THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, September 1, 1994 TAG: 9409010551
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY LON WAGNER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium: 57 lines
Few seemed surprised to find Smithfield Foods, Inc. serving pork at its annual shareholders meeting Wednesday. Sliced pork. Smoked pork. Pork ribs.
But Smithfield is betting that it will pleasantly surprise lots of meat eaters next week when it launches its latest product line: lean pork.
Smithfield executives told shareholders it plans to roll out its newest brand on Sept. 9. ``Smithfield Lean Generation Pork'' will initially work its way into the marketplace through restaurants and other food-service outlets in North Carolina and Virginia.
The company, which has been test marketing the lean pork for four months, still has some packaging details to clear up before it can sell it in grocery stores, said Jim Schloss, Smithfield's vice president of marketing.
One marketing challenge, he said, is to make sure consumers don't cook this new product the old way.
``We all know about Grandma,'' Schloss said. ``Grandma said `Cook it and cook it and cook it again.' This product you tasted today, the longestpreparation time is between two and three minutes.''
The unveiling of its lean pork tops off a good year for Smithfield.
Its net income for fiscal 1994, which plunged to less than $4 million in 1993, recovered to nearly $20 million. But Chairman Joseph W. Luter III presented shareholders meeting at the Omni Richmond Hotel with both cautious and promising assessments.
Smithfield is competing for market share in ``an industry that is not growing,'' Luter said. But he added that the company is planning on the new lean pork line and increasing sales in Asia, particularly Japan, to help expand its sales.
Raoul Baxter, president of Smithfield International, told the shareholders that Japan is a market ripe for pork because, unlike the United States, pork and beef sales are growing at the expense of chicken and fish.
And Smithfield has adapted its products to Japanese tastes, Baxter said, instead of pushing products created for the U.S. market.
``Most American companies in general say, `OK, here's what we have on the rack,' '' Baxter said. ``We told the Japanese: `We'll put a picture of the emperor riding on a white horse on the box if that's what you want.' ''
Smithfield thinks its lean pork, which it has been developing for three years as the NPD pig, will offer a lower-fat alternative to chicken for health-conscious eaters. NPD is named for the company that bred the initial line of pigs: National Pig Development of East Yorkshire, England.
Smithfield holds exclusive rights to develop the NPD breed in America. Even though other companies are working toward developing their own lean pork brands, Luter said, Smithfield has at least a five-year jump on any companies that would be able to produce large quantities of lean pork.
``There are other genetic lines of pigs,'' Luter said. ``The rest of the country has been watching what we're doing.'' by CNB