LEBANON, PA. — Godshall’s Quality Meats, Telford, Pa., the biggest producer of whole-muscle turkey and beef bacon in the United States, opened its newly expanded bacon plant in Lebanon, Pa., on Oct. 4. The original plant in Lebanon has been smoking meats since 1885. Construction on the new facility began in November 2021.

“We acquired this plant in 2005, from the Daniel Weaver Co.,” said Ron Godshall, company president, in an interview with MEAT+POULTRY at the plant’s ceremonial grand opening. At the time, the facility had 20 wooden gravity smokehouses. The expansion and modernization added 50,000 square feet of production space to the facility, which now totals 150,000 square feet. 

“This new building adds three state-of-the art production lines to the 11 existing stainless-steel smokehouses, Godshall explained. “We also now have a 10,000 lb-per-hour microwave thawing system, new vehicle receiving docks, and more raw material storage space.”

Cause to celebrate

A “bacon-cutting” ceremony was held to honor the plant opening. Godshall was joined by company leaders, including Joel Nyce, senior vice president at Godshall’s, and state legislative and local government leaders, including Lebanon City Mayor Sherry Capello, and representatives from the local Chamber of Commerce, all of whom praised Godshall for bringing additional, new jobs to the local area.

After the ceremony, attendees were treated to a tour of the new plant, tasting of Godshall’s new Angus Steak bacon, and other smoked meats prepared by the company. Daniel Weaver remains as a brand of Godshall’s for the company’s meat snacks.

Godshall’s bacons include Angus Steak Bacon, which is new, Original Turkey Bacon, Uncured Turkey Bacon, Organic Uncured Turkey Bacon, Maple Turkey Bacon, Beef Bacon, Fully Cooked Uncured Turkey Bacon, Uncured Canadian Turkey Bacon and Applewood No Antibiotics Ever Uncured Turkey Bacon. 

Godshall’s Quality Meats dates to 1945, at the end of World War II, when it got underway as a family-owned business in Telford, in Southeastern Pennsylvania, and now with facilities in Souderton and Lebanon. It has grown from a local family butcher shop to a supplier of premium smoked meats across the United States and overseas. The expansion in Lebanon now brings total company production to more than one million pounds of meat products a week. Godshall Quality Meats annual sales are more than $250 million, Godshall said.

“The reason we are expanding and modernizing this plant is because we want to have a big expansion of our bacon-making capabilities,” Godshall said. “By the end of this year, we believe that our company will be America’s third-largest turkey bacon brand. We lead legacy turkey bacon brands in sales and distribution growth, as well as customer loyalty,” Godshall noted. 

“Our beef bacon also continues to grow, with a 24% increase over last year. Our Angus Steak bacon is helping this growth,” he said.

Godshall explained that the company is employee-owned (ESOP) since 2017. “We have 530 employees, in what I call a very successful high-end-of-medium-sized meat processing company,” he said.

“Every year, company shares are divided among our employees,” Godshall explained. “This plan offers serious tax and investment benefits, and company profits stay with our owners. The plan is one of the features that makes us such a unique company.”

“Most of the production in the Lebanon plant is turkey bacon, which is our flagship product,” Nyce explained. All the new plant construction is of stainless steel, which is the most efficient and long-lasting plant material, as well as the easiest to keep clean, and the best way to maintain sanitary conditions. 

Godshall said that all the smokehouses are constructed of stainless steel. “The former plant had wooden smokehouses. We saved one wood smokehouse; it is a historical structure. But now we use it to store fire suppression equipment. We have our office here in an old building as well, but at some point, our Lebanon plant office will probably move into the new construction area.”    

The modernization of the Lebanon plant means a major expansion of bacon production for Godshall’s. “We had to do this somewhere else, because at Telford (the main facility), we are maxed out,” Godshall said. “Souderton is a cold storage, research and development, and distribution facility, so Lebanon was the only place to expand.”

“In the meat business, you must stay ahead – you can’t drop back or slow up. If you don’t, you will get passed, like you’re driving in the slow lane,” he said. “So, we continue to move ahead and grow -- we have a good growth pattern.”

“The (COVID-19) pandemic actually opened the door for us in some ways. We had a great product fill rate when others struggled, and we gained new retailers and many loyal consumers. This helped prove that Godshall’s could become a leading national brand. Before the pandemic, we also were growing our business by doing private labeling. That is something we are still doing today,” he said.

Ready to grow

Planning on the expansion and modernization of the Lebanon plant began in 2020, right at the height of the pandemic. “We started designing the new plant right when the pandemic began,” Godshall said.

“We needed to come up with a layout of the building, the amount of square footage we would need to add,” he added. “That resulted in a lot of engineering in this project, because there is a big hill in the back of the property we needed to work around. We ended up taking down four older buildings and putting up a new one featuring a number of different floors. We wanted to have all stainless-steel woodburning smokehouses.”

Godshall said that the company’s success is due to the people who work there. “We are an employee-owned business, there is a strong family culture. We care about the people who work here,” he said.

“We inspire rather than motivate the people working at Godshall’s because they are in fact part owners of the company. So, we trust our people and we try to stay out of their way and what they are doing – we do not micromanage people here. During our meetings, I sit and listen to what our people say and recommend.”