It was a frosty -15°F in Mauston, Wis., when co-owner of Wisconsin River Meats John Hamm pulled up to see his building ablaze and an orange glow in the sky. Dave Mauer, fellow co-owner of Wisconsin River Meats, received a call at 4:30 a.m. on Feb. 3, 2022, alerting Mauer of the flames that broke loose on the company grounds.
Living a mere 2 miles away from Wisconsin River Meats, Hamm was the first one to the facility.
“My biggest concern was the hogs that were in the building, that I’d get them out,” Hamm said. He enlisted the help of the fire chief and an employee to chase the pigs out.
Thanks to Hamm’s initiative and the fire departments’ quick response, no people or animals were harmed during the fire. Even with multiple surrounding fire departments pitching in, it was a long fight to extinguish the flames, lasting until roughly 9 a.m.
“It was very dramatic – the water shooting at night, the fire coming through the roof, the cooler doors blew open,” Hamm recalled. “Dave thought we could maybe save the beef carcasses yet. Well, the door blew open and all the beef carcasses were on fire, burning a blue flame on them, which was a very hideous sight.”
“We wouldn’t wish it on anyone,” Mauer said.
All but Wisconsin River Meats’ latest building addition and the warehouse were destroyed in the fire. Hamm and Mauer lost all their equipment, including a newly purchased smokehouse, grinder, saw and injector. They figured they lost around $1 million in uncovered assets – a substantial loss for the size of their business, noted Mauer. However, the owners were able to save a few essential company documents and computers from the offices before the fire engulfed them.
Labor of love
When Hamm and Mauer set out to build their seventh addition, they were required by the state to include a fire wall. Mauer noted that he originally complained about the fire wall due to its size, cost and look, but now he is thankful for the state’s insistence on the wall. It kept the fire from consuming the new addition so the owners only had to clear out the smoke that billowed into the space.
With the seventh addition, Wisconsin River Meats had grown from its original 1,600 square feet to 8,000 square feet. The current owners purchased the land — a cornfield — in 1991 from Hamm’s family who mainly used the space for local deer processing. Hamm and Mauer set out to continue the work of the previous owners, beginning with deer processing from a garage, while they built the original Wisconsin River Meats building.
Over their three decade-long partnership, the owners have expanded the business to include custom game processing, wholesale meats, catering, and in-store and online retail.
Before the fire, the business had grown to employ 40 team members. Many of those had to be layed off after the devastating fire destroyed all but the new part of the plant.
“We’re like a family here with the employees,” Hamm said. “The fire was super, super stressful on the employees. It was almost as stressful on them as it was on us.”
Mauer added, “A lot of people that we employ have worked here for a long time, so watching everything they had worked hard for too, going up in flames, there were a lot of tears.”
Wisconsin River Meats has hired most employees back since the layoffs, now totaling just over 30 workers.
Wisconsin River Meats held an open house at the new store and plant about a year after the fire. (Source: Wisconsin River Meats)
Processor aid
Down hands and resources, Wisconsin River Meats relied on the owners’ resourcefulness and the goodwill of the surrounding processor community.
“Immediately after the fire, we started working with several other processors. We purchased product from other people, so we were able to keep our sales routes going,” Hamm said.
The same day of the fire, after Hamm, the fire chief and an employee chased the pigs out of the burning building, they sent the animals to nearby Crescent Meats, Cadott, Wis., to be butchered. Other processors reached out to offer their services, including Brock’s Butcher Block, Sparta, Wis., and J&S Meats, Marshfield, Wis.
In addition to sending meat to area processors, Wisconsin River Meats borrowed equipment so it could process its own meat at its warehouse. The company expressed thanks to Handtmann Inc., Lake Forest, Ill., for loaning them a machine and to Pro Smoker ‘N Roaster, Iron Ridge, Wis., for building them two additional smokers.
The company’s contractors were able to speed up the process for the new sausage kitchen that was part of Wisconsin River Meats’ expansion plan pre-fire.
The company made the first batch of venison sausage on March 16, 2022, and received approval for inspection 10 days later. Thanks to the new sausage kitchen along with the help of processors and suppliers, Wisconsin River Meats reached full production on the sausage line by mid-July.
To keep up with venison processing – a major element of Wisconsin River Meats’ business – Hamm and Mauer enlisted the help of their own maintenance crew to refit the company’s 6,800-square-foot warehouse for a venison processing room.
“That was kind of a big job refitting it,” Hamm said. “But actually, this year we probably did the most wild game processing we ever did.”
(Source: Wisconsin River Meats)Back in business
While the owners were busy working on keeping up orders and paying dues for customers’ game lost to the fire, they also had to lay out plans for a rebuild. Hard work and strategy up front helped Wisconsin River Meats manage it all. Patrick Reed, sales manager at the firm, and Denise Wee, company manager, kept the wholesale routes going immediately after the fire and met with each customer.
“That was the first challenge,” Hamm said. “Some of the customers didn’t want product other than ours. Dave and I have been around the block, and I didn’t want to lose any shelf space with our several hundred wholesale customers.”
Their initiative paid off, and Wisconsin River Meats was able to retain its strong wholesale customer base. The company’s custom processing, however, didn’t have as much luck.
Hamm and Mauer worked with customers over two weeks, sorting out who had lost beef, pork or game in the fire. The owners insisted on paying each customer back for any meat that was burned up. They paid customers the local livestock top market price the day after the fire.
“All of the people that lost any meat here, before any insurance or anything, we paid all of them,” Mauer said.
Despite their efforts, they still lost many custom processing customers due to setbacks. Hamm and Mauer are determined to grow that sector of their business back to the level it was.
The company has progressed a long way the past year since the fire. On March 16, 2023, Wisconsin River Meats held a large open house to showcase the new store and the rebuild. The owners wanted to wait for an official grand opening until the rebuild was operational again.
While expansions in the past always occurred as building additions so as not to disrupt operations, this time around Wisconsin River Meats was able to create one large, operational building since everything burned down. The company also took advantage of the opportunity to grow to 12,000 square feet with the rebuild.
Hamm said they are still “picking up the pieces,” but the partners never wavered from their commitment to keeping the business alive.
“John and I have been through a lot in the 30 years we’ve been in business,” Mauer noted. “We said, ‘Well, this is going to be the biggest challenge yet, but we’re going to do it.’ We just kept doing what we do as best we could.”
