Smith Provision Company
Smith Provision is a family owned manufacturer of meat products for the grocery store industry with strong customer loyalty and a history of making profits.
Even with all their success, Mike Weber and the team at Smith Provision knew they needed some help. The company was being challenged by large firms such as Oscar Meyer who are highly automated, have national advertising campaigns and lower labor costs.
“We knew we had to make some changes in order to continue to compete for market share,” said Weber. “But as a small business, we just didn’t have the planning experts on staff to guide us through that change.”
That’s where the NWIRC came in. The IRC led the company through a detailed three phase Strategic Planning process which encompassed the company's marketing, product development, operations, staffing and capital investment needs. Phase I analyzed the company’s specific immediate needs. Phase II, the planning stage, had deliverables including reports detailing action items with measurable goals, a succession plan, as well as a timeline for the third phase: regular monthly meetings for follow up support and guidance.
The results of this project in the words of the client were to "properly position Smith Provision for future profitability and growth as well as develop fourth generation leadership skills."
Company president Mike Weber said, “The NWIRC led us through the strategic planning process, which helped us to identify—and prioritize—the need for automation in order to streamline operations and to compete. As a result of that process, we recently made a significant investment into automation. And today, we’re in a much better position to go head-on with our larger competitors. The NWIRC was able to help us through the strategic planning process to identify our need to increase our automation and reduce our operating costs to make us more competitive …. The NWIRC was the key to this process. We really could not have done it without them.”