Beck & Bulow, a homegrown business that manufactures and sells high-quality meats and meat products directly to restaurants and consumers, has been awarded state and local economic development assistance to expand its production operations, Economic Development Cabinet Secretary Alicia J. Keyes announced.
Founded by CEOs Tony Beck and John-Paul Bulow, Beck & Bulow is set to hire 24 employees in the next three years and an additional 28 in the next seven years for a total of 52. Additionally, two interns from Santa Fe Community College will be starting at the business in the fall, one to learn processing and the other to learn food marketing and advertising.
The business also plans to purchase its own warehouse, processing, office, and production space in Santa Fe. In March 2021, Beck & Bulow opened a new butcher shop location in a leased building at 1934 Cerrillos Rd., just off St. Michael’s Drive.
The shop offers delivery and pickup for phone and website orders in Santa Fe and surrounding areas. It specializes in bison, elk, wild boar, beef, lamb, poultry, and is now offering wild caught Alaskan seafood.
Beck & Bulow leases 5,000 acres in San Miguel County to raise grass-fed beef and bison, but has been doing most of its processing in Colorado. With this expansion, the company will be able to bring its butchering and manufacturing back to New Mexico and provide more product selection of its sausages, burger patties, jerky, and portion-controlled steaks.
“My administration is working on all fronts to invigorate the food and agricultural economy so we can connect restaurants and consumers to local ranchers and growers," Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said. “These investments around the state will create jobs and make New Mexico more resilient as we produce and process healthier food, closer to home.”
The State is providing up to $250,000 of support through the Economic Development Department’s (EDD's) LEDA job-creation fund. The City of Santa Fe is pledging an additional $50,000. Beck & Bulow has also received assistance to train new workers through EDD’s Job Training Incentive Program (JTIP), with two of those hires already on the payroll.
The announcement is the fourth State LEDA investment since the start of 2021 that supports value-added agriculture or locally sourced food. EDD has also pledged assistance to Los Poblanos Historic Inn and Farm and Bueno Foods for expansion operations that will help growers throughout the state, as well as to La Primera Tortilla Factory in Sunland Park, N.M. to add additional production and storage capacity.
“The expansion of Beck & Bulow, as well as these other businesses, shows there is more demand in New Mexico for locally produced quality food,” Secretary Keyes said. “We know these family operations often don’t have the needed capital to expand and that’s why LEDA assistance is more important than ever as we grow these local resources.”
Beck & Bulow has a mailing list of 10,000 customers with more and more out-of-state sales. It services over 250 restaurants and businesses, including Presbyterian Hospital, and grocery stores across the Rocky Mountain region. It has partnerships with the Santa Fe Indian School and its meat has been featured by Edible and the Food Network.
The LEDA awards are contingent on a public hearing and approval before the Santa Fe City Council, which is the fiscal agent for the project.
“The City of Santa Fe is eager to support businesses like Beck & Bulow," Santa Fe Mayor Alan Webber said. "They are aggressively investing, not only in the future success of their own food-industry enterprise, but in the expansion and development of a retail facility, specialized local jobs, training, and to address the needs of their growing national customer base. Their efforts further diversify our economy and showcase the type of business resiliency we support.”
The new Beck & Bulow location in Santa Fe has undergone $100,000 in renovations to accommodate the butcher shop. It features an on-site, third generation butcher as well as a processing and manufacturing facility.
“A return to old world butchery in this fast-paced digital world is something that Santa Fe is missing, and we are providing that,” Beck said. “Our goal is to provide wild and ethically sourced meat that is good for the Earth, good for the animals, and great for our customers.”
“Our new space is busy and puts us squarely rooted in the middle of Santa Fe, but it’s already too small,” Bulow said. “We want to purchase our own location where we can consolidate operations and build a future in New Mexico so we can hire more people and grow the company. The assistance from the state of New Mexico and the city of Santa Fe will help us do that sooner.”
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