Meat+Poultry - January 2018 - 34

PLANT PROFILE

North Country's new
plant utilizes the latest
technology in equipment,
design and food safety
while increasing production
capacity significantly.

The 65,000-sq.-ft. facility will allow North
Country the room it needed to start saying 'yes'
to partnerships rather than 'we can't because we
don't have the capacity.' "It hurts to say no when
people are wanting to buy your product and
you don't have the product for them," says Mike
Satzow, founder and executive vice president of
sales and marketing at North Country.

IN WITH THE NEW
CMC Design-Build helped with the design
and acted as general contractor throughout
the 15-month process of construction from
breaking of ground to completion. North
Country Chief Operating Officer Aaron Corbett
says it was a complete "greenfield" project.
The new plant was built from the ground up
after stepping back, taking a pause and making
decisions based on getting it right the first time.
"It probably took us a year-and-a-half to
design before we even broke ground," Corbett
says.
"Actually, it took 50 years to design," Satzow
laughs, referring to his desire to build a new

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MEAT+ POULTRY | 01.18 | www.meatpoultry.com

facility from the ground up for many years.
"It's the goal of anybody who owns a meat
company to be in a position where they can
build a brand-new building and work space,
etc., exactly where they want," he adds.
Equipment plays a major role in the overall
plan of the facility. Not just new machines
to replace those that have worn out at the
old facility, but top-line machines that are
sometimes the first of their kind in the US.
The new ham line wears serial number 1 or 2
in the US according to Corbett. North Country
likes the flexibility the machine provides.
North Country utilizes large vacuum tumblers
to create high quality hams comparable to the
highest quality hams in Europe.
Another feature of the new North Country
facility is three new chillers to match its three
new smokehouses. The machines are the basis
of the plant's two lanes handling raw materials
coming in to finished product going out. The
left lane handles bacon exclusively with the
right lane covering everything else.
As with any food producer, North Country
had food safety front of mind when designing,
building and equipping the new plant.
"We spent quite a bit of extra money on
air drying systems that essentially guarantee
that in all the different rooms where we have
exposed meat products there will be zero
condensation at any given time," Corbett says.
"And that's been true. Since we've started we
have zero condensation issues in those rooms."
Corbett says the ability to produce high
quality, healthy, safe products is the biggest
upgrade they've made beyond the increased
capacity. But there were, and still are some
kinks to work out.

GROWING PAINS
The new facility has yet to even come close
to reaching its production capacity. With
around 40 different unique products, North
Country offers 300 to 400 SKUs. Currently,
bacon sales make up 60 percent of North
Country's business, followed by 12 percent
in sausage, another 12 percent in ham and
the remainder a mixture of beef, poultry and
cheese. However, those numbers don't tell the
complete story today.
"It's important to note that that was when
the plant was at capacity," Satzow says. "So,
we couldn't sell anymore because we were
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