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prices, and Davis launched a production line for boxed beef in
1992. “Most of the industry followed along. Those that didn’t are
no longer in business,” Davis says.
DEMONSTRATING HIS OWN agility, the lean, 5 -foot- 8 Davis
whips his Mercedes Benz S 55 0 Coupe onto L Street, just a few
blocks from Omaha’s historic ten-story Livestock Exchange Build-
ing. Davis drives this car to work most days but also owns a 19 65
Lotus and a 19 66 Alfa Romeo. His most prized automobile is a
1966 Ford GT 4 0, the first American race car to win at Le Mans,
which is estimated to be worth millions. He raced the car the next
year at Pebble Beach and won in his class. He says he’s stopped
racing old cars after seeing too many crashes and now races a
modern Porsche.
Davis is taking me for a drive through Omaha’s beef history,
pointing out streets that used to be filled with blocks of stock-
yards and thousands of cattle. He slows the Merc as he nears
the former Livestock Exchange Building, now a brown-brick
landmark sometimes used for weddings and events. “There used
to be 36 packers here,” he says with a nod before turning into his
own headquarters. Pointing to a redbrick building on his right,
he adds, “That was one right over there.” Just four packers are left
in Omaha, and Davis’ plant, still in view of the exchange build-
ing, is the city’s largest.
Davis’ office is 2 00 yards from the main packing floor, just
past the sales department. Inside, his desk is crowded with three
computer monitors. One shows the movements in the beef fu-
tures market, another is open to his email, and the third is used
to access the internet and work on spreadsheets. There’s also a
tablet and a smartphone for when Davis needs more bandwidth.
“Every morning I get up, I can’t wait to go to work,” he says with
a grin from behind his desk.
Most days he dons his white smock and hairnet and steps
into the freezing-cold 4 00,000-square-foot stainless-steel plant,
which is open to visitors ranging from curious chefs to family
ranchers. He and his executive team designed it themselves in
the late 1990s. He didn’t hire an engineer because they “knew
this better than anybody else.” The renovation was necessary
in part because of the growing size of the steers. The average
weight of cattle has nearly doubled in three decades as more are
being fed corn rather than grass. “When cattle got bigger, all of
a sudden they didn’t fit through the line,” Davis says.
Each day 2 , 4 00 cattle are brought in from the outside pens
and slaughtered here. Then their carcasses are rigged to a ma-
chine that strips off hide in one fast pull. From there the meat is
chilled for two days while a USDA official inspects the marbling
and marks each with a grade—select, choice or prime. The meat
then winds its way through conveyor belts and machines spread
across several rooms, as the beef is separated into sections. At
the very end of the line, butchers cut to order. In a new $ 12 mil-
lion addition, the beef trimmings are ground into fresh (never
frozen) hamburger meat. (The trimmings are also sold to dis-
tributors who resell to smaller chains like Five Napkin Burger
and Five Guys.) Contrary to expectations, the plant is pristine,
and there is no odor. The vast stainless-steel rooms have a lab-
like quality to them.
Davis designed the huge space to be flexible, and he’s invest-
ing $40 million to erect a 65 ,000-square-foot eight-story cold-
storage warehouse. Using artificial intelligence, robots will pull
the boxed beef off shelves and fulfill orders. The new warehouse
will open up space in the existing plant to allow Davis to come
up with additional high-margin items. He’s already planning
on doubling his ground-beef production to an estimated 70
million pounds annually by next year. Greater Omaha has also
started selling to meal-delivery outfits like AmazonFresh and
Hello Fresh as well as offering direct-to-consumer
steaks, called TenderAge. (It couldn’t use the
name Omaha Steaks, as it’s already taken by a
rival.) The steaks it sells online are some of its
most expensive and premium cuts: $320 for eight
14 -ounce ribeyes or $ 18 0 for eight 6 -ounce filets.
Davis says he will never abandon his restau-
rant customers, a business that is still quite lucra-
tive. Pat LaFrieda Meat Purveyors, for instance,
which sells to thousands of restaurants around the
U.S., has been ordering from Davis for decades.
“Greater Omaha actually selects product specifi-
cally for us, and that means the world to us,” LaFrieda says.
Lawry’s, which operates ten restaurants and buys more than
75 0,000 pounds of meat a year, concurs. Executive chef Ryan
Wilson says he’s been transitioning all his locations to exclusive-
ly use Greater Omaha beef, despite the fact that the prices are a
bit higher and that he can’t always get as much as he wants. “Yo u
oftentimes have to pay more of a premium up front,” Wilson
says. “But I think it’s worth it,”
Despite the demand, Davis says, he has no plans to open
another plant. He’s toured two that were modeled after his but
wasn’t interested. He also turned down buyout offers, includ-
ing two since the trade deal with China. “I don’t open that door
because the plant’s not for sale,” he says.
Davis has no heir apparent and no succession plan. Divorced
in 2006 , he has two children in Chicago: a 26 -year-old daughter
who is a psychotherapist and a 23 -year-old son who just started
law school. Davis says neither has any interest in coming back
to Omaha like he did. He’ll figure out what that means for the
business when the time comes but doesn’t think that will be
anytime soon: “I’ve never enjoyed this more in my life. I’m not
giving this up. You’re not getting me out of here.”DAVIS HAS NO HEIR APPARENT AND
NO SUCCESSION PLAN. “I’VE NEVER
ENJOYED THIS MORE IN MY LIFE. I’M
NOT GIVING THIS UP. YOU’RE NOT
GETTING ME OUT OF HERE.”FORBES ASIA
GREATER OMAHA
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