Meat + Poultry - January 2006 - 48

Bo Jackson

Foods manufacturing facilities to
produce meat and poultry products.
N'Genuity leases Zartic's facilities and
employees.
Bowen says the company strives to
obtain the best raw products available
and produce them in the best manufacturing facilities available.
N'Genuity also works with PWC
Logistics, which holds the prime vendor contract for providing all of the
food and food services for the Armed
Forces in the Middle East. N'Genuity
attributes a major part of its business to
selling to the military. Jackson and other
N'Genuity personnel have been to Kuwait twice in the past few years to serve
the company's products to the troops.
During the first visit, Jackson and the
others toured about 15 military bases
and met thousands of troops.
Growing the business
Jackson, LittleChief and Bowen say
they want to grow the business slowly.
Bowen uses words such as "nurture"
when discussing the strategy.
"We don't want to bite off more
than we can chew," Jackson adds.
"I'm not afraid to say that I'm still
learning the business."
The long-term plan is to sell the Bo
Jackson Signature line at retail outlets.
Jackson's sweet potato and pumpkin
pies are currently sold at Wal-Mart Su-

MEAT&POULTRY

January 2006

Bo Jackson says he's lending more than his name to his company's food products. "I know
what's in the package and I know what it took to get to that point," he says.

percenters with more products to follow in the future.
"Retail is down the road for us, but
it isn't that far down the road," Jackson
says. "Our main goal now is to make
a great foundation with the wholesale
side of the market, such as government
contracting."
"Ultimately, there's a great market
just for the simplicity of some of our
pre-cooked products," Bowen adds.
"We're looking at value-added products like cooked meats, portion-cut
steaks and products that don't require a
lot of preparation but taste good."
Ney says Cargill can help N'Genuity
with research and development by providing its state-of-the-art facilities to
design innovative products for retail.
"But we want to start small," Ney
adds. "The sky is the limit, but we
don't want to stub our toe."
Jackson adds, "There's an old saying: In order for me to have a smart and
successful company, I have to surround
myself with even smarter and trustworthy people. And that's what I've done."
Bowen is Jackson's right-hand man.
Jackson, an avid outdoorsman, provides
this analogy to what Bowen means to
the company.
"It's my job to go out and catch the

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fish," he says. "And I bring it back to
the office and let Bub process it. Then I
cook the fish once he has processed it,
and I sample it."
Bowen, whose business background
is in corporate takeovers, met Jackson
several years ago on a golf course.
Bowen orchestrated the founding of
N'Genuity and introduced Jackson to
LittleChief, a Native American who's
a certified gemologist. Bowen says
he brought the two together knowing
they could make an impact as partners in a minority-owned business.
He also knew Jackson wanted an outlet for his cooking prowess, and LittleChief desired a new vehicle for her
business ventures.
"I knew that Bo and I would make
a great team," says LittleChief, the
company's co-president. "With his passion for quality products and my experience with importing and exporting, it
seemed to be a good fit."
What's the big deal?
Jackson spends many days on the
road doing business. But on an autumn
day this past year, he was home in Illinois catching up on some much-needed
rest and relaxation. Jackson spoke to
M&P while sitting in a tree stand in the

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Meat + Poultry - January 2006

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