Walmart Entering Beef Industry
Walmart Inc. is going into the beef business by developing an end-to-end supply chain for Angus beef. To ensure supply of quality product and fulfill customer demands for greater transparency, the Bentonville, Ark.-based mega-retailer is collaborating with such partners as Prime Pursuits, Mc6 Cattle Feeders, Creekstone Farms and FPL Food.
“As clean labels, traceability and transparency become more and more important to customers, we’ve made plans to enter into the beef industry, creating an unmatched system that allows us to deliver consistent quality and value,” noted Scott Neal, SVP, meat, Walmart U.S.
Added Neal, “By enlisting a number of best-in-class companies to take part in the supply chain, we’ll be able to provide customers with unprecedented quality, provide transparency throughout the supply chain and leverage the learnings we gain across our business.”
The supply chain thus created will provide a selection of Angus beef cuts such as steaks and roasts at 500 Walmart locations across a number of southeastern states, among them Georgia, Alabama and Florida.
The company’s new supply chain effort will not only generate a steady demand for ranchers and feed yards, offering stability in the marketplace, but will also create more than 250 jobs at Creekstone Farms’ beef-processing facility in Kansas, as well as 200-plus jobs in Georgia, where Walmart owns a case-ready facility that will be operated by FPL Food.
“No bigger paradigm change has taken place in the beef industry than what is happening with Walmart bringing truly high-quality, all-natural, no-hormones-added Black Angus beef to its customers,” observed Texas Rancher Bob McClaren, of Prime Pursuits. “This bold vision gives Walmart a special place at the table by contributing to the most enjoyable and memorable moments in the lives of its customers. It’s been four generations since we began, yet the traditional values of the McClaren family and 44 Farms are as relevant today as they were more than a century ago.”
Walmart operates more than 11,300 stores under 58 banners in 27 countries, and ecommerce websites, employing more than 2.2 million associates worldwide. The company is No. 1 on Progressive Grocer’s 2018 Super 50 list of the top grocers in the United States.
