“We’re very passionate about land management,” Robertson declares. “In my opinion, farmers and ranchers are the biggest environmentalists we have in this country because it’s their livelihood. They rely on the land and the animals to survive, so they’re absolutely passionate about taking care of those two items. For example, as a grass-fed company, we have to be good stewards of the grass when we have it, and manage those pastures very intentionally through the spring, summer, and fall months, so there’s grass in the winter for the cattle to consume. BECOMING A RETAIL OUTLET Ben Mohl is Director of Marketing, the other side of Lone Creek’s business, which supplies between 300400 cattle a week to the market. Formerly, almost all of its cattle went to wholesale processors, but today, its own processing, cold storage, and warehouse facilities allow the company to sell about 10% of its product line directly to consumers via its website.“As our Certified Piedmontese Beef is a niche program, representing less than half a percent of the cows that are out there, picking up retailers that want to carry leaner beef isn’t always easy,” Mohl explains. “So, we said, ‘if we can just sell it ourselves, we can reach all other parts of the country where consumers do not have ready access to our beef in the grocery store.’ “When we started selling online, about five years ago, we had a small building on our campus that houses our online fulfillment building and we were at ten orders a week; then 20 orders a week. When we got to 50-100, COVID hit and it jumped to hundreds a week. So, COVID accelerated our ecommerce growth, as opposed to a reason why we jumped into it. I’m not going to say COVID was a blessing by any means, but it gave consumers a lot of trust in buying beef online and having it shipped to their door, while realizing that the beef they get at the grocery store doesn’t always imply that it’s fresher than the beef that can be shipped frozen to their doorstep,” he notes. 101 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE VOLUME 11, ISSUE 10 LONE CREEK CATTLE
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