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This Family Business Went From Bankrupt To $1.6b/year In Sales

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The first time Jack Link cured a batch of beef jerky, he was trying to save his business.

It was 1985 and Link was a 40-year-old father of two teens living in Minong, Wisconsin. The slaughterhouse he’d bought from family members in 1978 had just filed for bankruptcy protection. Its failure left him searching for a way to provide for his wife and children, and prove that he could turn a small family-run business into something bigger.

After a hunting trip, Troy Link says he brought home a few packs of convenience store jerky, prompting his father to examine the price tag. Based on the elder Link’s experience raising cattle and selling meat at his family’s general store over the years, he wondered whether his family business could make and sell its own version for less.

Today, meat snacks — including beef sticks and steak strips — form the core of Link Snacks’ multibillion-dollar global portfolio. See how they built their business into what it is today in related video.