Beef Marketing Niche Found for Moderately Priced Steaks

January 23, 2002

Through the beef checkoff, beef producers are working with a national restaurant chain to meet consumer demand for more moderately priced steak in restaurants. The foodservice chain that includes Ground Round Grill & Bar and Tin Alley Grill restaurants has become the first to promote "beef value cuts" on the menu. Value cuts are single muscle portions taken from the chuck and round.

At one time these muscles would have been bundled and sold together or ground into hamburger. Through the beef industry's checkoff-funded muscle profiling study, individual muscle palatability and functionality was analyzed, and it became possible to separate and sell them as moderately priced steaks. This foodservice partnership is funded in part by the $1-per-head checkoff, which is administered by the Cattlemen's Beef Board (CBB). It is being coordinated by the National Cattlemen's Beef Association (NCBA).

"The objective of the beef industry is to offer a restaurant chain a mid-value steak, below middle meats but above ground beef," said Seminole, OK, beef producer Lisa Hefner, vice chair of the CBB/NCBA Joint Foodservice Committee. "Ground Round restaurants charbroil all their steaks, so their ranch cut should make for a wonderful dining experience." The Ranch Cut steak is being introduced and promoted at 104 Ground Rounds and 10 Tin Alley Grills in 21 states in addition to 35 franchise stores.

These restaurants are located predominately in the northern and northeastern U.S., from North Dakota to New England, and are owned by American Hospitality Concepts Inc. in Braintree, MA. The promotion, which started Jan. 14 and runs through March 31, includes newspaper and menu inserts, coupons, and point of purchase materials inside the restaurants. Promotional materials will carry the Beef Check logo.

Ground Round and Tin Alley are projecting sales of 91 servings of the entrée per store per week and 40 with salads per store per week. This would equate to nearly 100,000 pounds of steak sold during the 10-week promotion.

CBB is a 110-member board appointed by the Secretary of Agriculture to oversee the collection of the checkoff, certify state beef councils, implement the provisions of the federal order establishing the checkoff and evaluate the effectiveness of checkoff programs. Producer-directed and consumer-focused, NCBA is the trade association of America's cattle farmers and ranchers, and the marketing organization for the largest segment of the nation's food and fiber industry.