Meat + Poultry - August 2016 - 46

P L A N T O P E R AT I O N S

BURGERS' SUPPORTS HIGHER EDUCATION
Earlier this year Burgers' Smokehouse
made a pledge of $100,000 to
the Univ. of Missouri's College of
Agriculture, Food and Natural
Resources through its E.M. Burger
Foundation. The funds will help with the
construction of a new meats education

and training facility on the east side
of the university's campus. The project
will serve the students and faculty of
the college's animal science and food
science programs.
Both undergraduate and graduate
students preparing for careers in the

were about $8 million. Despite the dot-com
bubble, real estate bubble and the recession in
2007-2008, the company grew at a steady pace.
In the 30 years since Steven Burger started,
the compound annual growth rate has been 6.5
percent. For the first half of those 30 years, the
mid-1980s to the mid-1990s, the company saw a
12 percent annual growth rate, but Burger and
his staff have committed to taking the business
to the next level.
"Hiring a vice president-caliber person from
a multi-billion dollar company will bring skill
sets to us that we feel are really imperative for
us to grow," Burger says.
The plan includes staying with the core
product line of whole muscle, cured and
smoked meats, and focusing on the sales and
marketing of those products, but allows for
innovations that will come from the process of
the new strategy plan.
"A part of our strategy is to actually create
an innovation process," Burger says.
Feedback and input from the sales and
marketing departments will feed the current
innovation process, as well as set up new ideas
into the future.
"Creating a process and allocating
resources toward identifying market trends
and either modifying or creating products that
fit those trends is certainly something that
we're going to be investing in," Burger says.
Reaching the company's future goals
depends on the performance of the existing
third generation management, the incoming
fourth generation and the key new hires, but
possibly the most important variables are the
employees who work in the plant. The core

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MEAT+ POULTRY | 08.16 | www.meatpoultry.com

meat animal industry will benefit from
the new education and training center.
In addition, the facility will continue
a tradition of providing valuable
information to processors, producers,
regulators, health officials and
consumers throughout the country.

group of approximately 150 employees, plus
the seasonal temps that take the company up
to 300 total employees, all have to do their part
too, and the executive team at Burgers' has the
utmost confidence in them.
"Our core employee group of around 150
people are outstanding," Burger says.
"A lot of people have been here 15 to
25 years," adds Keith Fletcher, senior vice
president of operations.
Fletcher listens to and trusts the workers
in the plant. He says that 90 percent of the
beneficial ideas for changes in production
and manufacturing come from the employees
that work on the line. They are the ones
that tell him where things might be done in
a more efficient manner. They're the people
who understand ways that processes can be
improved the most, he says.
"They can stop the line and call for QA
or management and we'll take a look at it,"
Fletcher says. "They're very beneficial to us
in making changes and corrections in our
processing."

INVESTING IN FOOD SAFETY
Food safety concerns every processing
company and Burgers' is no exception.
Regulatory compliance is stricter than it's ever
been and processors of all sizes are committed
to producing the safest food possible.
"We feel we have a moral obligation to
produce safe food products," Burger says.
Burgers' maintains rigorous sanitation and
testing practices and Fletcher says they've
run the gamut of antimicrobials. And while
there is no food-safety silver bullet, high
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