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“Even though he’s new to the meat business and has worked for Fulton for less than one year, it’s clear that Ryan possesses the talent, drive and leadership to make an impact on our business,” Mooring says. “In a short amount of time, Ryan has learned this business from the ground up; everything from costing to yield for-mulas and portion control profits. He has learned more in months than some learn in years.”
Thornton admits working in the meat industry wasn’t necessarily on his career radar screen while earning a degree in business at Oregon State Univ., but growing up working on a friend’s farm that produced grass seed, taught him the value of a strong work ethic and the fulfillment of working in a business related to agriculture. While a student at OSU, he worked at a grass seed certification lab and also did a stint working at a company that produced hops. “I just kind of answered a call,” Thornton says, which helps explain how his career path has taken an agribusiness-based route.
After graduating from college in 2008, he found himself among thou-sands of bright-eyed grads anxiously seeking jobs in an economy that was dipping into the early stages of a recession that would last years. While job hunting, Thornton took a job with the city of Salem, working on a street maintenance crew for about 18 months.
The months-long job search ultimately led him to Fulton, where he was hired as a merchandiser. He soon discovered that succeed-ing in this role would require him to first learn all he could about the meat industry. “Asking a lot of questions about things like the different cuts of meat,” Thornton says has been the secret to his early success, not to mention to his almost constant reliance onThe Meat Buyer’s Guide, “which has really been like my Bible,” he jokes. The 26-year-old, hired as a merchandiser who oversees raw ma-terial supplies and ensures production yields are met, has embraced what has already evolved into an expanding role. He learned the value of being flexible when, after one day on the job, the man who hired him moved to Las Vegas for another opportunity that unexpectedly presented itself. Thornton admits that at that point, “it was kind of hard knocks. I just had to hunker down and learn,” without the benefit of working as an understudy for the person who hired him.
Thankfully, several other execs quickly took him under their collective wings, including Mooring. Already, Thornton is being exposed to parts of the business that make his merchan-dising role make more sense, from processing and plant operations to accounting.
A quick study
A subsidiary of Houston-based Sysco Co., Fulton was one of several regional meat companies the foodservice distributor acquired in the early 2000s. Others included Buckhead Beef Co., Freedman Meats, Newport Meat Co., Royalty Foods, Facciola Meat Co., Desert Meats & Provisions. While still in high school during many of these acquisitions, Thornton appreciates that the companies are al-lowed to maintain their identities while benefiting from the support of the much-larger entity. “It doesn’t feel like you work with a big corporation when you work here,” he says. With about 50 employees working in the processing plant and approximately 20 in the adjacent office, “you know everyone by name and don’t feel like you are going to be lost in the shuffle. That’s one thing I really like about it.”
“I have come to count on Ryan as a go-to-guy for assistance with inventory, production and toss just about everything I can his way, which he takes all in stride,” Mooring says. “I know that if Ryan stays with this business he will be a rising star for a long time to come.”
