SigMT

SIGNATURE MONTANA | 77 and the LF Ranch near Augusta. Each embraced the vision and joined as partners, forming the Old Salt Co-op, a name that pays homage to the "salt of the earth" individuals who make up its membership. "It takes a long time to build a meat brand," says Mannix. Rather than entering the wholesale market and following the typical channels of major distributors, they focused on a vertically integrated, direct-to- consumer model. Rather than raising cale with the intent to ship them off to major processing facilities out of state, their strategy called for keeping the entire process under their own umbrella, creating a retail butcher shop, an online e-commerce program, as well as a restaurant concept to showcase their product, thereby building value for the producers throughout the process. What sets Old Salt apart is its unique profit-sharing model, where producers benefit from every aspect of the company 's operations. "So, they own a slice of the restaurant, the processing, and the e-commerce," Mannix explains. Producers not only sell their animals to the company but also participate in its governance. "And that's really the North Star," Mannix emphasizes. "To return more value to the stewardship of the land. It takes talent, commitment, and just sticking with it to manage a complex ecosystem and still produce good food." e meat industry requires substantial infrastructure, from processing facilities to cold storage to managing the product's inherently perishable nature. Efficient and profitable operations hinge on achieving a critical volume, a threshold oen insurmountable for fledgling operations. "Access to capital and financing is hard to get when you are something out of the norm," adds Mannix. Old Salt needed a different approach to scaling its operation. The Last Revel closed out the festival's main stage on Friday night. A whole hog from Cordova Farms outside of Power roasts over the open pit.

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