Meat+Poultry - October 2020 - 19

Photos: SugarCreek

hile SugarCreek Brandworthy
Food Solutions operations have
expanded beyond bacon to other
proteins, its legacy business - bacon - remains
a core part of the company. The bacon
business continues to grow, and SugarCreek
continues to grow with it.
SugarCreek, based in Cincinnati, began
in 1966, as a raw pork bacon producer, and
a sizable part of the company's business
remains as a very large independent bacon
producer, said Jennifer Richardson Hutcheson,
chief relationship officer for the company
and daughter of the company's chairman and
chief executive officer, John Richardson.
SugarCreek is a co-packer that makes products
each day, including tons of bacon, for many
of the nation's top brands, retailers and
foodservice chains. It has been diversifying its
product mix, growing capabilities and capacity
in bacon and in other meat products.
The company has six facilities, four of them
in Ohio - in Washington Courthouse, which
was SugarCreek's first plant; two in Cincinnati;
one in Dayton - and also one in Frontenac,
Kan., and another in Cambridge City, Ind. More
than 2,600 people are employed at these six
processing facilities and the company's annual
revenue is over $750 million.
SugarCreek has recently invested in
additional processing space to diversify
the company's portfolio. Those include the
Cambridge City facility in Indiana, with 418,000
square feet of space and the Brandworthy
facility in Cincinnati.
"The recent investment of over $35 million
at our Brandworthy facility in Cincinnati
greatly increases our ready-to-eat capabilities.
Improvements include over 150,000 square feet
with six halls with up to 10 cooking lines," the
company said.
The investments in non-bacon processing
have given the company the opportunity to
expand the breadth of its products, which now
include precooked sausage, burgers, wings,
crumbles and sous vide technology.
"Bacon will always be a core business for
us," Hutcheson said. "But in the last five years,
we invested in two new state-of-the-art facilities
that are non-bacon. These investments continue
to diversify our portfolio. We are strong believers that consumer demand for high quality, fully
cooked proteins will continue to grow."

BACON CORE
SugarCreek operates three bacon facilities.
The one in Washington Court House, Ohio,
spans 122,000 square feet and produces raw
and fully cooked turkey bacon, bacon bits and
is equipped with high-volume smokehouses.
Another bacon plant in Dayton, Ohio,
manufactures raw and fully cooked bacon, pizza
toppings (bacon bits and pieces) and includes
smokehouse capabilities in the 120,000-squarefoot plant. The third facility is in Frontenac,
Kan., with 122,000 square feet of space where
it produces raw and fully cooked bacon, bacon
bits, bacon jerky, pizza toppings and includes
smokehouses to keep pace with the continued
growing demand for all things bacon.
SugarCreek makes products for many
of the nation's top brands, retailers, and
foodservice chains.
"We feel it is important to sell
multiple channels," Hutcheson said of the
company's strategy.
The co-packing business includes plenty of
customers in the bacon segment.
"Bacon is an incredibly versatile product.
It can stand alone, work as a topping or an
ingredient. And the demand for bacon remains
high in both retail and foodservice," she said.
"Bacon is integral to our business, but we are
increasingly excited over our new products."
Hutcheson described SugarCreek's mission:
"To offer a variety of well-made brandworthy products to our customers through a
diverse portfolio."
She said the variety of bacon products the
company makes is diverse to accommodate
the many applications for it across channels
and dayparts.
"We like to say, 'If it's bacon, we can make
it.' Our portfolio covers a wide range of bacon
offerings, raw and cooked, double smoked,
smoke drenched, various cures and uncured,
tumbled, rubbed, bacon bits, crumbles, you
name it. Not to mention chicken bacon, turkey
bacon, beef bacon, and other innovations,
such as sous vide pork belly. We make raw and
fully cooked bacon for retail and foodservice,"
she said.
As far as trends in bacon go, the product
continues to be popular among retail and
foodservice customers. Both raw and fully
cooked bacon continue to increase in
popularity, year after year, she said. Bacon

"We are strong
believers that
the consumer
demand for
high quality,
fully cooked
proteins will
continue to
grow."
- JENNIFER HUTCHESON

www.meatpoultry.com | 10.20 | MEAT+ POULTRY

http://www.meatpoultry.com

Meat+Poultry - October 2020

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Meat+Poultry - October 2020