“I started with Universal in Lincoln, NE in April of 2004. Back then, we were “Universal Cold Storage” and only had a single 18,000 square foot facility in Lincoln, NE. Fast forward to today, we have 2 facilities in Lincoln alone, totaling over 650,000 square feet, as part of our growing national footprint.
A little bit of my Universal story: I have a background in meat so, in the beginning we stored a lot of meat – millions and millions of pounds – for most of the largest players in the meat business. We realized early on that our cold air is no different than our competitors’ offerings. We reached out to our customers with a focus on finding business that needed more than cold air – like tempering, assembly, boxing, pre-pricing, and then ultimately High Pressure Processing (HPP). We were already offering value-added services, so adding HPP was a natural fit for Universal. I still remember the meeting we had evaluating buying our first HPP machine. At the time, our annual sales were approximately $6-7 million, and we were deciding to buy our first HPP machine for $2.5 million. Being a part of buying our first HPP machine was the best decision I’ve been a part of – after HPP took off, we re-branded from Universal Cold to Universal Pure. As you may already know, we now have 8 facilities in 7 locations across the US with 21 HPP machines.
As I look back at the last 20 years, I treasure the employees I’ve been blessed to work with. When these hard workers go home for the day, they are moms, dads, brothers, sisters, etc…. I’m thankful to be a part of their lives and appreciate the friendships I’ve made along the way.”
Thank you for 20 great years, Jeff! We look forward to continuing pioneering and leading the way with you, in HPP…and more!
