IBP seeks slaughtering site; expands company operations
Dakota City, Neb.-based IBP Inc. is seeking a site for a new slaughterhouse in Virginia, South Carolina or North Carolina that will process 30,000 hogs a day.
The $70 million plant will house slaughter, cutting and packaging areas, as well as distribution, refrigeration and freezing spaces. It is unknown whether the new plant will maintain a wastewater treatment plant.
It is also unknown whether the engineering will be performed in-house or by an outside firm.
Site selection is expected to be completed by the end of the year, with start-up projected for 1997.
Meanwhile, IBP has assumed control of two meat companies.
Western Packing Co. of Sealy, Texas, was acquired from private investors. Western Packing is a cow processing facility that employs 140 people.
Terms of the sale were not disclosed. No immediate changes are planned for the Western operation.
"This acquisition marks our entry into a whole new arena," pointed out Robert L. Peterson, IBP chairman. "It is an excellent opportunity to bring IBP's efficiency and expertise to another aspect of food production."
And IBP officially took control April 3 of Gibbon Packing Co. plants in Gibbon, Neb., and Tama, Iowa.
Gibbon Packing runs cow slaughtering and boning operations. The two plants employ about 800 people.
No immediate changes in operations were planned for either plant, said IBP spokesman Gary Mickelson.
Study reveals costs of HACCP for small meat processors
Small meat companies would have to spend $17,600 on average to kick off their Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point programs and an additional $23,820 yearly to keep the program running, according to a new report commissioned by USDA
The Research Triangle Institute, hired by USDA, studied the economic impact of the department's HACCP plan, which is part of its inspection reform proposal. The institute based its findings on pilot HACCP studies in nine plants, one of which was considered small by USDA standards-$2.5 million or less in annual sales.
The report acknowledged that firms without formal quality control procedures, science-trained personnel, or free USDA training and guidance given to the pilot plants could see a higher cost. In addition, the estimate does not consider verification expenses.
USDA maintains that HACCP is financially feasible for any plant, big or small. Exemptions to the inspection proposal, which also includes microbial testing and standard operating procedures, are unlikely.
The American Association of Meat Processors believes the $2.5 million line that USDA uses to divide small and big processors is too high, and that the cost of the proposal will drive many small firms out of business.
One in, one out, one given added duties at ConAgra
Meat industry veteran Arnold S. Mikelberg has taken over as president of Armour Swift-Eckrich's Processed Meats Co., a division of Omaha, Neb.-based ConAgra Inc.
Mikelberg previously worked for Thorn Apple Valley Inc., where he was executive vice president of operations, a corporate director and executive officer. Prior to that, he was senior vice president of processed meats for John Morrell and Co. He has also held management positions with Frederick, Herrud and Hygrade Food Corp.
In addition, Lee Lochmann, president of Armour Swift-Eckrich and ConAgra's refrigerated foods sector, has assumed the responsibility of ConAgra's chicken sector.
He replaces Robert Womack, who resigned in March after 16 months at the helm. Womack came to ConAgra from Tyson Foods Inc. in December 1993.
Recently, ConAgra moved its chicken operations into refrigerated products to accelerate a return to acceptable results, according to the company's fiscal third quarter operating report.
Ex-NFPA executive joins AMI
Karen Mogan has been named vice president of legislative and regulatory affairs for AMI. Mogan, who left her position as director of environmental affairs for the National Food Processors Association, will coordinate AMI's environmental committee, and serve as a liaison to lawmakers and regulatory agencies.
Prior to working for NFPA, Mogan was a legislative assistant for Rep. J. Roy Rowland (D-Ga.) and legislative director of Rep. Floyd D. Spence (R-S.C.). While working for Rowland, she was chief negotiator on the Energy and Commerce Committee for the Clean Air Act of 1990.
TriFoods gets new CFO
Leo J. Pound has been named chief financial officer of Pomfret Center Conn.-based TriFoods International Inc. He will manage all financial aspects, including strategic planning, bank and shareholder relations, accounting, risk management, and employee benefit plans.
Pound comes to TriFoods, which creates, develops and sells innovative food products, from Watson's Quality Turkey Products Inc. where he was chief operating officer. Pound helped Watson's successfully restructure its core products group and launch a new corporate division, increasing sales by $15 million in less than two years.
TriFoods uses patented cuts of beef, pork and poultry to develop its meat products, and sells them through retail, foodservice, restaurant chains, convenience and club stores.
The company also offers co-packing opportunities for such well-known firms as Wal-Mart and Bob Evans Farms.
Striker executive order
could hit industry hard
One of the biggest customers of the meat industry is the U.S. government. It buys $400 million in products for the military, National School Lunch Program and other feeding programs.
So President Clinton's executive order forbidding the hiring of permanent replacement workers by government contractors who sell their products to the federal government could have a profound impact on the industry.
The ban applies to all contracts of $100,000 or more and to all work being done in a plant, not just work on the contract alone.
Congressional opponents vow to fight the order.
A House subcommittee voted to bar Clinton from issuing the order. Sens. Robert Dole and Nancy Kassebaum, both Kansas Republicans, oppose the order, as do 12 Democrats led by Rep. Cal Dooley of California.
Dole says he will attach an amendment to a defense supplemental appropriations bill that would prevent enforcement of the order.
In one attempt, Senate Republicans fell several votes short of passing legislation that would have scuttled the order.
In a letter to Clinton, AMI and the Alliance to Keep Americans Working said: "It is our belief that such [an order] would destroy the quality of economic bargaining power between labor and management which the New Deal Congress, with the approval of the Supreme Court, sought to preserve by balancing labor's right to strike with management's right to stay in business using temporary or permanent replacement workers.
"No president, Republican or Democrat, has challenged these countervailing rights since the original passage of [the] National Labor Law in 1935," the letter stated.
Changes continue at Tyson
Tyson Foods Inc. has named 34-year company veteran Donald "Buddy" Wray as president.
The move is the latest in a series of management shifts for the Springdale, Ark.-based pork and poultry processor. The shifts began when Don Tyson stepped down as chairman on April 21, his 65th birthday.
Replacing Tyson is Leland Tollett, who adds chairman to his title of CEO. Wray, 58, who retains his current title of chief operating officer, succeeds Tollett as president. He became COO in 1992.
Tyson has assumed the newly created position of senior chairman.
Canadian processor's parent threatened by takeover bid
Toronto-based Maple Leaf Foods Inc., which operates Maple Leaf Meats, is the object of a $1 billion takeover attempt. Wallace McCain, the man attempting the takeover, says he and his team will cut costs and might have to sell of parts of the company if he is successful in his bid.
Maple Leaf Foods is the largest food processing company in Canada and one of the largest in North America.
McCain, who founded Canadian frozen-food giant McCain Foods in 1956, told the Montreal Gazette that a restructured Maple Leaf will eventually have to "pare its production costs to the flesh and bone."
If successful, McCain would be installed as Maple Leaf chairman and his sons Michael and Scott would be appointed to undetermined senior management positions.
McCain was ousted from joint command of McCain Foods last year after a feud erupted between he and his brother Harrison.
The McCain family is putting down as much as $150 million of its own money, as well as using Maple Leaf cash and loading the company with debt to finance the transaction.
Maple Leaf Meats manufactures and markets a complete line of prepared meats under six brand names.
The company produces cured and smoked pork products, delicatessen products, specialty sausages, wieners, and an upscale line of European-style meats.
Glickman takes helm as USDA secretary
Former Kansas lawmaker Dan Glickman has assumed command of USDA. He was approved as secretary by the Senate on March 30 and sworn-in the same day.
Earlier, Glickman breezed through his one-day confirmation hearing before a Senate agriculture committee, which unanimously voted to approve his nomination.
In his opening remarks to the committee, Glickman said he would be an "unyielding advocate for agriculture," and that "food safety will be one of my priorities, as it was throughout my House career."
Much of the hearing centered on the 1995 farm bill, which is currently being debated in House and Senate committees. But Glickman would not comment on the bill until the Clinton Administration plan is finalized.
He did say the administration is ready to challenge Republican plans to slash farm spending by $10 billion to $15 billion during the next five years. The Clinton budget calls for only a $1.5 billion cut in farm spending.
Glickman said he supported promotion activities of American agriculture products, but would not comment specifically on Sen. Richard G. Lugar's (R-Ind.) proposal to eliminate the Export Enhancement Program. Lugar wants to cut EEP to help save $15 billion in the farm bill.
Glickman was a nine-term congressman before being defeated in November. He replaces Mike Espy who resigned late last year amid charges of impropriety. Assistant Secretary Richard Rominger had been acting secretary since Jan. 1.