Meat&Poultry - July 2013 - 16

Cover Story

Crowning
achievements
BY JOEL CREWS

jcrews@sosland.com

V

elkommen! He greets guests to the reception area of

Danish roots

the new, sun-splashed foyer of the Plumrose head-

Born in 1944 and raised in Denmark, Mortensen dropped

quarters building as if he’s welcoming them to his home.

out of school as a 14-year-old and began an apprenticeship

Indeed, for the past two years, Freddy Mortensen, senior

in butchering and sausage making. After paying his dues

vice president of operations with Plumrose USA, has spent

working as a butcher for several years, he realized educa-

more time at the new Council Bluffs, Iowa, facility than at

tion would allow him to accomplish more.

home. Designing and building the 130,000-sq.-ft. plant
has been a labor of love for Mortensen, who was fully en-

“I went back to school for five years; every night,” he
recalls.

sconced in an affair that spanned 54 weeks from ground-

At the age of 25, he got a job with the Danish Meat

breaking to ribbon cutting, with a price tag of $78 million.

Research Institute. During his 12 years working there, he

“This is the best ham plant in the world today,” he as-

served as a planner and designer of slaughtering facilities.

serts, with an unmistakable Danish accent. Having oper-

“That was too boring,” he says. So, he began study-

ated now for about nine months, the start-up’s kinks and

ing meat technology in the evenings, after his day job, as

hiccups have been worked out of the plant where current

a process planner and time study. Eventually, he worked

capacity is about 260,000 lbs. of sliced ham per day with

his way up to the position of troubleshooter for DMRI

a crew of just 90 people. The new facility is barely beyond

until 1982. He then went to work as a product developer

the shadows of the original Plumrose plant, where demand

for Denmark’s Ess-Food, which at the time controlled 80

outpaced capacity several years ago.

percent of the hogs in the region. While at Ess, Mortensen

It’s impossible to not notice his pride and the emanat-

had an opportunity to work in the United States on a con-

ing sense of satisfaction as he sits to discuss, among other

tract basis for the company that is now Danisco, which

things, the plant he calls his crowning achievement. Soft

would later make him a job offer he couldn’t refuse. He

spoken and humble, Mortensen fi rst tells of a storied ca-

worked there for nine months before being recruited by

reer that started modestly and very far from Iowa. He re-

the president of Sure Pak, a plastics company that was

flects on his being honored as Meat&Poultry’s Operations

then producing cook-and-fi ll bags internationally. His

Executive of the Year and teases that he has one last item

only complaint: “I spent too much time in the office and

lingering on the bucket list of his career, as he reluctantly

I’m not an office person.” After five years with that com-

plans for a slow ride into the sunset this fall.

pany, they opened a plant in St. Joseph, Mo., where he

Photography by Chris Ruhaak

16

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