Whether you are expanding, upgrading, or building a new plant, the steps are similar. And while planning does not require a fixed order, a logical order might be:
1) Background Research
- Before going into any business, or expanding an existing one, it’s good to ask a lot of questions about the industry. Talk with other meat plant owners, trade groups, regulatory agencies, farmers, and customers; many questions and insights will emerge. When you have completed this step, you should have some idea of how you want your business to look. Will it be a small, state-inspected locker selling products only within the state of Iowa or a larger federally-inspected facility shipping products across the country?
2) Business Planning and Feasibility
- This step involves understanding from where your supplies (animals, non-meat ingredients, packaging, equipment) will be coming, who will be buying your products, and what your competition is like. This step will not happen all at once, but in stages. To complete this step, you will also need to know what your facility will look like and what construction costs will be.
3) Plant Design
- This is an integral part of both your business plan and your financing. You will need to involve contractors to estimate your construction costs.
4) Financing
- Once your business plan is together, you can start looking for financing. Before you get too excited, we must let you know right now that no one is going to give you a big pot of gold to get your plant going. Your meat business will need to be financed by a local bank.
5) Permitting and Inspection
- Before you can build anything, you will need permits: business permits, building permits, and wastewater permits. Since either the state or the federal government inspects all meat-processing facilities, even strictly custom plants must be inspected periodically. It is generally a good idea to have an inspector look over your plant design before you build.
6) SOPs, SSOPs, and HACCP
- Before you can begin operation, you’ll need to have a written plan for each of these. The plans must be examined by your inspection agency and are subject to regular review.
7) Labor
- You will want to begin thinking about this issue during your business planning. Meat processing is hard work. Finding able and willing employees challenges plants throughout the industry, and finding laborers and the time it takes to train them will be an important part of your business plan.
While this outline is very general and simplistic, each of these steps is complex and will require much time and energy. We hope the resource links above will make developing or expanding a meat processing business less complex or confusing.
