Danny Harris, Sr. started his career in the meat industry with John Morrell & Company while attending Memphis State University. After working in the manufacturing side of the business for a period of time, he was promoted to sales in 1968.  In 1971 this sales job with John Morrell & Company led to another position in sales with Glendale Ham Company, based in Detroit, MI.  Danny Harris, Sr. remained there until 1980, when he founded Empire Meats, Inc., a food brokerage company, in Memphis, TN.  The business grew rapidly and in 1982 Empire Mississippi and Empire Atlanta were added.  1983 saw the addition of Empire Dallas, Empire Ohio, and Empire Houston.  In 1985 Empire Nashville was added.   In 1987, Len Marek joined the company with the launch of Empire Meats companies opening in Cincinnati, OH; Detroit, MI; Columbus, OH; Louisville, KY; Roanoke, VA and Indianapolis, IN.  In 1989, Empire Meats, Inc. changed its name to Empire Food Brokers, Inc. and continued its expansion in the 1990’s  under Len Marek by adding ten more division offices in the western U.S. In 2010, Empire Food Brokers, Inc. changed its name once again to Empire Marketing Strategies, Inc. Today, Empire Marketing Strategies, Inc. has 18 division offices and is one of the largest independent perishable food brokers in the United States.

 

In the late 1980’s, Danny Harris Sr also pursued his aspirations to expand the company into the manufacturing side of the industry and become a meat packer.  In 1988, Empire Food Brokers, Inc. acquired Empire Packing Company, also known as Ledbetter Foods.  Ledbetter Foods was founded in 1959 by the Ledbetter family in Memphis, TN.  The company competed in the portion control foodservice industry.  Since Danny Harris, Sr.’s expertise was the grocery class of trade, he began to envision a way to integrate the Ledbetter business into this venue.  His idea was to package “case ready” items for grocery retail stores in assembly line fashion, with high efficiency.  He started this “case ready” program packing offals.  The project was highly successful and has evolved to be THE standard in the industry today with beef, chicken and pork sold in grocery stores today.  Danny Harris, Sr. was instrumental in the evolution of meat being processed in a centralized processing facility.

 

As a result of the early pioneering of case ready meats, Empire Packing Company was able to open another processing facility in Cincinnati, OH in 1994.  This facility has continued to out grow its space and after several plant expansions it is slated to move into a new state of the art facility in 2014.  Empire Packing Company also opened a meat processing facility in Olympia, WA in 1997 to provide case ready meat solutions for grocery stores west of the Rocky Mountains.