A Slice Above the Rest

In 1946, Wright Packing Co. celebrated its grand opening in Vernon, Texas (pop. 11,660), but you wouldn’t have known it by a sign out front.

There wasn’t one.

Although several area meatpackers opened at the same time with large signs to attract customers, the father-and-son team of Roy and Bill Wright decided to stick closely to their modest business plan, which didn’t include money to purchase a sign.

“I never put a sign out there,” says Bill, 87, who still lives in Vernon, “and they’re all gone, but I’m still here.”

Such cost-conscious practices and attention to their customers allowed the packing company to remain standing while competitors fell by the wayside, and helped the Wrights endure growing pains over the years, as their business evolved from a slaughterhouse to a bacon production plant, changing its name in 1986 to Wright Brand Foods.

The company stuck to its low-profile ways, never putting up a sign until several years after Bill retired in 1994. Even then it was nothing fancy—just a small sheet metal sign on the side of a building.

Although the Wright family no longer owns the business—it was acquired by Tyson Foods Inc., headquartered in Springdale, Ark., in 2001—Brad Bolton, Bill’s grandson and the company’s industrial engineer, says Wright Brand Foods was able to retain a core group of leaders that have passed along the business philosophies and work ethic of his forefathers to a new generation of employees.

Time-tested processing
Plant manager Jimmy Dennis began working at Wright Brand Foods in 1986, trimming pork bellies and taping boxes, and feels a sense of ownership in the company.

“The Wright family poured their hearts into this place,” says Dennis, 49, “and we’re proud of where we work.”

Dennis carries on the Wright tradition of constantly evaluating the process and making changes as necessary to secure the delivery of a high-quality product to its customers.

“Our customers expect a certain flavor profile from us,” he says, “and ensuring we manage and follow processes to get the same consistent flavor day after day is a challenge.”

With 3.5 million pounds of hickory-smoked bacon being produced each week, it’s no small job. Eighty-five percent of the pork is supplied by Tyson Fresh Meats, with the remaining 15 percent coming from other suppliers. Once a pork belly arrives at the plant, it spends less than five days in process, ensuring a fresh product.

After prepping the pork bellies, the meat is rolled into one of eight large smokehouses. “This is what sets us apart,” Dennis says. “Most companies use liquid smoke, but we use hickory sawdust to smoke our bacon.”

The meat is smoked for about seven hours and comes out of the smoker at 126 degrees. It’s then cooled to 21 degrees before being flattened and shaped into a block for uniformity, sorted by grade, sliced, and packaged—a process fine-tuned over decades.

Beginning of a legacy
Every day during their ownership, the Wright family would evaluate how to improve their product, and Bolton recalls his grandfather Bill’s sharp eye for detail.

“He kept a yellow pad next to his bedside, and he would wake up in the night and write down any details he had forgotten,” says Bolton, 42, who worked with his grandfather for five years. “That was actually something I came to dread. If he walked in with his yellow pad in the morning, I knew it was going to be a long day.”

Bill Wright learned how to run the company from his father, Roy, who, before joining forces with his sons, had opened the Vernon Meat Co. in the back room of a grocery store in 1922 with his father-in-law and brother-in-law.

By the early 1940s, Roy had primary ownership of the company that also included a slaughterhouse. He and Bill changed the name to Wright Packing Co. in 1946 and constructed a new facility on the site of the present-day plant before Roy’s younger son, Bob, joined them the next year.

In 1978, Bill’s son, Dan Wright, bought Roy’s share and became co-owner with his dad and his uncle Bob. Because it was becoming more difficult for small meat packers to be profitable, a decision was made to close the slaughterhouse and focus on producing high-quality hams and bacon. Brothers Bill and Bob retired from the business in 1994.

A year before the 2001 Tyson acquisition, the plant quit producing hams and transitioned to a bacon-only facility.

Dan says it was a difficult decision to sell the family business, but they knew a larger company could help secure good, raw material, which in turn would ensure the company’s continued success and guarantee hundreds of jobs in Vernon.

“We also felt that being part of a large organization would be more successful for the brand,” says Dan, 60, who left the company in 2001. “The goal was to be a national brand and that’s very difficult as an independent.”

Today, Wright Brand Foods bacon is available in 32 states and in parts of Mexico. Though ownership has changed, the company remains customer-focused, as the Wrights intended.

David Hampton, owner of meat distributor Dallas Dressed Beef, has been a customer since 1953. Wright Brand is his favorite, he says, because “it’s got the best flavor and it looks good on a plate,” a quality his restaurant customers greatly value.

“As long as they keep the formulation on how they cook, smoke, and slice it,” says Hampton, 57, “there will always be a need for Wright in Texas.”

Story by Kristen Tribe of Decatur, Texas.

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