Preservation Effort

Mark Bianchetti became involved in his family’s business just as the small meat products plant began experiencing a decline in its traditional customer base. Bianchetti began researching trends in the snack food products industry and took the company into a niche market, concentrating exclusively on beef jerky. His change in direction has doubled sales and last fall won the company the Blue Chip Enterprise Initiative Award, sponsored by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Nation’s Business magazine and Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Corp. He was interviewed by Karen E. Klein.

*

My grandfather opened this company, producing sausage, mortadella bologna, Mexican chorizo and beef jerky. As a kid, I used to come to work with my dad and my grandfather and they would be cutting meat and making deliveries and I got to help out. By the time I started working here after college, we had gotten out of the sausage business and our focus was on the restaurant trade. We supplied wholesale beef, cheese, pork and poultry, mostly to Mexican restaurants and markets.

But over the last 15 years or so, a couple of the restaurant chains we sold to were bought out by major, major companies who began purchasing directly from commissaries and eliminated us from the picture. Then, with the growth of fast-food chains, a lot of the mom-and-pop restaurants that were our customers went by the wayside.

The market was changing so much, I knew we had to do something. The writing was on the wall. I have some friends who supply beef to the fast-food industry and they told me about the explosion in snack foods. Every corner has an AM-PM or a 7-Eleven or a Circle K selling snacks. They’re fast and reasonably priced and, with people spending so much time in their cars, they are convenient.

I knew we had always made a very, very good, large slab of beef jerky, but we were selling it in bulk packages for market showcases. I decided, the way things were going, we ought to package it and sell it by the piece, targeting the snack products industry. My dad, who just recently retired, had some questions about where we were going, but he was willing to take a chance.

So we developed the Peoples Choice brand of beef jerky that started to gain a following. Now it is going great guns and has become popular in liquor stores, gas stations and convenience stores. Because we are making something that is unique, our customers have to come to us to get it, which is not true when you are just selling generic pieces of meat or cheese. And the profit margin on a processed product is high.

Now we are selling it loose, by the piece, in a plexiglass container that sits near the cash register so people can grab pieces out of the jar with tongs. That sells even faster than the packaged variety. We have started to make different flavors and we’re experimenting with selling it in zip-lock bags. Recently we have upgraded all our equipment and expanded and modernized our plant. In the last five years, we have grown from six employees to 20.

I think, as a small company, you have to always be moving into new things. You can’t stay stagnant or you’re going to go down. You must be flexible enough--especially in a family business--so you don’t get caught up in doing things the way they have always been done. And if you can follow trends in the market, that’s the most important thing.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

At a Glance

* Company: Peoples Sausage Co.

* Nature of business: Wholesale meat products manufacturer

* Location: 1132 E. Pico Blvd., Los Angeles

* Founded: 1929

* Employees: 20

* Revenue: $3 million