Today we’d like to introduce you to Udi Greenberg.
Hi Udi, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
We moved to the US in the late ’90s. My father started working at a poultry company for a few years. With some luck and a lot of hard work, he bought into a small tiny meat company with eight employees and $1 million dollars in sales, this company is called Premier Meat Co.
Fast forward 20+ years and today with our help, we created one of the largest meat distribution and cutting facility on the west coast with over 250 employees and close to 200 million in sales!
This inspired me to start my own legacy. I started to see what was missing in the market and what chefs were always seeking… Quality!!
In January of 2020, I opened capital meat imports with my brother Omer Greenberg with 1 goal, to bring the best quality product we can find under one roof to offer our existing customers and those who have never known about us.
In a short period of time, we were able to network nationally and start distribution direct to restaurants, butcher shops and any food service distributor in the nation while focusing on bringing LA the best we have to offer!
Recently we also started to export and distribute to Mexico, Bahamas, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic and Venezuela with Canada as well in the near future.
Today, capital meat imports and distributes over 1 million pounds a year in the United States of the highest quality Wagyu beef you can find!
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
As like the rest of the world, Covid was a major challenge in the beginning.
It caused us to pivot and change our strategy internally and focus heavily on retail vs. food service which taught us a valuable lesson that it’s always best to build a diverse company that can change with times and be flexible to allow yourself a chance to survive or even thrive through the harshest times known to us.
Overall, with no struggle in life to push us out of our comfort zone, we will never know what we are really made of.
Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
Primarily we Import Japanese A5 Wagyu Beef as well as Australian cross wagyu and full blood wagyu which refers to the genetics of the cattle being as pure as possible to the original genetics that dates back to Japan.
We carry two exclusive brands from Japan Kobe Wine Beef and Joshu Wagyu.
Kobe wine Cattle are raised under strict guidelines of the Kobe beef association, raised in a single farm in Hyogo prefecture and most importantly, they are given a ration of wine lees added to their feed for the last six months of the fattening process to add flavor and unique darker color to the meat, unlike most A5.
Joshu Wagyu are cattle that are born, raised and finish their final process in the same prefecture they were born in. This is a regional program with lesser than 200 farmers in their association so this is not a mass-produced program. Cattle eat the same grass and drink the same water as their ancestors did hundreds of years ago.
We also work exclusively with farmers in Hokkaido, Miyazaki and Kagoshima on the larger scale of A5 beef.
After many years of trying all the different brands of Australian wagyu, we have come down to these two brands being the top-rated programs we could find.
Our main Australian brands would be the award-winning stone axe (full blood wagyu) and Margaret river wagyu beef. Both are produced by the same company Stone Axe Pastoral.
With the demand for domestic Wagyu being so high, we also partnered up with a local company in Northern California called Masami Ranch.
A Japanese company with many years of experience raising cattle with some of the finest cross genetics you can find in the US!
What matters most to you?
My brother and I were raised to value, appreciate and consistently be the best we can for ourselves, our families and our customers.
We learned that great customer service, consistency, quality of product and honesty will allow us to stay with a high level of integrity and keep our customers satisfied, allowing for a great healthy business relationship and major growth potential for all.
In the meat industry, a lot can be disguised and people can be taken advantage of so we truly care about creating trust between us and our customers.
Contact Info:
- Website: Www.capitalmeatimports.com
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/capitalmeatimports?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=
