Meat+Poultry - July 2021 - 35

a company that would help sustain the American
bison population while sharing the benefits of
bison with consumers around Colorado and
ultimately, throughout the country.
" Most of bison at that time was being sold
in the game meat category - it wasn't available
in regular retail stores, just in a few smaller
stores in Denver, " Dineen said. " No one was
focusing on distributing quality product and
growing the market. No one was raising a
quality animal, putting that product into
modern packaging, standing behind the quality
and offering fresh product to the retailer. No
one was doing that, so we saw an opportunity
to take this product to another level. That's
how our business started. "
In 1987, Dineen started Rocky Mountain
Natural Meats and subsequently introduced the
Great Range Bison brand.
" The joke was that I started this company
by delivering bison to customers out of the
back of my pickup, but that wasn't true, "
Dineen said with a laugh. " It was a Nissan
Sentra station wagon. That's really how it
got started. "
The first challenge of the new company and
brand was quality.
" There was no consistency in the products
before, " he explained. " We tried to resolve
some of the problems by having the right aged
animal, a proper feed program and good body
condition. We really focused on quality. "
The company developed its own grading
system early on to help it receive the product
quality and consistency customers would
expect. Unlike the beef industry, there is no
US Department of Agriculture grading system
for bison.
" Our grading system was basically a 'yes' or
'no' grade, " Dineen said. " Was it good enough
to put our name on the package? "
For the first 10 years, the Great Range Bison
product was mostly sold in the Denver area
- at retailers such as King Sooper's, Safeway
and Albertsons. The brand also had a decent
presence in the foodservice market in Denver.
" We had good consumer awareness and
acceptance of the product in that area, with
room to grow, " Dineen said.
PRODUCTION EXPANSION
In 1998, Rocky Mountain built its own
production facility in Denver. Prior to that
www.meatpoultry.com | 07.21 | MEAT+POULTRY 35
time, the company was leasing a USDAinspected
plant. The slaughter and fabrication
services were still outsourced to other facilities
but with this new production facility the
cutting and grinding was now done in-house.
" When we started doing our own cutting
and grinding at our own facility, that's when
our business really took off, " Dineen said. " We
put out a case-ready, 90% lean ground bison
product that continues to be one of our biggest
sellers today. We started out with retailers in
Denver and then picked up grocery chains
around the country. "
In 2007, Rocky Mountain built its current
facility in Henderson, Colo., bringing
fabrication, cutting and grinding, in addition
to marketing and distribution, under the same
roof, and gaining much-needed efficiencies at
the same time. The 50,000-square-foot facility
- which will soon expand to 62,000 square
feet - handles all the carcass fabrication
and further processing of all the bison the
company sells.
One room in the plant is devoted to carcass
fabrication, the other is for further processing,
including two different grinding lines and a
steak-cutting line. The product is packaged
case ready in form-and-fill packaging with
some portion-control skin packs for steaks. A
very small amount of product is packaged for
private label.
Great Range Bison steaks
are packaged in portioncontrol
skin packs for retail
and foodservice customers.
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