36 | FORBES ASIA OCTOBER 2017
H
enry Davis glides his knife through a 4 0-ounce
tomahawk ribeye, its bone running from his fin-
gertip down to his elbow. He cuts into the meat
to check how the chef at Spencer’s steak house in
downtown Omaha has cooked it. It’s a touch more
than rare, and the cool, marbled center is exactly to his liking.
Davis is more than a Spencer’s regular. He is the owner of Greater
Omaha Packing, one of the top slaughterhouses in the country.
The 3 -inch-thick steaks he and his three guests are eating were
hand-delivered to the kitchen, fresh off the line of his Greater
Omaha plant a few miles south.
On this hot summer night in June, Davis, a 66 -year-old who
wears thin-rimmed silver glasses, is in a celebratory mood. Just
the day before, his 97-year-old company shipped its first box of
beef to China since 2003 , mere hours after the U.S. Department
of Agriculture finalized a new trade deal that reopened the $2. 5
billion market to American butchers. His plant was one of two
slaughterhouses in the U.S. initially approved to ship to China,
and his beef arrived first. He celebrated by taking 3 0 Chinese trade
representatives to Spencer’s. (Donald Trump eventually took credit
for this coup in July, claiming in a speech that Davis hugged him
for getting China approved. Davis, whose immigrant grandfather
started Greater Omaha, says he did thank the president and shook
his hand, though there was no embrace.)
China is the latest frontier for Greater Omaha, which was the
first to sell U.S. beef in Japan ( 2008 ) and Saudi Arabia (May 2 017).
Also the biggest American seller in the European Union, it now
exports to 6 9 countries. Despite the huge potential of these mar-
kets, Davis sets limits and is wary of selling too much to any one
customer—be it a local restaurant distributor, a small supermarket
chain, a hotel group or even a country. Last year, exports account-
ed for just 1 6 % of its $1. 4 billion in sales. “I’m very careful how I
do that,” Davis says. “We don’t get overdependent on any market
or any raw material or any customer.”
His thoughtful approach and decision to carefully carve out a
high-end, more profitable niche has helped him grow the business
tenfold since he took over in 19 8 7. It’s been enough to turn Davis,
who owns 100% of the company, into one of the country’s richest
butchers, worth an estimated $1 billion. He has big plans ahead,
but nothing that will compromise his high-quality beef.
“We are a country of meat eaters. It’s a spiritual experience for
a lot of people, and Greater Omaha has been able to respond to
the needs of the people. They want good steak,” says Bob Oros, an
independent beef analyst.
Greater Omaha is intentionally lean. The nation’s top four
suppliers, JBS USA Holdings, Tyson, Cargill and National Beef
Packing, account for about 7 5 % of the U.S. market in terms of
revenue; Greater Omaha, the next biggest, has 2 %. It sells 700
million pounds of beef a year, a tiny slice of the 25 billion pounds
processed in the U.S. annually.
Despite being one of the oldest beef packers in the country,
Greater Omaha has opted not to grow too big. It operates just
one plant and chooses not to sell to big chains like Costco, Wal-
Mart and McDonald’s (JBS and Cargill are the fast food giant’s
hamburger-meat suppliers). It also keeps daily production to 2 , 400
cattle. “We don’t want gigantic customers. The big chain stores?
We don’t have enough beef. If they run a sale, it would be too large
of a percentage of our product. I don’t want that,” Davis says.
This approach allows Davis’ cattle buyers to be extremely
choosy. Its buyers select each steer—either Angus or Hereford
breeds—individually from independent ranches that feed cattle by
hand. “The truth is we buy the fact that hand-fed cattle are better
than machine-fed cattle,” says Angelo Fili, Greater
Omaha’s 6 1-year-old, tobacco-chewing executive
vice president. “A company that does 3 0,000 cattle a
day, they’re already going to get some cattle that are
prime, and they’re gonna get some animals that are
raw. We’re after the higher-end stuff.” To that point,
nearly all its cattle come from Nebraska and Iowa.
Nebraska, in particular, has become a preferred spot
for cattle raising, thanks to its climate and excellent
grassland, which sits atop the largest aquifer in the
country. Greater Omaha claims that helps ranchers
raise cattle superior to those from drought-prone
states like Texas and California.
Greater Omaha also tailors cuts to a custom-
er’s specifications, sending them pounds of just one cut, such
as Porterhouse, or having an imam bless steer to meet halal
standards. Its steaks are served at some of the U.S.’s top eateries,
including Peter Luger, Minetta Tavern and Marea in New York
City, French Laundry in Napa Valley, Ruth’s Chris Steak Houses
and Wolfgang Puck restaurants. These prime cuts help fatten the
company’s bottom line, giving it an operating margin estimated
to be 6 % (Davis won’t comment). That’s much higher than the
industry average of 3 % and better than that of JBS, Tyson and
National Beef ’s meat businesses (privately held Cargill also won’t
confirm). “The big packers have to compete with us. We are
agile,” Davis says.
GREATER OMAHA’S STORY starts with an immigrant in
search of a better life. Davis’ grandfather, Herman Cohen, fled
the Russian empire to America in 190 5 at age 11 to escape dis-
crimination and pogroms. Cohen served in the U.S. infantry in
World War I and reentered civilian life with $100 in his pocket.
In 19 2 0, he moved to Omaha, keen on investing in beef. At the
stockyards, Cohen would pick a single steer every day, butcher
FORBES ASIA
GREATER OMAHA
DAVIS’ PLANT WAS ONE OF TWO
SLAUGHTERHOUSES IN THE U.S.
INITIALLY APPROVED TO SHIP TO
CHINA, AND HIS BEEF ARRIVED
FIRST. CHINA IS THE LATEST
FRONTIER FOR GREATER OMAHA.
