Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, November 4, 1993 TAG: 9311040037
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: CLEBURNE, TEXAS LENGTH: Medium
"I've never seen anything grow like that in my life," he said of the heifer, named Woodpecker for her red topknot.
Chianina, Italian cattle that are born fawn-colored and turn white as they reach full size, yield leaner beef naturally, because they mature later.
Unfortunately for Mize, founder of United Heritage Corp., the market for the company's Heritage Lite Beef hasn't grown as fast as his Chianinas.
The name-brand light-beef business, crowded with more than 50 entrants in the late 1980s, dwindled to a handful of companies as many consumers shunned beef for healthier meats and generic lean beef stole its share of the market.
Revenues at 6-year-old United Heritage, which sells the beef through its wholly owned subsidiary, National Heritage Sales Corp., dropped to $7.7 million in fiscal 1993 from $11 million in 1991. The company has yet to show an annual profit. Nevertheless, things have been looking up.
Acme Markets Inc., a Malvern, Penn.-based chain of 251 stores, started carrying Lite Beef in September and is reporting brisk sales. In early October, the Kroger Co. of Cincinnati began test-marketing Heritage meat in five of its 80 supermarkets in the Dallas area.
Mize says the new orders from Acme and Kroger, the biggest chains to carry the product, are a real breakthrough.
"We're more excited now than we have ever been in the history of the company," he said. "Our problem is not the end user. . . . The consumer is ready to buy. Our problem is getting the supermarkets to put it on their shelves."
Mize has given Kroger and Acme exclusive rights to carry Heritage Beef. The move follows a decision by Dallas-based Tom Thumb Stores Inc., which accounted for about 25 percent of Heritage's sales, to replace Heritage Lite with an in-house line of select beef at its 62 stores.
Craig McKnight, vice president of meat operations for Tom Thumb, said Heritage meat sold best when it was advertised on special.
"We did not have real good luck with it at regular price," which was 25 to 30 percent higher than typical choice beef, he said. "There's not a real large consumer base for that type of product."
Acme Vice President Ed Fleich attributed his company's strong sales to customer demand for leaner beef.
"I think today's lifestyle has an awful lot to do with it, and the fact that even while it is with less fat, it still commands a very good flavor," he said.
Heritage Lite's beef ranges from 5 percent to about 15 percent fat, Mize said. Regular whole-cut beef contains about 25 percent fat.
Despite the gains, producers of low-calorie beef face a struggle to distinguish their product from generic beef, which increasingly is packaged with less fat, said Gary Wilson, director of food policy and research at the Washington D.C.-based National Cattleman's Association.
"We think that the consumer's interest and demand for lean products will continue to grow," he said.
by CNB