Responding to Deadly Listeria Contamination, Can the Company Earn Back Trust?
9/1/24 – – At your Labor Day picnic this weekend, it may not be a good idea to serve sandwiches with Boar’s Head meat. The 119-year-old purveyor of delicatessen meats, cheeses and condiments has been struggling with a survival-threatening crisis since listeria was detected in Boar’s Head-brand liverwurst in late July.
The company has had to recall a total of 7 million pounds of 70 products produced in its Jarratt, Virginia, plant. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, nine people have died and 57 hospitalized across America in what the agency is calling the largest listeria outbreak in the U.S. since 2011.
Last week the situation got even worse. The Associated Press reported the first lawsuits being filed. And The Washington Post revealed that over the last 12 months inspections of Boar’s Head’s Virginia facility by the U.S. Department of Agriculture found such health violations as “dirty machinery, flies in pickle containers, heavy meat buildup on walls, blood in puddles on the floor, and multiple instances of leaking pipes, clogged drains and heavy dust buildup in certain areas.”
Doesn’t that make your mouth water for a ham and cheese on rye?
Company Responds with Regret, Reform and Restitution
In addition to the “voluntary” recall of its products and full reimbursement to customers, Boar’s Head has apologized – “No words can fully express our sympathies and the sincere and deep hurt we feel for those who have suffered losses or endured illness” – and taken responsibility – “We have long held an unwavering commitment to keeping our foods safe with standards at or exceeding regulatory requirements. But, here, our best efforts failed, and we are deeply sorry.”
They’ve also promised to figure out what went wrong – “We have been working together with the USDA and government regulatory agencies, along with the industry’s leading global food safety experts, to conduct a rigorous investigation to determine how this happened” – and pledged reform – “We are taking this time to conduct disinfection, enhance policies and procedures where needed, and provide additional training to employees. No product will be released from this facility until we are confident that it meets USDA regulatory standards and Boar’s Head’s highest quality and safety standards.”
A special section of the Boar’s Head website is dedicated to information about the recall, listing all impacted products, providing updates and offering assistance to consumers.
Is the Boar’s Head Brand Strong Enough to Survive?
Over the last few days, I’ve been conducting my own very unscientific poll to gauge the severity of Boar’s Head’s reputational crisis. I’ve asked family and friends if they will ever buy the company’s products again. So far, everyone participating in my roving focus group has answered “NO,” even those who expressed life-long trust and respect for the brand.
Negative impressions (it’s hard to get the image of blood puddles on the Boar’s Head plant floor out of your head) and emotions (they betrayed their retailers’ and customers’ trust) are difficult to erase. But as discussed in Chapter 19 of The Crisis Preparedness Quotient (“Dealing with Product Recalls”), when you have built strong reputational equity, even the most serious wounds can be healed by time, meaningful reform and renewed performance. That’s true for companies, people and brands.
All is not lost.
I remember the relief my wife and I experienced decades ago when we found a deli in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, that carried Boar’s Head products. We had just moved to the Detroit area from New York and were longing for some of the culinary comforts of home. That level of reputational equity can only be earned over time. Unfortunately, it can be lost overnight. My wife was one of the “NOs” in my poll.
Boar’s Head’s Only Path to Recovery is Performance
There’s no question that Boar’s Head, still owned by the Brunckhorst family that founded the company in Brooklyn in 1905, is facing a threat to its survival. The inevitable lawsuits, loss of retailer support, and freefall in short- and long-term sales would surely kill a lesser brand.
The only remedy for Boar’s Head management is to perform: Do their best with the USDA, clean up the plant (clean enough to invite retailers and reporters to see for themselves), re-embrace what made the company great, and fulfill the promises featured prominently on its website:
Boar’s Head has always been, and will remain, committed to the quality and safety of our products. You have our promise that we will work tirelessly to regain your trust and ensure that all Boar’s Head products consistently meet the highest quality and safety standards that you deserve and expect. We are determined to learn from this experience and emerge stronger.
So, while I plan to pass on liverwurst and skip the sandwiches this Labor Day, I will be rooting for Boar’s Head and its workforce to weather this storm. Too many people, starting with Frank Brunckhorst, have worked too hard and for too long to let this crisis kill this brand.
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