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Details sketchy on changes at Dakota Beef
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By ELISA SAND, Staff Reporter
| 02/10/2010 |
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Howard's economic development group will know more details in the coming weeks about changes taking place at the local meat processing facility.
News surfaced Tuesday that Dakota Beef in Howard has partnered with North Dakota Natural Beef and has entered into a co-packing partnership that will merge the harvest and fabrication operations for both companies. Coupled with that announcement was the fact that Dakota Beef had leased its Howard facility to another beef operator.
Rural Learning Center President Randy Parry and Vice President Kathy Callies said details are very sketchy at this point, but their office and the city of Howard have been aware that this change was coming.
"We, along with the city of Howard and other collaborative partners, have been working with several entities over the last six months as potential buyers of the facility," Perry said. "We learned last week that the Feinbergs leased their facility to another company, which has not been disclosed to us."
Dakota Beef's CEO is Daniel Feinberg, who announced that Dakota Beef will begin processing its product at the North Dakota facilities effective Monday, and that the merger was the most cost-effective decision for the company.
As for the Dakota Beef employees, Feinberg said in a press release that some of the workforce would continue at the Howard facility.
"A number of employees at the Howard facility will be offered relocation packages in North Dakota," he said.
No details on the transition have been disclosed. To his knowledge, Parry said, processing continues to take place.
Dakota Beef is a certified organic beef processing facility that has been located in Howard since 2004. The company started with limited processing that summer and built a 15,000-sq.-ft. addition in early 2005. The company had a short layoff in late 2005/early 2006 when company officials worked to avoid an attempted company liquidation.
Dakota Beef has grown from an initial employee base of 20 to more than 30 employees.
During the past year, Dakota Beef had discussed the possibility of a local expansion. At the same time, Howard's city officials discussed an expansion to the city's wastewater treatment facility, which is nearing capacity.
Parry said each of the companies that has visited Howard to look at Dakota Beef's facility has also talked about expanding.
Parry said the primary concern for the Rural Learning Center has been working with partners to provide living wage jobs for local families.
At this time, what he does know is that the new company will continue the use of the Howard facility and process beef, but the company is not an organic processor.
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