Hog heaven.

• Author: Skertic, Mark
• Position: Heinold Hog Market Inc. - Cover Story

Forty years ago, Harold Heinold brought the market closer to farmers. Today, Heinold Hog Market is the largest hog broker in the country and one of the top private companies in Indiana.

Carl Sandburg called Chicago "hog butcher to the world." The little town of Kouts may be able to lay claim to being hog broker to the country.

Since 1950 the Porter County town has been home to Heinold Hog Market Inc. There are no swine milling around the office building that stands on the western edge of Kouts. But don't be fooled by the absence of pork. The people at Heinold run the largest hog-marketing operation in the country.

"We can match the needs of the packer to the producers' hogs that fit the best," answers Terry D. Miller, the company's president and chief operating officer, when asked to explain its success.

"There really is an increased emphasis on the quality of the hogs offered," adds Larry Sievers, Heinold's chairman and CEO.

The people at Heinold are the link between hog producers and pork packers. They know what's available in the marketplace and what customers are clamoring for. Then they try to create a perfect match.

"We really have two customers," Miller says. "And we provide service to both."

The company slogan appears on its promotional literature: "People, Pork and Progress." Sales offices are spread out over seven Midwestern states. In addition to more than a dozen locations in Indiana, there are sales offices in Illinois, Ohio, Michigan, Kentucky, Tennessee and Missouri.

"One of the reasons we have the market scattered the way we do, throughout the country, is that we try to be fairly close to our producers so they don't have a long haul to get to market," Miller explains.

The company can help a producer sort hogs for shipping to the various markets and, in some cases, provide a trucking service.

Once at the market, Heinold can offer hogs according to quality, size or whatever feature a buyer is looking for.

"Our packer customers know they can get what they need for their particular kill line," Miller says. "It's amazing, although everyone is slaughtering hogs and making meat, there's variety because of the different cuts and different customers they have.

"For instance, they might basically have a loin business. Then they want the best hogs with the best loins that's possible. Or it's a ham business, and they want the best hams they can get. Each packer is specialized."

The company recently worked with a packer who was trying to break into the Japanese market.

"He wants a quality product that is very much the same size all the way along," Miller explains. Heinold was asked to help him buy the hogs that would provide uniform cuts of meat, to prevent having to go in and cut them all down to the same size.

The company has developed a variety of programs and options for customers that have helped Heinold survive in an increasingly competitive marketplace. Producers have the option of various...