Meat&Poultry - December 2011 - 64

GREATER OMAHA PACKING

(Continued from Page 61) last 15 years, enhancing food safety has motivated us. If you do food safety right, everything else falls into place. If you don’t, you may not have a place to work the next morning.” Approximately 40 packers previously existed in Omaha. “We have very few here today,” Davis points out. “Many didn’t realize food safeDavis ty had to be their absolute No 1 priority.” GOP’s commitment to food safety is exemplified in its policies, mission statement and current custom-built harvesting/fabrication/ corporate office complex located on the site Fili of the now extinct Omaha stockyards. Today, floor space is approximately 225,000 sq. ft., including 170,000 sq. ft. in the harvesting facility and about 60,000 in the fab room. GOP’s then-new slaughter plant opened on July 7, 2000. Increasing daily production capacity to 2,500 head, this plant and its fab plant were

Today, floor space totals approximately 225,000 sq. ft. (170,000 sq. ft. in the harvesting facility and about 60,000 in the fab room). GOP is now building a 100,000 sq. ft. expansion – half for the fab room and half for the packaging area. (Photo courtesy of GOP)

domestic and global markets. Nine lines are stationed in the fab room, which employs about 500 workers. Three-hundred work on the harvesting floor. The fab plant runs one processing shift and two cleaning shifts six days a week.

Premium products
GOP is laser-focused on producing consistently trimmed, fresh, refrigerated boxed-beef primals plus a line of frozen offals. Beef brands include Omaha Natural Angus Beef, Certified Angus Brand Beef, Greater Omaha Brand Beef, Certified Hereford Beef, and 1881 Omaha Hereford Beef. The company sells to high-end chain stores, distributors and steakcutters, and it also sells plenty of raw material for grinding. Finished products take only two days to be distributed by truck to customers on either coast. GOP buys primarily Black Angus cattle, but some Hereford, as well. GOP processes about 2 percent [2,500 head] of the 100,000 head of cattle processed daily in the US and sells to markets throughout the world. “We’re a mid-size packer in an industry dominated by several large corporations. Our size and flexibility help us respond quickly to customers,” Davis says. Each animal defi nes GOP’s cus-

tomer base, Fili explains. The legs go to grinding; roasts such as the chuck and round go into grocery stores; and steak items go to restaurants and export. Since the 1990s, GOP has worked with Trex Corp. to grow its exports. “As exports got bigger, we got together with Mark Melnick at Trex Corp,” Davis says. He develops customer relations, and comes back to GOP with leads and orders.

Business is good
During the last three years, GOP has achieved more than $1 billion per year in sales. But Davis says he isn’t interested in racking up more sales or processing more head per day. “Our interest is in putting out the best, safest product,” he says. “We want to increase the value of products and do more work for our customers.” To keep up with demand and better prepare for the future, GOP is currently building a 100,000 sq. ft. expansion – half for the fab room and half for the packaging area. The expansion will allow GOP to satisfy all customers for whatever type of product and packaging they demand. “This two-f loor addition will make more room for new box-making equipment and enhance product traceability,” Fili says. “Many customers have different demands,

“Back in the 70s and 80s, meat companies were motivated by dollars and cents. But for the last 15 years, enhancing food safety has motivated us.”
designed to satisfy EU import standards – even though the EU wasn’t accepting US beef at that time due to the US’ use of hormones in cattle – as well as to enhance food safety, humane animal handling, worker safety and production efficiencies. On April 6, 1996, GOP opened its new fab plant. This more efficient, larger processing facility allowed it to increase daily head capacity from 800 to 1,400 head, which helps the company to compete more effectively in

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