Meat+Poultry - February 2021 - 26

C O M PA N Y P R O F I L E

All the hot dog and sausage
products from Zweigle's
are sold precooked.

and breakfast sausage and patties, fully
cooked chicken breasts and strips and sausage
crumbles which soon will be sold under its
Savory Sensations brand.
Last year, Zweigle's designed and rebuilt its
facility, replacing anything that remained from
its original 1968 building.
" We got all new raw material storage, cold
storage, grinding facilities, mixing and stuffing
lines, " Salva said. " Everything from a flexibility,
labor utilization, ergonomics standpoint is set
up for future growth. "
The plant features four sausage lines, three
packaging lines and the spiral cooking and

chilling area with a push-in, push-out front end
which allows for product flexibility.
" Not knowing where the growth in our
business would be and where the opportunities
in product development would lead, the front
of that line was built for a push-in, push-out
system, " Salva said. " So, you can run meatballs
or you can run fully cooked chicken breasts or
sliced chicken or breakfast sausage. "
The product is then sent through
the cryogenic freezer and into a vertical
bagging line.
Part of the most recent expansion included
acquiring adjacent property to provide
additional space for the future.
" We are in an urban location, with very
limited growth opportunity within our block, so
we had to buy the next block, " Salva said. " That
will really set us up for a nice future. It will give
us the ability to grow and keep our business in
the city of Rochester, which is very important to
the folks who work for us and to the city itself. "
More than half of the company's employees
live in the city of Rochester.

BEYOND HOT DOGS

&RUQGRJVGRQ¶WJURZRQWUHHV
WKH\¶UHSURGXFHGRQWKH37/

37/&RUQGRJ0DFKLQH
QH
3URGXFHVFRUQGRJVSHUKRXU
2YHU\HDUVRIXQLTXHGHVLJQ

H[SHULHQFHLQIRRGSURFHVVLQJHTXLSPHQW
YLVLWRXUZHEVLWHWRVHHWKHPDFKLQHLQDFWLRQ

26

(DVW/RÀDQG'U
:D[DKDFKLH7H[DV
86$
S
I
MEAT+ POULTRY | 02.21 | www.meatpoultry.com

ZZZDIVWH[DVFRP

VDOHV#DIVWH[DVFRP

The ongoing plant expansion
is priming Zweigle's for the
future - both in production and
product development. Research
and development is spearheaded
by Mike Bidzerkowny, a 47-year
veteran of the company, but
falls on the shoulders of all the
company executives.
" From the small company
perspective, you wear many hats, "
Salva said. " We're not Johnsonville
or Hormel with a giant R&D
department. Instead, product
development, product ideation
comes from everyone within the
company. As we grow, more time
and resources can be allocated
to R&D but for now I call it a
team effort. "
Many of the R&D projects are
sales driven. At times, a customer
will come to Zweigle's with raw
materials and a formulation and
ask them to put it together and
run it through the equipment.
Other times, customers will ask
http://www.meatpoultry.com http://www.afstexas.com
Meat+Poultry - February 2021

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Meat+Poultry - February 2021
