Meat+Poultry - April 2022 - 38

PRODUCT PROFILE
Creekstone Farms produces
its smash burgers and
other products at its plant
in Arkansas City, Kan.
pandemic hit and restaurants were temporarily
shuttered, their business skewed 70% retail,
30% foodservice. Now the business is balancing
back out.
" We're looking at it as an opportunity to
grow our branded presence in retail, " Stewart
said. " Being able to put a custom blended,
premium, fresh ground beef product out
in a patty or brick format at retail is a big
opportunity for us in the future.
" I think the pandemic exposed some
opportunities for processors and distributors
to look at what they were doing, to make some
adjustments. I think we were already doing that
a little, realizing there was an opportunity to
grow our brand awareness at retail. We knew
we had a great reputation at foodservice and we
needed to connect those dots. I think eventually
it would have gotten there, but the changes
during the pandemic just sped things up a bit. "
Before the pandemic, Creekstone was
focusing on trying to connect the brand more
to the retail and online consumer by building
on the existing foodservice relationship.
Stewart said there's a lot of opportunity for
that in Texas, because those consumers
know Creekstone.
" We're in 11 of the Top 50 barbecue
restaurants in Texas, " Stewart said. " When you
talk brisket and barbecue and Creekstone in
Texas, they just know. But we still need to get
that retail connection down there. We want
that same consumer to go into retail and see
and recognize our brand. "
Creekstone has been able to make that
connection in the Charlotte, NC, area. The
brand is in well-known barbecue restaurants
such as Noble Smoke and Prime Barbecue.
38 MEAT+POULTRY | 04.22 | www.meatpoultry.com
Creekstone branded products can also be
found in Earth Fare supermarkets in the area.
" Now the customers who go to those
barbecue places can also find Creekstone in
the supermarket they shop in, " Stewart said.
" We're never going to be fully branded in a
Kroger-sized operation - we're not that big of
a producer, we're still a boutique brand. But
we're working on focusing on premium outlets
that can really tell our story. "
Now that customers are eating in
restaurants again while still enjoying at-home
meals, Creekstone can continue to work on
name and brand recognition from foodservice
through to retail.
When product availability was down
throughout 2020, customers were forced to
buy what was available. Stewart thinks the
pandemic helped retail customers get more
accustomed to different styles of packaging.
" Consumers are becoming more
accustomed to different packaging, " Stewart
said. " In some cases during COVID, certain
products weren't available, so the opportunity
to try a different packaging format came
about out of necessity. Now consumers are
trying more things out - at retail and through
online ordering.
" Film is a lot easier to manage and work
with and people are just getting more used
to it now. There's more and more brick and
rollstock packaging out there. Foodservice
already gets their product that way, " Stewart
added. " There's an efficiency there for us to
run the same packaging for both foodservice
and retail customers. We're looking at it from
a cost perspective, availability perspective and
efficiency perspective. "
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Meat+Poultry - April 2022

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