Danny’s BBQ inks pact with food distributor

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This article was published 13/04/2012 (5007 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

PIGS can’t fly, but that hasn’t stopped Danny’s Whole Hog Barbeque & Smokehouse from spreading its wings.

The Stony Mountain-area company, founded a decade ago by former Hutterite Danny Kleinsasser, has struck a deal with one of the province’s largest food distributors — Sysco Canada — to supply frozen pulled-pork and pulled-turkey products to hotels, institutions and other food-service operators throughout Manitoba and northwestern Ontario.

And within the next couple of weeks, Kleinsasser also hopes to have consumer-friendly versions of the products available in up to 38 retail stores in the province.

“I’ve already got some stores phoning me saying they want it,” Kleinsasser said Thursday. “And this Sysco thing could be a big growth factor for us, too.”

Sysco Winnipeg president Kim Doherty said if Danny’s products are a hit with local food-service operators — they supply products to more than 2,000 commercial customers — the company will consider distributing them to other parts of the country, as well.

“I think it’s certainly a possibility,” Doherty said. “He’s got a good product.”

Kleinsasser said if that happens, he’ll build a second, federally licensed production plant to make products for out-of-province markets. He said the company’s existing 8,000-square-foot plant is only a provincially licensed facility.

That plant has 12 full-time employees and up to 12 part-time workers, depending on the season and work volumes.

In addition to food production, Danny’s also has a thriving catering business which provides ready-to-cook and ready-to-serve meals for weddings, family and corporate gatherings and other special events.

It also has a retail store on its property that sells its meat and meal products and barbecue sauces — seven flavours — directly to the public. It plans to open a store in Winnipeg, as well.

“We were looking at it for this summer,” Kleinsasser said, “but now we’ll push it back to next year. With this Sysco thing happening, I’ve just got too much on my plate.”

Although Danny’s started as a three-person operation supplying marinated, whole hogs and specialty barbecues for events, changing customer demands prompted Kleinsasser to gradually broaden its offerings. It now includes the barbecue sauces and ready-to-serve meals with things like salads, buns, deserts, and barbecued meat dishes, including pork, chicken, turkey, beef, ribs and bison.

The executive director of the Manitoba Food Processors Association said that ability to adapt has been one of the secrets to Danny’s success.

“(Kleinsasser) has shown a lot of product innovation,” Dave Shambrock said. “It’s just a huge success story and a really good business story.”

Shambrock also noted Kleinsasser has vertically integrated his operations by raising some of the 2,000 hogs the company processes a year on his own hog farm and selling it through its own store and catering division.

“From a quality-control perspective, that’s a huge advantage because more and more consumers really do care about the origin of the food they eat. And he can tell that story from the farm gate to the consumer’s plate,” Shambrock said.

murray.mcneill@freepress.mb.ca