Angus association dumps its meat brand 03.28.2003
The Canadian Angus Association (CAA) is out of the meat business. In a surprise announcement in late January, the association announced it was closing down its successful line of Certified Canadian Angus branded beef. In fact, the line was shut down by their packer, Cargill Foods of High River who wanted to avoid becoming entangled in a lawsuit brought against the Canadians by the powerful Certified Angus Beef organization in the U.S.
The announcement came just as the Canadian brand seemed ready to take off. Cargill sold a record 5 million pounds last year, and the reputation of the product was growing. Everything looked rosy until last September when CAA manager Doug Fee got a call from the Certified Angus Beef (CAB) headquarters. They claimed the CAA’s use of the word "certified" infringed on their highly successful trademark and demanded a name change. "I offered to fly down and meet with them but they claimed I was stalling because I had a meeting in Europe I couldn’t get out of," says Fee. "Then the lawyers got involved and well, we’re what 5 months down the road and we are still nowhere." Despite the considerable costs involved in redoing the brand the CAA did come up with a new name, Classic Canadian Angus beef and were getting ready to launch it as soon as they cleared up their legal squabble with CAB. Cargill’s brand manager for Canada, Kent Harrison admits the CAB suit did force their decision, however it wasn’t the only factor. "We had such success with the Canadian Angus program, it had really done well in Canada and the U.S., but at some point you hit a limit in the number of cattle available and you can’t grow beyond that," he says. To replace the Canadian brand Cargill has joined with 4 U.S. sister Excel plants to market the parent company’s Angus Pride brand. An official announcement of the new line for Canada was expected in early March. They will become part of the North American chain that markets this brand to U.S. and Canadian customers. The primary market will be the U.S. but Harrison says most of the Canadian Certified Angus partners have already signed on with the new brand. Angus Pride fits between the company’s top Sterling Silver restaurant line and the retail Northridge Farms brand. It requires a small 30 AAA or better grade whereas the Canadian Certified Angus started at small zero, the lowest rung on the AAA scale. They will take 50% black hided cattle and Red or Black Angus that carry the CAA’s certified Angus green tags. Harrison would like to take only green tagged animals, but there are simply not enough of them around. "That’s our goal," he adds. "We want to market this meat on genetics and not just black hide." He admits the Angus Pride brand puts Cargill in competition with CAB which sold 580 million pounds last year, some of it processed by Excel, Cargill’s U.S. meat arm. "CAB is still a member of the family here but our focus will be on Angus Pride going forward," he says. Meanwhile, Doug Fee takes some consolation in the fact that their venture into the meat business pushed 5 Canadian packers into featuring Angus lines of their own. "For me it was an ego thing, it’s really too bad. But our objective was just to increase the visibility of Angus and Angus bulls and I think we have done that, he says." (March, 2003)
