Case Studies Region: Southeast

There’s nothing like sinking your teeth into the perfect, mouth-watering Wagyu ribeye. The marbling of the cut; the soft, velvety texture; the unctuous flavor achieved by grilling over an open flame. As steaks go, these premium cuts are as good as it gets. Francois Leger, owner of FPL Food, LLC, has been selling high-quality Wagyu […]

When the oil industry in Morgan City, Louisiana collapsed in 1982, Greg Hamer quickly found himself out of work. He never thought his future would be in the taco business. After all, he hated Mexican food. What he noticed about his hometown, however, was its glaring lack of Mexican restaurants. After doing some research, Hamer […]

There’s a lot of sugar in Stephen Savoie’s blood. It’s been passed down through generations and flows through the family he works with at Lula-Westfield LLC. For 150 years, through price swings, increased production costs, industry consolidations and a 1997 merger, Lula-Westfield has been growing and processing sugar cane in Louisiana. Named CEO on March […]

Charles “Chuck” Obern discovered his passion for growing things as a high school student in the early 1970s, working in nurseries located north of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. Now, as the founder of C&B Farms, his produce stocks the shelves of many grocery store chains around the country. His farms, located in Clewiston, Florida, and Cape Charles, […]

The size of the Lone Star State not withstanding, word can travel fast. Especially in the agricultural industry, where farmers learn early which contractors and builders they can rely upon for the equipment and services so necessary to enable their high-stakes, potentially high-reward operations. It’s a fact of Texas life that Brett Marek grew accustomed […]

The Braswell family has supplied Americans with eggs and animal feed products since 1943. Back then, everything took place in the family’s water-powered mill in Nashville, North Carolina. Over the past 70 years that operation grew into several more locations and companies. All of them fell under the umbrella of Braswell Foods, a vertically integrated […]

You probably didn’t give too much thought to those hanging flowers you bought at Lowe’s or another big-box store for $10 or $12. But someone did, and it’s very likely that someone was involved at a massive greenhouse and distribution operation in the north-central Kentucky city of Paris, or its second facility in Granville, Illinois. […]

In Wynne, Arkansas, the Matthews family, owners and operators of Matthews Ridgeview Farms (MRF), has been growing sweet potatoes for more than a century. The company’s roots in agriculture trace to Samuel Doke Matthews, who started out as a sharecropper, growing cotton in Arkansas. Today, Samuel’s great-great-grandson, Terris Matthews, and his wife, Kim Matthews, run […]

After more than 120 years in business, Buurma Farms Inc. remains a household name in the agriculture industry. Since the beginning, Buurma Farms has remained a family-owned business and is currently in its fifth generation of the Buurma family. Headquartered in Willard, Ohio, Buurma Farms manages 1,200 acres in both Michigan and Ohio, as well […]

Since its inception in 2003, Mercator Inc. has grown from a small, home-based food export company into a $26 million enterprise that distributes North American beef, turkey, pork, chicken, dairy and grain to customers in Central America, Europe and Asia. The global procurement experts bring professional logistics and leading customer service to every transaction, ensuring […]