Power of Meat Offers Marketing Nuggets for Smaller Processors

The Annual Meat Conference, held in March each year, draws thousands of processors, retailers, consultants, and others from across the nation. The Big Four packers, executives from Walmart, Kroger, and other major retailers, are well represented at the conference. But the audience also includes a host of smaller processors, distributors, and retailers.

They come for networking, glimpses into new products, and information on the commodity outlook for beef, pork, and poultry. But mostly, they come for the unveiling of the latest Power of Meat Report.

This year didn’t disappoint.

New Beginning for Something Old

A 78-year-old processing business in Millen, Georgia is taking on new life, thanks to Jarrod and Becca Creasy.

Jarrod grew up on a farm not far from Millen, where Fries Frozen Food meat processing had been operating since 1948, while Becca grew up in central Florida in an agricultural family. After getting married on September 20, 2014, they began using Fries to process the beef they stocked in their own freezers and sold to others. As they dropped off an animal for processing one day, the owner said, “You two ought to buy this business.”