CAB® 3QQ
Three quick questions with Clint Walenciak.
Outside of agriculture, the title of "meathead" is one that not too many people want to claim. But to those in beef production, it takes on a completely different connotation. These people are a very important link between the live-animal side of the business and the distribution channels that bring beef to the consumer.
It's fair to say Certified Angus Beef LLC (CAB) wouldn't be as successful as it has been without a few meatheads of its own. More than a decade ago, after growing up on a stocker and purebred Simmental ranch in Oklahoma, Clint Walenciak finished his master's degree at Oklahoma State University (OSU) and headed east to make his own mark on the brand. Today, he is CAB's director of packing, and the first subject of this new series in the Angus Beef Bulletin EXTRA. So that you can get to know more about Clint and the brand, I asked him to answer these three quick questions.
Question No. 1: CAB doesn't own cattle or meat, and certainly not a packing plant, so your title might confuse some folks. Could you summarize your job description and your typical day-to-day duties?
Answer: My job is to keep our licensed packers informed and engaged with what is going on in our CAB sales and marketing teams, and vice versa. The packing division monitors product supply at the carcass level and among individual subprimal cuts, working with end users to connect supplies and drive utilization, or the range of cut sales, across the entire carcass. That maximizes value, which can then be passed up the entire supply chain. Day-to-day communications here vary from helping a newly licensed retailer become familiar with our product offerings and licensed packers to describing product cut specification and working around shortages.
While we don't buy or sell cattle or boxed beef, another component we tackle is staying informed on general market levels and trend direction. That's so we understand the conditions faced by licensees on both sides of the transaction, whether that's a feedlot partner or a retailer.
The packing team is often charged with evaluating to what extent, if any, different outside influences could indirectly affect our business. One example is mandatory Country of Origin Labeling (mCOOL). While the rule was not specific to our brand or even beef, its implementation significantly impacted how packing companies manage and deliver the brand — not to mention how retailers achieved compliance with the law.
Question No. 2: In the packing division, what is your No.1 priority now, and how do you tackle that?
Answer: We are heavily involved in supporting sales team efforts to get the most out of each opportunity. We communicate availability and potential strategies, along with every technical component of the brand, tearing down all communication barriers between buyers and sellers. For example, a distributor calls a packer today to order something, but the packer is already sold out of that item "for the week." As a result, the distributor assumes that the item is always tight sold, or unavailable, and moves to a different item or drops the idea altogether. However, the availability could be drastically different a few weeks later, and if it is going to be repeat business, 52 weeks a year, the packer can make adjustments in production schedules. These are win-win-win opportunities that we can't afford to let slip through the cracks.
Like most other CAB employees, my goal is to marry supply and demand as evenly and efficiently as possible to create as much value as possible for as many pounds as possible from every carcass certified. That ultimately drives value back up the supply chain toward the cattle producers who target high quality.
Question No. 3: You surely keep busy talking with packers and end users, analyzing tonnage and opportunities, but tell me a little bit more about Clint Walenciak "off the clock."
Answer: I'm married to a terrific lady who keeps me, and our two sons, Cole (4) and Luke (1), in line. Deanna is also employed here at CAB, so, in many ways, you could say that we are "all in" when it comes to the success of the brand and ensuring its relevance to end-user licensees and producers alike. Most of our free time is spent working around our place or with the family.
