Portland meat wholesaler pivots for home customers

PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — For years they’ve supplied Portland restaurants with meat and wild game but now meat wholesaler Nicky USA has opened its doors to the public.

This is a time when everyone in the restaurant and restaurant supply ecosystem is trying to hang on. Meat wholesalers are no different, and many like Nicky USA have found new customers by going from strictly wholesale to retail.

On this day they were processing pork that would have gone to a Portland restaurant before the pandemic hit. Now, some of it is going to people to cook at home.

Nicky USA has responded to the times by pivoting its business in June to now include direct-to-consumer boxes of meat, tailgating packs and seafood boxes.

The 30-year-old family-run business in Portland’s Central Eastside Industrial District is doing about 60% of their previous business after 50 restaurants that once ordered their meat have closed for good.

They had dock sales occasionally only to clear out excess inventory. But owner Geoff Latham and his son decided they needed to cast a wider net to sell more meat. So they opened it to the public.

“For 30 years we’ve told people we have a $125 minimum and we have a wholesale price and we have a general public prices,” Latham said. “We did away with general public pricing immediately and my team has been working so hard to work with families that want to cook at home.”

Anything you can think of from precooked smoked hams to wild game, poultry and pork to dry aged prime ribs are now in a temperature and humidity controlled room and on the menu and open to the public. Latham said they’re picking up customers every day, stocking freezers for the holidays, buying salami boxes for holiday gifts as people get ready for holiday feasts at home this year.

Your holiday meal may not entail as many guests as in years past but Nicky USA is doing what it can to make sure they can get restaurant quality meats to cook at home this season.

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