Meat+Poultry - March 2020 - 91

T

here are plenty of youngsters whose first
introduction into the world of business
came in the form of a lemonade stand.
But for 11-year-old Matt Kuplack, it was the
dream of opening a beef jerky company that
sparked his entrepreneurial spirit.
Then a resident in northeastern
Pennsylvania's Jefferson County, young
Kuplack grew up hearing about his grandfather's homemade jerky.
"Everybody loved it and asked him for the
recipe," the now 13-year-old shares. "He gave
it out to a select few of his friends and advised
them that it was a secret recipe that they
should not pass on to anyone else. The friends
compared their recipes and found that no one
had been given the real secret recipe after all.
Grandpa still makes me smile to this day."
Kuplack's grandfather died in 2013, so he
never got to try his jerky firsthand, but he fell
in love with the jerky his dad made. His dad
said they could work on recreating the recipe.
His father, Matthew, confesses that the idea
of making and selling the family recipe jerky
was completely his son's idea. He says that
he helped him with preparing and slicing the
first small batches and instructed him on using
a home dehydrator, but that his son took the
concept and ran with it.
"My twin sisters Kayla and Katrina helped
me package the jerky in Ziploc bags and sell
them to friends, classmates and teachers at
school," Kuplack recounts. "We sold it in 3-oz.
bags and began selling it door-to-door in the
neighborhood. We might have sold 10 or 20
bags a week. Now my sisters are 17 years old
and also help with marketing and getting the
word out on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram."

Photos: Matt-Hat Jerky

BUSINESS EXPANSION
More recently, the Kuplack family moved to
Moscow, a small community southeast of
Scranton, Pennsylvania. With some financial
assistance from their father, they were able
to lease a 2,000-sq.-ft. former delicatessen last
August that had some equipment they could

use, including cutting tables, refrigeration and
room for storage and packaging.
"We had 25 area retail locations that wanted
to sell our product," Kuplack says. "We found
out that we could only retail our jerky directly
to consumers. We came under the jurisdiction
of the Pennsylvania Dept. of Agriculture and
with our new location we were also able to
open a retail sales area."

Matt Kuplack's twin
sisters, Katrina (left) and
Kayla, help promote MattHat Jerky on Facebook,
Twitter and Instagram.

"We've come a long way and
my family has been behind
me and beside me every step
of the way." - MATT KUPLACK
Most of their sales today are a result of the
internet and social media marketing. They ship
their product via the US Postal Service. Their
20-year-old sister Holly assists with marketing
and does some of the driving to get supplies.
"All of our earnings have been put back into
the business," Kuplack explains. "We obtained
some much better packaging with re-sealable
film bags and a high-resolution picture of me
in my cowboy hat. The bag also has ingredient
statements and informative labeling."
A candid cowboy hat photo of Kuplack gave
rise to the name Matt-Hat Jerky and this small
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