THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, January 16, 1995 TAG: 9501140150
SECTION: BUSINESS WEEKLY PAGE: 10 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Cover Story
SOURCE: BY LON WAGNER, BUSINESS WEEKLY STAFF
LENGTH: Long : 136 lines
If you want six ounces of beef tenderloin, Clarence Perry is your man.
Watching the butcher at Nesson Meat Sales in Norfolk is like observing a surgeon perform: Perry slices his knife through several pounds of beef, grabs the small portion he just cut off the end, tosses it onto a scale and smiles.
The needle bounces. The reading: six ounces on the dot.
Perry hand-cuts, he guesses, 2,000 or 3,000 steaks a day - and he says each piece matters.
``Otherwise, the customer will go into the restaurant with a friend, they'll order the same steak, and he'll say, `Hey, yours is a little bigger and we're paying the same price,' '' Perry said.
Since 1989, Nesson has gone from a small, family-run business to a minor cog in a multibillion-dollar company's operations and back again.
Once again, the Nesson family is hoping attention to detail like Perry's precise carving of steaks can help the 78-year-old business hold onto its cut of the specialty meats market in Virginia and North Carolina.
A loyal work force
Perry and the other 54 employees of Nesson Meat Sales have worked for four companies during the past six years.
Nesson & Rapoport was bought out by L.M. Sandler & Sons of Virginia Beach in June 1989.
Two months later, just as Nesson's management was incorporating Sandler's bureaucracy into its own, Sandler entered into a joint venture with giant Sara Lee Corp. and formed Consolidated Foods.
Then on Dec. 31, Bob Goldwasser, a grandson-in-law of company founder Jacob Nesson, repurchased the specialty meat supplier from Consolidated.
Had the buyback failed, the business started by downtown Norfolk butcher Jacob Nesson in 1917, which grew to a $15 million company, could have shut its doors.
Sara Lee, which is taking over full ownership of Consolidated later this year, apparently decided Nesson Meats didn't fit in with its long-term plans: One way or another, Sara Lee would have shed Nesson.
Despite the corporate turmoil, the workers who stand in chilled workrooms throughout the day cutting chicken and other meats into serving-sized portions have stood by the Nesson family.
The managers of the company think that loyalty has been a thread of consistency that has helped Nesson Meats survive.
``We've got people who've been with us 20, 22, 23 years,'' says Bert Legum, a son-in-law of the Nesson family. ``They were loyal when it was Nesson & Rapoport. They were loyal when it was Consolidated. They were loyal when it was Sara Lee, and they're still loyal.''
Bologna on white bread
The 1990s are not the first time Nesson Meat Sales has been ground through a change in the marketplace and come out a more focused company. And it probably won't be the last.
Jacob Nesson founded the butcher shop on Church Street in 1917.
``It was a very small place,'' said Yale Nesson, Jacob's son, who remains with the company as a senior adviser. ``He used to deliver to grocery stores in a horse and wagon.''
Nesson persevered through the Great Depression - giving out bologna and white bread sandwiches to hungry people who would line up at his shop. Yale Nesson says his father only lost money during one year, 1932 or 1933. The Depression was mitigated by all the ships and military in Norfolk at the time.
The real crunch came in the 1950s, when community grocers were replaced by supermarkets, who had their own, larger meat suppliers. Squeezed out of its main business, Nesson began going after the upscale, white-tablecloth hotels and restaurants.
In 1952, Jacob's two sons - Yale and Milton - took over the business. In 1958, they moved it to its current location on 24th Street in Norfolk. The new company president, Bob Goldwasser, entered the business after he married Yale Nesson's daughter, Denise.
Now that Nesson Meats has gone through a corporate consolidation - and by luck and pluck come back out of it - Goldwasser and Yale Nesson see an opportunity.
Many other small meat suppliers were bought up, and billion-dollar conglomerates handle most of the distribution.
Nesson Meats thinks it can move more quickly and cater to those who want specialty meats better than the massive food companies.
``Pretty soon the little guy will be a commodity, because there won't be any little guys left,'' Yale Nesson said. ``The big guys aren't going to be able to take care of the niche. Even in the ashes, there's a great opportunity.''
Mountain man sausage, anyone?
Perhaps nothing exemplifies the specialty meats business better than ``mountain man sausage,'' which Nesson supplies.
Mountain man sausage - so named by Nesson's sales manager - is ground from rattlesnake, quail, rabbit and buffalo.
``There's not a whole lot of guys who buy it, but a couple do,'' Goldwasser said. ``That's what we do - supply meats like that.''
Nesson also supplies free-range veal, free-range chicken and is one of about 70 certified Angus beef distributors in the country.
Nesson's sales grew from about $15 million a year to $18 million a year when it was under Consolidated Foods. Now, it's back down to $15 million, after the company reorganized its customer base.
``They had made some acquisitions that didn't work out,'' Goldwasser says, ``and we tried to add some sales and it didn't work out.''
Nesson Meat Sales wants to add sales, but not if it means losing its focus. Right now, that means specialty meats, but the company has its eye on the horizon.
Goldwasser says there's always a company, dozens of times larger than Nesson, that can figure out a way to mass-produce specialty products and undercut its customer base.
``We just hope the things we do are 95 percent in the right direction,'' he says. ``You can't afford to make a lot of mistakes when you're small.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color staff photos by Paul Aiken
Above: Sherry Jackson, supervisor of the chicken processing area at
Nesson Meat Sales, weighs chicken pieces.[cover photo]
Walter Lynn, a 20-year employee at Nesson Meat Sales, hauls meat in
one of the company's freezers.
Clarence Perry, head meat cutter for Nesson Meat Sales, tosses cut
and weighed pieces into a bin for shipping. Perry cuts about 2,000
or 3,000 steaks a day, he estimates.
Nesson President Bob Goldwasser, a grandson-in-law of founder
company Jacob Nesson, bought the company back from Consolidated
Foods in December.
Meat stamps at Nesson Meat Sales. The speciality-meats company sells
chicken, beef, veal and lamb, among other products.
B\W phtoto
Yale Nesson, left, and Milton Nesson, right, at a food service show
at Virginia Beach's Cavalier Hotel in the 1952, the year they took
over the business from their father, Jacob.
by CNB