Small Town, Humble CEO Behind Jerky Empire
MINONG, Wis. (WCCO) -- It's almost impossible to walk into a convenience or grocery store and not find a display of Jack Link's products.
"We sell a lot of it, like way more than any other brand so it needs the space because it is popular," said Michelle Beuthling at Bobby and Steve's Auto World in Minneapolis.
The most popular meat snack in the world rings up hundreds of millions in revenue every year in more than 40 countries.
Link Snacks World Headquarters is located in tiny Minong, Wis. The sign outside the town says: Population 521. Some people said only about 350 people live in Minong.
One of those people is native resident Jack Link.
"In a small town like this you live, breathe and eat and think beef jerky. And the people that are here I can trust and they do a fine job," said Jack.
One day in 1985, Jack was deer hunting with his sons. They bought some jerky that tasted awful.
Jack said it was "tough as shoe leather about like eating my boots. I said 'We can do better than this.'"
So, Jack took an old family recipe and made his own.
"It was really good and I said 'We can sell this,'" he said.
By 1987, he bought a packaging machine and was trying to sell jerky to every store he visited.
The factory today is the biggest building in Minong. Jack Link's employs 2500 people worldwide and just like decades ago, it still begins with good lean meat.
It's sliced, seasoned and marinated, then hung up and loaded for a trip to the oven. It will cook most of the night and someone will have to keep an eye on each smokehouse.
Even in 2011, it's not as automated of a process as you might think. It's very labor intensive.
"Yea, yea, jerky is hard to make. It's really hard, it's not easy. It's not heavily oriented toward machines," said Jack.
Jack the CEO still lives and works in Minong. WCCO's Frank Vascellero visited Jack and his cattle, and then drove around for a tour of town. It only took a few minutes.
Jack was raised to be an entrepreneur. His mother pushed him to go to college. His father only made it through eighth grade, but he knew how to do business.
"We'd trade hay for furniture, then take the hay and feed it to the cattle. We'd trade eggs for groceries, we even bought fur," said Jack.
That background, a good management team and a low-fat high-protein product all converged at the right time, according to someone who studies entrepreneurship.
John Stavig is the Professional Director at the Gary S. Holmes Center for Entrepreneurship at the University Of Minnesota Carlson School Of Management.
"I think the whole distribution, consolidation. It was easier for a small company to get distribution than what it used to be before the Wal-Mart and Target and companies like that that could give them scale," said Stavig.
It all paid off when Jack won the prestigious Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the year award presented in California last November.
Humble Jack had the shortest acceptance speech of anyone briefly saying, "Thanks to everyone for all your participation in the beef jerky. Man, oh man, am I excited."
It's quite a contrast. The guy who said OK to some outrageous commercials lives by some old-fashioned principals.
"Always it's been to the high-quality meat and doing what mom taught you to do. Keep it really clean, keep the plant spotless," said Jack.
