OKC meat companies see holiday demand increase

Journal Record, The (Oklahoma City), Dec 5, 2007 by Kelley Chambers

Turkey and ham are staples on the dinner tables of many at the holidays, but a desire to leave the holiday meat preparation to the professionals has spelled increased sales for Oklahoma City meat companies.

Two local meat companies have also seen a spike in mail order and online sales of turkeys and hams around the holiday season in recent years.

Cusack Meats, at 301 SW 12th St., has been in business since 1933 offering a variety of steaks and, in the last decade, hams and turkeys. The company prides itself on its Certified Angus Beef that ships around the country and to Canada and Puerto Rico.

Al Cusack, co-owner of Cusack Meats, said in the first years the company offered smoked turkeys and honey-glazed hams it sold a few hundred of each around the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays.

The demand has grown over the years to where the company now offers turkeys and hams all year, and expects to sell several thousand of each before Christmas.

"It's just grown by leaps and bounds," Cusack said.

Cusack sells its honey-glazed spiral sliced hams in half or whole portions at $49 and $79. Likewise it sells a hickory-smoked turkey for $45 and a larger bird for $69.

The company began its mail-order steak business in 1976 and began a Web site in 2000 in addition to thousands of catalogues mailed out year-round.

The Cusack products are only available through mail order or at its facility. Cusack said the company is staying busy filling holiday orders for its steaks, prime rib, turkeys and hams.

"We're working literally around the clock," he said. "We'll mail three to four thousand packages a week between now and Christmas."

Oklahoma City meat company Schwab & Co. is also seeing record demand this year for its smoked turkeys and hams, which are available for mail-order and in local grocery stores.

Larry Schwab, president of Schwab & Co., said his company began sending out brochures about three years ago with its holiday meat offerings as well as setting up a Web site.

Schwab said the company has been offering holiday turkeys for about 20 years and has been smoking hams since 1912.

Schwab said he has seen about a 10-percent increase in holiday demand since offering online ordering and from responses to the catalogue.

"It's going to reach an all-time high this year," he said.

Schwab said he expects to sell about 25,000 hams and 10,000 turkeys between Thanksgiving and Christmas. The Turkeys range from $20 to about $50 depending on size. The half honey spiral ham starts at about $30 and goes up to about $60 for a whole ham.

The increased demand is also keeping the Schwab's crew busy.

"Right now we're going 24-hours a day seven days a week smoking hams through Christmas Eve," Schwab said.

Cusack and Schwab both said they have seen increased demand this year for prime rib.

Cusack said in past years he has sold a few hundred of his Certified Angus Beef smoked prime rib, but this year, based on customer response, he expects to sell about 1,000 before Christmas.

Cusack said the company gauges the demand for holiday meats based on past performance, but was pleasantly surprised when the demand exceeded expectations this year, which necessitated ramping up the number of turkeys and hams it will smoke leading up to Christmas Eve.

"We sold a lot more this Thanksgiving than we had anticipated," Cusack said. "We've got about 2,000 turkeys in cure right now and about the same number of hams not to mention the ones we have already done."