With a new $275 million beef processing facility under construction in Olathe, Kansas, expected to open in 2025, Walmart is turning a page in history by producing “case-ready” meat. I plan to engrave.
Half a century ago, the Greeley beef plant in Colorado produced the first large-scale production of what was called “box beef” using a specific cut of beet for customers in restaurants and grocery stores in the East.
In the industry today, case-ready meat, retail-ready meat, or prepackaged meat refers to raw meat that is processed and packaged at a central facility and delivered ready-to-point for retail outlets.
Walmart can order cased meat from any producer these days, but the fact that the company’s first wholly-owned factory does cased product isn’t unnoticed.
The ‘boxed beef’ plant will bring 600 jobs to the Olathe region. “This is great news,” said Olathe Mayor John Bacon. “We are thrilled that Walmart has chosen Olathe as an innovative property.
Olathe is the county seat of Johnson County, Kansas. It is the fourth most populous city in both the Kansas City metropolitan area and the state of Kansas, with a 2020 population of 141,290.
Walmart Inc. is a retail chain of hypermarkets, discount stores, department stores and grocery stores headquartered in Bentonville, Arkansas. The company already buys case-ready beef in bulk for its 4,700 U.S. stores, with featured products including Angus beef that is harvested from cattle using sustainable methods.
The new Olathe facility will strengthen Walmart’s ability to manage its supply chain. This follows Walmart’s food production facility in Fort Wayne, Indiana, which opened in 2018. The milk production facility supplies Great Value branded milk products to approximately 500 Walmart stores. Milk comes from dairy farms in Indiana and Michigan.
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