Meat&Poultry - April 2012 - 93

PAY N SAVE

The store glistens with clean meat cases and displays stocked with award-winning meats and value-added items.

its tracks. Its other claim to fame is that it’s the birthplace of nationally famous TV news commentator Chet Huntley and that in 1999 the town folk cooked up a 3-ton hamburger and ate it, landing them in the Guinness Book of World Records. But fortunately for Plouffe, Saco is also located along Highway 2, a heavily traveled road (by Montana standards) and their grocery and meat shop seems to be an oasis for most motorists coming through. The Plouffes taught themselves the workings of the custom meat business and grew that area of the business from two to three beef cattle a week to a sustained rate of 12 to 14 cattle weekly. They slaughter under Montana’s custom-exempt rules every Friday and in the fall months may process up to 15 hogs, and an occasional buffalo. They service farmers and ranchers within a 100-mile radius of the plant. “We did a good trade in big game processing, but a few years back the Blue Tongue disease wiped out most of the white-tail deer population and we gave up that part of the business,” Plouffe says. “But in a way, that turned out to be a good thing and we were able to turn out attention to products that made a better return on our labor.” By September 1999, custom processing of beef had grown so much that the Plouffes had to resurrect their game work and were able to open a new 8,100-sq.-ft. facility on the main street, using the nearby old locker plant for freezer space and storage. “We didn’t do anything that creative or unique,” he notes. “We just tried to treat our customers the way we

“We do a bit of everything, but everything we do is the best product we can make.”
would want to be treated ourselves. We always wanted to be fair and honest.” So successful has been their business philosophy that the company has grown to eight full-time and seven parttime employees. Among the full-timers is son Travis, 31, who handles much of the custom slaughter and meat cutting. Plouffe adds that his mother and father, now in their 70s, come in to help out when needed. Two daughters are not yet involved in the business. can barely keep up with demand for their products. Their homepage, listed under sacomontana.net/paynsave, advises customers that they often run out of their popular jerky selections. When asked if they have a signature product, Plouffe pauses and then emphasizes that “we do a bit of everything, but everything we do is the best product we can make.”

Extra credit
Citing his initial inexperience, Plouffe is quick to give credit for the processing guidance he received through the Montana Meat Processors Association. “Those folks were incredible in helping me out,” he points out. “One year they brought in Ed Woods, from Wood’s Smoked Meats in Bowling Green, Mo., to do a seminar. He really taught us the right way to make a quality ham. He showed us how to make a sweet bologna, which I had never seen before. We sell a lot of sweet bologna, something we would have never come up with on our own. “In another year they brought in the late Steve Eaker, from Ellendale,

Only game in town
But it is the retail store that has grown to represent 60 percent of their business. In a town where you’re the only significant food game around, it would be easy to relax – but not for the Pay N Save management. The store glistens with clean meat cases and displays stocked with awardwinning meats and value-added items the Plouffe family churns out in their ultra-modern processing area. They purchased a vacuum stuffer in 2005 and most recent additions include a bowl chopper and ham injector. Their one-truck Smith smokehouse

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Meat&Poultry - April 2012

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