After a major holiday shopping season and positive developments throughout 2024, Fanestil Meats owner Dan Smoots is looking for similar trends in 2025.
Smoots joined KVOE’s Morning Show on New Year’s Eve to discuss the business history, products, plans and more. Fanestil has been working to land some of the better than 800 Tyson Foods workers set to be displaced over the next six weeks as that business leaves Emporia. It is also looking to increase both automation and employment.
Over the last few years, Fanestil has seen an increase in bacon sales and stout traffic when it comes to state fairs and conventions. In fact, Smoots says state fairs and conventions are the biggest part of Fanestil’s business — with 250,000 hot dogs just for the Iowa State Fairs and as many as 750,000 hot dogs for the Texas Livestock Show later this year.
The amount of meat being processed draws attention to a gradual change in the cooking method. Over the last eight years, Fanestil has moved to the “sous vide” method.
Fanestil has moved out of its original home in the Cottonwood River floodplain to its new facility in the 4700 block of West US Highway 50 in stages, starting with the Fresh Local Market in 2015 and finishing out the processing plant in 2022. The original plant had over 30 flood-related work stoppages from when Dan and Jan Smoots bought the business from Bill Lair in 1997 to when it started moving to just west of Emporia.
Smoots says more expansion work is ahead. Phase 3 as he calls it, will involve adding to the storage facility. The Phase 4 plan is to double the size of the processing facility.
