Meat&Poultry - October 2011 - 62

BARDINE’S COUNTRY SMOKEHOUSE

The large retail area features a meat case that stretches 45 feet to showcase Bardine’s quality meat products.

product or two in state competitions beginning in 1999, he hit into higher gear with the opening of his new retail processing shop that opened in the fall of 2005 – and the rush of product awards solved any worries about how to decorate the walls. Last year, Gary took nine products to Frankfurt, Germany, to enter in the International Meat Trades

Cured Meat Championships. Gary was recently elected to the AAMP Board of Directors.

Moving ahead
With only 16 employees, the shop seems destined for even greater success. “I’m t hin k ing about anot her smokehouse, a new cooler area and more retail cases so we can offer a greater variety of flavors,” he says. His “little shop that could” has added a Southern Pride cooker where Bardine’s serves up sausages, ribs and roast pork sandwiches to add a bit of sizzle and aroma to hungry customers coming into the store. It is remarkable that folks beat a path to his door to buy the more than 1,000 hams he features for the holidays. But make no mistake about Gary’s business acumen and his ability to charge for a product or service. “When I was processing deer, there was plenty of competition,” he says. “I charged more than anyone else but gave the customer a first-rate job with only some knives, a band saw and a grinder. When I got too busy, I raised the processing charges and even more people came. I realized it was quality they wanted and not the lowest price.”

“I realized it was quality they wanted and not the lowest price.”
Fair (IFFA) worldwide competition. He earned gold medals in six categories, including summer sausage, ring bologna, bacon, braunshweiger, ham luncheon meat and jalapeno kielbasa. His regular kielbasa and skinless franks earned silver awards and the bone-in ham he entered brought home the bronze medal. His recipes have also won the best of show awards from cured meat competitions of the Pennsylvania Association of Meat Processors, which he has also served as president, and 23 winning plaques from the American Association of Meat Processors (AAMP) American

Gary gave up deer processing to move on to what he perceived as a new level of retailing meats. It got him the pair of Kerres smokehouses he needed, and the bowl chopper, a large and small tumbler, the vacuum stuffi ng equipment and other gear needed to produce quality products with a higher volume. Higher volume means he’s now closer to the rollstock machine he’s been dreaming about. One would almost have to go to the website – www.bardinemeat.com – to keep track of what he’s doing next with his enthusiasm and myriad of meat offerings. A sign outside the shop promotes a new Buffalo wing with bleu cheese sausage. He does some paid advertising, including a few billboards, but works close to his roots. He’ll spend the extra money to buy the top 4-H animals at the fairs. “Right now I’m concentrating on what it takes to make a business grow to its potential,” he concludes. ■
Steve Krut, an industry veteran, is a contributing editor writing exclusively for Meat&Poultry, specializing in small business issues. He resides in Marietta, Pa. We would like to hear from you – to comment on this story or to request reprints, contact us by email at meatpoultry@sosland.com.

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