May 8, 1998 - Weaver Brothers Banking on Consumers’ Appetite for Meat Snacks

by Larry Aylward

It was winter and business was slow at his retail food market in Painesville, Ohio, so Dave Weaver had time to think. A light went off in his head when he realized that most of the few customers entering his store were purchasing his homemade beef jerky.

Maybe it was time to sell the 15-year-old business and begin manufacturing beef jerky for a living, he thought. People had been coming to the store from throughout the Northeast Ohio area to purchase the beef jerky, which Weaver and his brother, Mike, processed on-site from a recipe they created in the mid-1980s.

So Dave, the meatcutter, and Mike, the businessman, decided to go for it. They sold their $1 million-a-year business, dipped into their savings and took out a loan to build a 4,800-square-foot plant to process meat snacks. Ground was broken in February 1997 and the new Weaver Meats began operating about seven months later in an eastern suburb of Cleveland. The decision to build a $600,000 federally inspected plant made sense. People were willing to pay $17 for a pound of jerky, Mike said, and local tavern owners wanted the product to sell in their bars. Previously, Weaver Meats wasn't state or federally inspected, so the jerky could only be sold from the retail location.

The brothers also knew that meat snack sales were soaring throughout the nation, climbing from $472.7 million in 1987 to $859.5 million in 1996, according to the Snack Food Association. Sales jumped more than 20 percent from 1995 to 1996.

Ann Wilkes, vice president of communication for the Snack Food Association, said the sales increase is because of improved distribution. More consumers, with less time on their hands, are finding meat snacks at retail outlets and are picking them up to eat on the go.

But the Weaver brothers weren't the only ones to notice that meat snack sales were hot. "There are about 20 more companies that have gotten into the business since we started," Mike said. "There's a lot of competition."

Weaver Meats processes three flavors of whole-muscle beef jerky made from the eye of round: teriyaki, western and sweet. It also offers kippered beef steak, and beef/pork and beef smokies made from trimmings. Chicken and ostrich jerky products are new to the line.

The brothers' goal is to take their business national. "We would love to be in all states and be recognized like Slim Jim," Mike said.

Slim Jim meat snacks, manufactured by Raleigh, N.C.-based Goodmark Foods, commanded 19.4 percent of meat snack supermarket dollars in 1996, according to the Snack Food Association. Goodmark Foods had sales of $161 million in 1997.

Weaver Meats has nine employees, and Mike expects sales to be a shade under $1 million in 1998.

This article reprinted with permission from Meat Marketing and Technology Magazine.

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