Meat+Poultry - April 2022 - 28

COVER STORY
Fed Angus cattle from
Naeve Livestock will supply
the plant for the Naeve
Family Beef brand.
THE PLAN
Naeve Family Beef hired Tom Ryan as its
sales and marketing director and tasked him
with executing a strategy that will give the
brand the best chance for success. Ryan's
education includes an associate of science
degree in culinary arts from Johnson & Wales
Culinary school in Miami and a Bachelor's
degree in hospitality management from Florida
International University.
His work history includes, but is not limited
to, managing hotels, working as a chef in the
Hamptons, working as a cook in the US Coast
Guard and selling meat for various companies
such as Niman Ranch, among others.
" Mission critical from the sales and
marketing perspective is to launch a branded
program and get value for it, " Ryan said.
Ryan will use the six generations of
success that come with Naeve Livestock,
the minimal footprint created by the overall
operation of feeding, production and the feed
itself all coming from the same farm, and
the processing facility being located a short
15 miles away, to sell. Add that the feeding
operation already supplies some of the major
packers throughout the country, and he
believes success is inevitable.
" I've been in the business awhile and there's
a tangible difference between cattle that have
been trucked a really long way a couple of
times versus cattle that don't get trucked and
aren't exposed to that stress, " Ryan said. " It
makes a huge difference in finished product. "
28 MEAT+POULTRY | 04.22 | www.meatpoultry.com
With a solid knowledge of operating
expenses, Ryan has set pricing for custom
slaughter customers. Confident in the modeling
and belief in the smart people in the company,
Ryan said it is still a little scary.
" You just don't know if it's exactly correct
until we get running, " Ryan said. " It's just
one of those situations where you just try to
make the best decision you can and go walk
the plank. You can't get a purchase order until
you've quoted a price. "
He added that customers have been
receptive to pricing as a " work in progress. "
Markets for the branded product include
foodservice, retail and direct-to-consumer
(DTC). The foodservice channel includes
regional metropolitan geographies within
a day's drive from the facility, such as
Minneapolis, Chicago, Kansas City and St.
Louis, with the ideal target being a distributor.
Ryan will target retailers that fall into a
couple of different categories. Independent
stores with the need for really good meat, and
independent chains where Naeve can go direct.
Bigger chains of 40 to 50 stores would be a
legitimate call for Ryan too, as long as he could
narrow it down to the right dozen or so stores
and not bite off more than they can chew.
" The next one is DTC, " he said. " And if we
play our cards right, we'll be able to generate
some buzz in the foodservice world with
notable and popular chefs that hopefully fall in
love with the brand, which I'm expecting they
will once they get to taste it. "
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Meat+Poultry - April 2022

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