Riverside Meats

What Riverside Meats does

Riverside Meats and Processing is a family-owned custom meat processing business operating since 1997 out of a single facility at 33850 210th St, Swanville, Minnesota. The business is built around transaction-fee processing for customer-owned livestock and wild game: beef and pork (cut, grind, wrap, vacuum-seal, smoke, sausage), deer/elk/bison (cutting, wrapping, freezing, plus 50+ sausage variants from customer trimmings), and seasonal poultry (June through August) for backyard growers. A mobile butchering truck provides on-farm slaughter within a roughly 75-mile radius of Swanville, with tiered mileage charges beyond 45 miles.

Revenue is generated entirely on a pay-as-you-go, per-animal or per-pound basis; the business does not accept credit cards, relies on cash and check, and even requires a 50% deposit on whole/side/quarter beef orders. There is no e-commerce, no retail channel, and no distribution beyond direct customer drop-off at the facility or the on-farm service route. Marketing is limited to a Facebook page (facebook.com/riversidemeatsswanville) and word-of-mouth referrals, including a working relationship with the nearby McCoy Big Game Hunting Ranch.

The company serves three primary persona segments: individual farmers and livestock owners raising animals for personal consumption, sport hunters harvesting deer/elk/bison, and backyard poultry growers. With a 7-employee headcount and no external funding or institutional investment, the business operates as a cash-generative lifestyle/maintenance enterprise with nearly three decades of brand equity in the Morrison County, MN area but no apparent ambition to scale beyond the local service area.

Name

Riverside Meats

Legal name

Riverside Meats and Processing

Website

https://themeats.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

1997

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Riverside Meats and Processing is a family-owned custom meat processor in Swanville, Minnesota, providing on-site and on-farm slaughter plus cutting, smoking, and sausage-making services for individual farmers, hunters, and poultry growers within a ~75-mile radius.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Meat Processing Services

NAICS

Animal Slaughtering and Processing (3116), Meat Processed from Carcasses (311612), Poultry Processing (311615)

SIC

Meat Packing Plants (2011), Sausages & Other Prepared Meat Products (2013), Poultry Slaughtering And Processing (2015)

akta.pro industry

PRIMARYAFAKALAD

Further Processing (Cooked, Smoked, Cured & Deli Meats)

Agriculture & Food Production/Food Processing & Manufacturing/Meat Processing (Beef, Pork, Poultry)

SECONDARYAFAIADAG

Game & Specialty Meats Wholesale (Venison, Bison, etc.)

Agriculture & Food Production/Food Distribution & Wholesale/Meat, Poultry & Seafood Wholesale

SECONDARYAFANABAE

Pork Further Processing (Cured, Smoked, Ham, Bacon)

Agriculture & Food Production/Meat, Poultry & Seafood Processing/Pork Processing (Slaughtering, Fabrication & Packaging)

Keywords

• Custom meat processing
• Wild game processing
• Sausage making
• On-farm slaughter
• Smoked meats

Headquarters

HQ city

Swanville

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Supply Chain, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Custom Meat Processing Services: One-time transaction-based services for butchering and processing livestock (cattle, hogs, goats, sheep). Pricing is per animal plus processing fees based on hanging weight.
2. Wild Game Processing: Processing services for deer, elk, and bison brought in by hunters. Includes cutting, wrapping, and freezing services charged per animal.
3. Poultry Processing: Seasonal chicken butchering and processing services offered from beginning of June to end of August. Charged per bird.
4. Sausage and Smoked Meats Production: Production of over 50 varieties of smoked meats and sausages made to order from customer-provided trimmings or as standalone products. Charged per pound.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels2 records

Marketing channels1 record

Core offering

Riverside Meats is a family-owned custom meat processing business that butchers and processes livestock (cattle, hogs, goats, sheep) and wild game (deer, elk, bison) brought in by individual customers, and produces over 50 varieties of smoked meats and sausages to order. It also operates a mobile butchering truck that performs on-farm slaughter within roughly 75 miles of Swanville, Minnesota, before transporting animals back to the facility for cutting, packaging, smoking, and freezing to customer specifications.

Product overview

Riverside Meats is a family-owned meat processing business operating since 1997, offering custom processing for beef, pork, chicken, and wild game alongside over 50 varieties of smoked meats and sausages. The core offerings include Custom Meat Processing (beef and pork), Chicken Butchering & Processing, and Wild Game Processing & Sausage. Additional services include On-Farm Slaughter with mobile butchering capabilities. Products are processed to customer specifications with custom packaging, labeling, and competitive pricing.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Custom Meat Processing (Beef and Pork) Full-service custom butchering and processing of cattle, hogs, goats, and sheep brought in by individual farmers and livestock owners. Includes whole, halves, and quarters of beef and pork with custom cutting, grinding, paper wrapping, vacuum sealing options, patty making, and freezing to customer specifications, plus optional smoking.
• On-Farm Slaughter Service Mobile butchering truck service that visits farms within approximately 75 miles of Swanville, Minnesota, to perform on-site slaughter, then transports the animal to the Riverside Meats facility for further processing, cutting, and packaging to customer specifications.
• Chicken Butchering and Processing Seasonal custom slaughter and processing of meat chickens (white broilers) and turkeys for backyard poultry growers, available from June through August. Services include vacuum-sealed whole birds or self-packaging, with per-pound pricing for birds over 8 lbs and all turkeys.
• Wild Game Processing and Sausage Custom processing of hunter-harvested deer, elk, and bison into consumable cuts, including cutting, wrapping, and freezing to customer specifications, plus custom sausage making from venison, beef, pork, and game meat trimmings. Game animals are accepted only during regular business hours.
• Smoked Meats and Sausages Production of more than 50 varieties of smoked meats and sausages made to order from customer-provided trimmings or as standalone products, including Polish, country-style, smoked brats, summersausage, wieners, bologna, fresh brats, jerky, beerstix, dried beef or venison, breakfast sausage, and chorizo, with optional add-ons such as jalapenos, cheddar, and wild rice.

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Partnerships

One partnership is on record.

• McCoy Big Game Hunting RanchminorOthersMcCoy Big Game Hunting Ranch is a hunting operation located within a few miles of Riverside Meats. The ranch offers Elk, Whitetail, and Bison hunting opportunities. Riverside Meats provides meat processing services for game animals harvested at the ranch. This is a referral/working relationship where hunters using the ranch bring their game to Riverside Meats for processing.

Scale indicators3 records

Recent moves4 records

Expansion highlights3 records

Broad incumbents

• Omaha Steaks: Established direct-to-consumer meat brand selling premium beef and other proteins nationally. Shares Riverside's direct-to-consumer protein focus and beef specialty orientation but at much larger scale and via mail order rather than local processing.
• JBS USA: One of the largest meat processors in North America, operating beef and pork facilities. Competes with Riverside at the protein-processing category level but at vastly different scale and customer mix.
• Perdue Farms: Major poultry processor covering Riverside's seasonal chicken processing category at national scale; serves grocery retail and foodservice rather than individual farmers, but competes for the same poultry protein category.
• Tyson Foods: Largest US meat processor operating beef, pork, and poultry plants nationally. Operates in Riverside's broader protein-processing category but at industrial scale with completely different customer base and distribution.
• Hormel Foods: Diversified meat and food manufacturer with significant pork and smoked/sausage product lines. Overlaps with Riverside's further-processing and smoked meats category but operates nationally via retail distribution.

Direct peers

• Forest Lake Lockers: Family-run custom locker plant in the Twin Cities region offering custom beef, pork, and wild game processing with on-site slaughter — a direct competitor to Riverside's service model in the Upper Midwest.
• Lorentz Meats & Sausage: Minnesota-based custom meat processor and sausage maker serving farmers and hunters with similar cut, wrap, and smoking services. Closest comparable in scale, geography, and product mix to Riverside Meats.
• Buck's Custom Meats: Small-town custom meat processor offering slaughter, processing, and sausage-making services to farmers and hunters in a rural Midwest market, mirroring Riverside's locker-plant operating model.
• Browerville Meats: Central Minnesota locker plant providing custom beef, pork, and wild game processing to a similar rural farming community, located within Riverside's broader competitive geography.
• Nemeth's Hungarian Custom Meat Processing: Independent custom processor offering slaughter and specialty sausage production to farmers and hunters. Comparable small-scale, service-driven model with a value-added smoked/sausage product focus similar to Riverside.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat3 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights5 records

Customer concentration

• Facebookfacebook.com/riversidemeatsswanville
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/riverside-meats

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Riverside Meats