Food Chain - Issue 209 - December 2025 | Page 146

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From ranch to plate
This philosophy also applies to the company’ s distribution, with most products purchased directly from the manufacturer and processed in-house.“ Our distribution center is like a small factory where we grind our meat, cut all of our produce, and package items, which are then distributed to our stores with our own delivery vehicles,” Alan explains.“ This process ensures that we have a consistent product, and it also limits the required training at the store level. We’ ve also purchased a 200,000-square-foot warehouse, of which we occupy around 30,000 square feet and we lease the remainder.
“ In 2026, we’ re looking to expand our USDAinspected operations so we can bring the same premium beef served in our restaurants directly to families, retailers, and food service partners,” he adds.“ Our distribution facility already allows us to grind and package our beef, which opened the door for David’ s Premium Beef and online sales, but we’ re hoping to add a slaughterhouse operation so we can own more of the process from ranch to plate, rather than just further processing. This will mean sourcing more cattle from Arkansas ranchers, strengthening the local economy, and keeping our standards high at every step of the process. Four massive corporations primarily source about 80-to- 85 percent of the beef in the US and have no relationship with the rancher, whereas having our own slaughterhouse will allow us to ensure the integrity of our product and the quality of the cattle.”
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