PERKINS, Okla. (AP) — Never mind the recession, Ralph's Packing Co. is doing just fine.
The newest expansion at the small meat company Ralph Crane purchased in 1959 opened a few weeks ago, as owners Gary and Tess Crane kicked off a month of weekend food samplings and drawings for four special edition Ralph's circle R-brand smokers.
The business is a family effort. Gary Crane met his wife, Tess, in college, and together they returned to Perkins and joined the business in 1971. While Gary Crane didn't originally envision joining his father's venture, "I wanted to be around livestock," he said.
Tess Crane can recall many hours spent standing in the plant's cold environment, and after having two daughters, "I pushed the girls not to be in the business," she said. "It's hard."
But one daughter, Erica Hering, did join the company, and today helps her mother manage the office and market the company at trade shows. She also designed the company's Web site and is marketing Ralph's on a Facebook page.
"We are trying to keep up, with Erica's help," Tess Crane said.
And while she also never planned on working with her family, "I wouldn't trade it," Erica Hering said.
The debut of the spacious, 1,600-square-foot retail store and the giveaways are all in celebration of Ralph's 50 years in business. But this month is also about recognition for a small-town, family-operated company that survived economic tailspins, big changes in food safety and inspection regulations and evolving consumer preferences.
"We're just lucky we made it through the tough times," Gary Crane said.
And there were some. The mid-1980s found the couple taking on catering jobs to keep afloat during some lean years after the state's oil bust. But that's history now, and today Ralph's is a multiple award-winning operation in a nationwide industry dominated by smaller, husband-and-wife owned companies.
Despite the weakened economy, most small meat processors across the country "are doing well right now," Gary Crane said. "We're doing all we can do, and we hope it stays that way."
Ralph's began as a fresh meat plant focusing on beef, Gary Crane said. But decades later diversification has the company offering more processed "heat and eat" products and focusing on more items like different sausages, jerky and smoked bacon and turkey legs.
Today, he said, "we have close to 25 different sausages," jerky is prepared daily, and smoked turkeys are in big demand. Smoked and cured offerings represent 80 percent of Ralph's dollar volume, and sales of the company's popular jerky "push up that volume," he added.
The Cranes figured out long ago they weren't competing with huge food companies, and they kept Ralph's centered on a niche market of smaller, family grocery stores, school districts, nursing homes and state-owned and operated restaurants.
Eskimo Joe's in Stillwater is a customer, as is a Tulsa company that weekly sends raw turkey legs to Perkins to be smoked and delivered back up the turnpike.
The plant is divided into compact departments where 47 employees handle everything from cleaning fresh meat to preparing it; a custom-order area where slaughtered livestock are cut and packaged for customer requests; and sausage and jerky preparation. Several stainless steel smokers — in use since 1987 — that use hardwood sawdust for wood smoke are running almost daily.
The Cranes invested about $200,000 to build a new retail store, with its stone exterior and a high-ceilinged, rough cedar interior featuring large wall coolers, smaller floor coolers, a cheese and meat display case and a Made in Oklahoma condiment and spice area.
"Our retail just keeps getting better and better," Gary Crane said, and customers can now buy a range of products including fish, various cheeses and convenience products such as sausage biscuits, miniature pizzas, vegetables, potatoes, meatballs and burritos.
The walls are lined with awards the Cranes' meats have won at meat processor shows over the years, and Gary Crane and Ralph's snagged top honors this year at the American Association of Meat Processors convention in July, where Gary won a Lifetime Achievement Award and his hot dogs and bacon received champion status.
The Cranes say retirement isn't in their future, and they hope they can just keep on doing what they know best.
"I love doing this kind of work," Gary Crane said.
