One craft meat business has been able to not only weather the challenges of recent years, but to use them as rungs on a step-ladder of expansion and success.
Blake Albers is a member of the fifth generation of the Albers family, who have been involved in the livestock business for almost 100 years. Thanks to his heritage and long experience in the beef business, Albers Craft Meats is able to use multiple channels to connect with consumers directly, and also to strike out in new directions by partnering with smaller ranchers and livestock producers to process and market their beef.
Albers Craft Meats employs a staff of 12 people. “We started out as a state-licensed butcher shop selling at events,” Albers said.
The new processing facility and storefront are located in downtown Norfolk, Nebraska, a town of about 26,000 people located 113 miles northwest of Omaha. The farm itself is located in Wisner, Nebraska, a town of about 1,200 people.
Growth of Albers Craft Meats has been about finding opportunities in challenges. “The volume shipping that companies like Fed Ex experienced post-COVID broke the system. It made e-commerce very difficult,” he said. “We began focusing on delivery service and local retail. Delivery took off in Lincoln, but not so much in Omaha.”
Albers made the decision not to operate its own slaughter facility, but it does have a U.S. Department of Agriculture federally inspected post-slaughter processing and cut-wrap facility that cuts, grinds and packages beef and other meats to be “case-ready”—both its own branded beef and that of other partners.
“It’s retail-ready when it leaves our facility,” Albers told High Plains Journal. Albers’ “short loads” of boxed fresh beef draw from an 850-mile radius of partners and suppliers and have been trucked as far as New Jersey. Albers also offers frozen beef and other meat and seafood products online.
“I’d love to see our e-commerce increase,” he said, adding “In-person retail is great.”
Besides offering its own branded meats, Albers “works with several premium meat brands,” including Salt and Sear Craft Beef. “The Lechtenberg family from Butte, Nebraska, raises incredible livestock and are an even better family. We’d be thrilled if Salt and Sear becomes our biggest customer,” Albers said.
Albers is managing three or four brands now and “would love to see it be 12. We take a real pride in working with like-minded families to try to value up livestock together.”
In the niche that Albers is operating in, he doesn’t have many direct competitors.
“Many brands can get stuck in a schedule of four to 10 head [of cattle] a month,” he said. “We aren’t a large-scale production facility, nor are we a traditional locker plant. We’re about taking that next step and making small brands bigger.”
Value customers are key
Albers said on the in-person retail level, he concentrates on the premium value-added beef from high end livestock and bulk beef bundles and opportunity buys.
“I tell people, ‘We don’t diddle with the middle.’ A lot of our customers are value customers, what I call price protesters. When they find deals on beef prices, they might buy big lots for several hundred dollars, to freeze for a few months’ supply. On the other hand, we have customers who want to know they are getting the best, know the traceability of that product and how it was handled all the way through the value chain.”
Asked what percentage of his company’s activities occupy what part of his time, Albers said it constantly changes. But he estimates that about 30% is sales of the company’s own branded products and 30% is sales and customer management for further processing. The balance is made up with compliance, day-to-day production and making sure the operation is working toward a balanced carcass for itself and clients.
“Once I get involved, I feel a lot of responsibility to help make our customers projects work,” Albers said. “I take it personally.”
Albers is bullish on the beef industry’s future. While not yet reaching the levels of per capita beef consumption of the 1970s, overall demand and consumption of beef is increasing. It’s driven by keto diets and a reduced stress on the dangers of fats in the diet. American beef consumption per capita is up by 5 pounds since 2016—and Albers believes there is room for another 5 pounds of growth per person.
“We have seen incredible growth in demand on the premium side,” he said. “There is a stickiness to demand for high-quality beef that I think will allow us to build thriving value-added beef programs.”
For more information, visit https://alberscraftmeats.com/
David Murray can be reached at journal@hpj.com.
