLC, Bala Cynwyd, Pa., which
" helps farmers, artisans and food system
businesses build lasting, profitable locally
focused operations. "
www.meatpoultry.com | 09.23 | MEAT+POULTRY 37
" I see it all the
time: 'I'm an
entrepreneur
and now I'm
going to get
into the meat
industry and
we're going to
knock this out
of the park.' "
- DAVID ZARLING
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Meat+Poultry - September 2023

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