MEATS

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Atlas Cement site in the Morgan Park neighborhood and another plot of land in Superior for a potential 20,000-square-foot meat stick plant.

It was a natural progression, Wrazidlo said.

“Every place I know that sells jerky today and snack sticks ... they all started out of a grocery store or a meat market,” Wrazidlo said.

It started about a decade ago Old World Meats started selling meat sticks to gas stations and convenience stores within a 5-mile radius. It was successful so they moved to a 15-mile radius. Then they got a distributor.

Today, Old World Meats is selling meat sticks in at least 40 states and Guam. Flavors include dill pickle, bloody mary and honey barbecue.

But it could do more, Wrazidlo said.

During that time, Wrazidlo hired his cousin, Ed Wrazidlo, now one of five cousins working there, to oversee the meat stick production as production manager.

A former Navy mechanic, Ed brought his know-how to the operation, boosting production.

“And I brought some of that with us, as far as organizing things and structuring things to streamline it,” Ed said. “So it’s really taken off.”

The current setup can produce up to 12,000-16,000 meat sticks per day. The new facility will churn out 200,000 meat sticks per day, about 15,000 pounds.

About 90% percent of that will be for other private labels, while the remaining will be the Old World Meats label, Paul said.

About 35 people will be hired for the plant, up from the 11 full-time and six part-time employees currently at the market.

But even with the new facility, the market near Central Entrance isn’t going anywhere.

“I’m absolutely born and bred Duluth,” Paul said. “My grandfather had his first business in 1951 in Duluth here, and then my father had his meat market in Duluth ... So it’s been a long tradition.”