Occasionally, our customers ask about Birko’s 60-year history. Invariably they want to know the factors that have made it possible for us to stay in business so long, under third-generation family ownership.
In part, we credit our success to the solid foundation laid in 1953 by our founders Ward and Florence Smith. Birko’s first products were an alkaline cleaner and Tripe Wash, used to clean and whiten edible tripe. In fact, we still manufacture Tripe Wash. When Ward passed away in 1977, Florence took over as president. Today, the Smiths’ granddaughter, Kelly Green, is Birko’s third-generation owner and serves as chairman of the board. Our workforce is amazingly stable with many of our employees spending their entire careers in our family-owned business.
As a mature, growing, Colorado-based manufacturing company, our commitment is to provide outstanding value and food safety expertise to our customers through innovative research, state-of-the art equipment development, and superior products. It’s an approach that has paid off — Birko ranks higher in customer perception in price-to-value than 90% of its competitors. We have the most experienced, responsible, knowledgeable, and dedicated service team in the industry. And we’re well known for innovation, including the recent upgrade of our Class II pathogen lab to exceed heightened requirements to fight multiple strains of E. coli.
Birko solves some of our customer’s toughest food safety problems while enhancing the quality of their brands. These benefits go straight to the bottom line. For example, our chemistry and equipment deliver much more effective intervention processes with lower overall costs. Ultimately, partnering with Birko saves lives and reduces medical costs, legal liability and risk for our customers.
We have a firm commitment to full strategic partnerships with our customers. Our August 2011 acquisition of Chad Equipment LLC and our December 2012 acquisition of Espy Technologies are new ways we are serving our customers’ needs. The combination of Chad and Espy allows us to completely service Chad’s equipment by providing monitoring, scheduled servicing, appropriate maintenance verification, documentation and as-needed personnel training.
We recognize that our customers have a choice whether to do business with us and we remain committed to upholding our stellar reputation for unparalleled service and quality. These are the same core values that have been Birko’s hallmark since our founding in 1953.
