Niche marketing a key element to Jensen Meat Co.'s success
Jensen Meat Co. processes almost 500,000 pounds of product a week.
by Bryan Salvage, editor
Trying to be "all things to all people" is impossible in today's business world, particularly for small- to medium-sized meat processors.
Executives at Jensen Meat Co., founded in 1958 by Reggie Jensen, learned this through experience.
"For almost 25 years, we were your typical HRI (hotel, restaurants and institutions) outfit," says Bob Jensen, president of the Vista, Calif.-based firm and Reggie's son. "We sold the whole gamut of meat products to restaurants."
But the business climate dramatically changed by the early 1980s.
"After completing cost analyses, we decided we had to do one of several things: become more of a full-line distributor; become more specialized; or get out of the meat business," Jensen says.
The business tried its hand at being a full-line distributor. Production expanded into an additional plant, but business went nowhere.
"At that time, we were also doing a fair amount of ground beef business, so we decided to expand more into ground beef," Jensen says. "We had just taken on a couple of other accounts that were small and starting to expand."
Dublin, Ohio-based Wendy's International was one of the accounts. As Wendy's expanded on the West Coast, Jensen's ground beef business grew. Jensen next helped Price Club warehouse stores start its own meat division.
"At that time, we were doing a lot of fresh patties, and Price Club had only three stores," Jensen says.
When Price Club built an additional store near Riverside, Calif., another supplier offered to supply it with an IQF (individually quick frozen) line of patties. Price Club agreed to test the IQF line with consumers.
The IQF patties sold so well that Price Club added the line to its permanent line-up. Jensen Meat lost Price Club's patty business-temporarily.
"But the buyers said, 'We started with you and we'll stay with you if you can give us a comparable IQF patty,' " Jensen claims.
After nine months of research, Jensen took the IQF plunge, investing $500,000 in IQF machinery. But then Price Club owner Saul Price gave all of Price Club's patty business to an old meat supplier friend. Jensen was again out in the cold.
"We spent a lot of money on the IQF machinery, but we didn't give up," Jensen recalls. "We decided to sell IQF patties to other distributors and meat companies. It was a hard sell at first. But after one year, business began to escalate."
New era
Jensen Meat employs 65 people and processes a full range of IQF and refrigerated ground beef patties in different blends and fat percentages, as well as pork sausage patties. Almost 500,000 pounds of product are processed a week; up from 75,000 pounds produced weekly five years ago.
Jensen Ground Beef is the company's highest quality ground beef product. It consists of only 90 percent chemically lean, whole carcass, boneless beef and fresh 50 percent lean steer trimmings.
Jensen's California Burger (100 percent pure beef) consists of 90 percent chemically lean, whole carcass, boneless beef; 50 percent fresh lean trimmings; and partially defatted chopped beef, which is a high-quality, 88 percent lean beef ingredient derived from beef trimmings.
Golden Burger (100 percent pure beef) is designed for customers needing a high-quality, value-added ground beef product. The company selects and blends only 90 percent chemically-lean, whole boneless beef; partially defatted chopped beef; and other lean meat trimmings with fresh 50 percent lean beef trimmings.
Jensen's refrigerated, bulk-pack patties are vacuum-packaged. Most frozen patties are layered between paper and packed in cardboard boxes. A small percentage or product is chub packed refrigerated and frozen.
"A lot of raw material we use is imported from Australia and New Zealand," Jensen says. "Some raw material comes from sources like [Dakota City, Neb.-based] IBP and [Tolleson, Ariz.-based] Sunland Beef."
Most of Jensen's patties are distributed to accounts in California, Nevada and Arizona. Product is also shipped to customers in Oregon, Colorado, New Mexico, Hawaii, as well as Mexico. Current clients include Kraft Foodservice, Rally's, S.E. Rykoff, Sexton and Sysco. Jensen has a fleet of trucks to deliver products within a 200-mile radius of plant; The remaining distribution is handled by common carrier.
A big reason behind Jensen's success is the unusual patented machinery and process used to make its patties. The meat is forced through a special plate with angled holes prior to forming.
The meat strands then gently interweave to retain better-than-handmade tenderness, and air between the strands trap juices during preparation to make the burgers tastier, a company spokesperson claims.
The patties retain up to 50 percent more juice than a standard patty, the spokesperson adds. The patty will not dry even when cooked to an internal temperature of 160 degrees F.
This process was originally known as the Ultimate Patty process, which was developed by Henry Holly, founder of Hollymatic Corp. The process was later sold to Ultimate Technologies. Rochester, Minn.-based Rochester Meat & Provision Co. is the only other company using this process for IQF patties on a large-volume basis, Jensen claims.
In the plant
The company moved from San Diego to its current facility in Vista five years ago.
"It's a simple operation with a simple flow-through," Jensen says of his new plant. "The key to profitability is being able to do the maximum amount of production within the smallest amount of space. You don't need an 80,000 square-foot plant to process 1 million pounds a week.
"When we built and designed this plant, we knew we could handle capacity up to 1.5 million pounds a week," Jensen adds. "The plant's current size is 26,000 square feet. We have room to add another 14,000 square feet."
All incoming materials (which are delivered three times a week) and shipments of final product are handled from the same loading dock. Dry goods are placed in a newly remodeled area above the loading docks, which relieves congestion from the downstairs area.
The box manufacturing area is also located upstairs and will soon be upgraded to an automatic system. This new space keeps packaging material handling at a minimum within the processing area.
Temperatures of incoming raw meat materials are taken, quality is visually checked, and the raw material is separated in lots.
The manufacturing meat next enters the cooler or freezer prior to production.All incoming manufacturing meat is tested for microbial counts. Most of these tests are done by the plant's in-house laboratory.
Tests for E. coli 0157:H7 and listeria, however, are done at commercial laboratories.
"We upgraded our grinding line," Jensen says. "In addition to adding a second freezing line, we added a second grinding line to where fresh and frozen lean trim-and fat trim-are ground in separate grinders and blended together. We have a bone collecting system on our grinding line. Everything goes through metal detectors and comes out of this line.
"So, if we add a third and fourth freezer line and another patty line, the grinding line will be able to handle the full capacity of what the plant can produce," he adds.
Frozen lean meat trim passes through a Raytheon microwave tempering tunnel before being delivered to a grinder and blender. "The tunnel takes product from 0 degrees F to 28 degrees F in three to four minutes," Jensen says.
The remaining raw meat goes through another grinder and into another blender.
"Both blenders are set up on load cells so product can be analyzed for fat," Jensen adds. "Then according to the batch, we drop that back into the 5,000-pound blender. We're able to get our fat percentage within a half-percent [of specifications.]"
After the ground and blended products are formed into patties, products destined for freezing pass through a new York Double-Impingement Spiral Freezer.
"We're real happy with the shrink loss we're getting now versus the other tunnel," Jensen points out. "We're able to keep shrink loss down anywhere from six-tenths to nine-tenths of a percent. It's almost equivalent to what cryogenic freezing can do, but at a lesser cost per pound."
The approximate dwell time for product passing through the freezer tunnel is 12 to 15 minutes, depending on the size and thickness of patties.
"It enters the tunnel at 30 degrees to 32 degrees F [internal temperature]. When it exits, it's anywhere between 0 degrees F and -10 degrees F," Jensen says.
When product comes out of the freezer tunnel, it is packed into 5-, 10-, 20-, 30- or 50-pound boxes. Boxed product then goes back down a conveyor to the weighing station.
Each case is checked for weight and patty counts; sealed; and the lot number, date and time of day is printed on the box.
"Our definition of a lot is each batch we make," Jensen adds.
All finished refrigerated products are generally shipped out the day after production; all frozen products are shipped out within two to seven days after production.
"We try to stock a little less than a two-week inventory for our customers, but most of the time we probably have a week's inventory," Jensen points out. "Inventory and time are money. So our quick turnaround is almost like just-in-time to a degree."
A sample from each batch of meat is cooked in-plant every time a new batch is started to ensure product maintains the proper shape and moisture purge.
"We try to catch potential problems before product leaves the plant," Jensen says.
Building for the future
Jensen Meat has had a Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point program in place for more than two years, and it continues to be refined. Many hours and much money ($20,000 to $30,000) have been invested in its HACCP plan.
The company is currently developing a HACCP training video (in English and Spanish) that is being produced in-house and features plant employees.
"The next step [in HACCP] will be requiring reports from our raw material suppliers [addressing bacteria counts]," Jensen says. "We will require trace-back capabilities on all of their products."
Maintaining and enhancing quality control is a must.
"It's important that we set the standards and not for USDA to dictate what those standards should be," Jensen insists. "Many meat company managers look at USDA as their quality control arm. That's not the way it's supposed to be.
"I don't look at costs on quality control procedures and testing as an expense; it's part of doing business," he adds. "We probably spend more than $100,000 a year on quality control, a small expense overall. Our customers say they don't mind taking that half-cent [a pound] increase.
"Every meat company will have to implement [quality control] procedures," Jensen continues. "Each company must have a person [part- or full-time] in charge of quality control."
During the past year, Jensen Meat has increased swab tests on a continuing basis to monitor bacteria counts.
"We've seen a tremendous improvement in our products through these tests," Jensen adds.
In the future
The company is investigating the implementation of bar coding (UCC/EAN 128) throughout its entire process.
"We're looking at bar coding because it ties into what we want to do within HACCP," Jensen adds. "We'd like bar codes on all incoming raw meat materials and on our finished products.
"We'd like a uniform bar-coding system for the entire industry that will automatically tie into a computer system so you've got trace-back throughout your entire distribution and processing system. This will be an industry requirement in the future."
The ability to consistently produce high-quality products as production increases will be a major challenge many processors will face, Jensen points out. Meeting regulations focusing on quality from various government agencies will also remain a major challenge.
"A lot of companies won't know how to deal with some of these [regulations]," Jensen says. "They'll be afraid to add costs to their product, and they'll try to absorb these costs. That will put a lot of companies out of business.
"On the positive side, this [shake out] will make our industry better," he adds. "Our products will be cleaner."