As food trends come and go, it becomes paramount that a meat processor be aware of consumer desires and develop products to meet those desires. In a category like burgers, where multiple trends are taking place, that company must be versatile enough to handle every need.

“There’s no one size fits all for every consumer but, we find that all of them want to give their families quality products that meet their tastes and budget,” explains Abel Olivera, CEO of Jensen Meat Co. “To help them make good choices for themselves, we make it a point to provide a variety of products in different categories with clearly marked ingredients, fat content, etc.”

The company’s Jensen Natural Ground Beef is 100% pure and simple grass-fed, grass-finished ground meat and is always made from quality, antibiotic and hormone-free, domestic responsibly raised cattle. The company’s Angus burgers appeal to consumers who are looking for the quality that a Certified Angus Beef product provides. For those consumers who like Tex-Mex cuisine, the Jensen Chorizo Burger is a blend of Mexican Chorizo style pork sausage (typically seasoned with vinegar and green/red type chile peppers) and ground beef.

“Today’s customers and their needs grow increasingly diverse so we strive to provide unique value with as much customization as we can,” Olivera explains.

It should come as no surprise that Jensen Meat would be at the forefront of providing a variety of pleasing burger options. The company has been in business for 60 years and is well-regarded in the industry. Its reputation in the public eye is strong as well, but its emergence as a recognizable brand name is a relatively recent development. Though the company has been in business since 1958, few people in the company’s San Diego, Calif. home knew of its existence.

“We had focused on doing one thing and do it well but had never shared any of it with our hometown,” Olivera says.

The company began to rebrand itself in 2010 with a new logo, and Olivera says that the efforts picked up steam in 2013, when the company changed ownership, management and business philosophy.

“We launched a comprehensive brand revitalization program – along with a new portfolio of high-quality products that are now manufactured in our modern processing plant in Otay Mesa near Mexico’s border,” he says.

Jensen now uses a “Proudly Locally Produced – San Diego, CA” logo for all of its local marketing efforts. The company also sponsors local area happenings like the San Diego Reader Burger & Beer event (where its patty was Best Burger winner), Veteran’s Day BBQFest and upcoming 90X BeerX.

Along with strengthening its brand presence, Jensen Meat has been working on its packaging to help its products stand out in the retail aisles.

“Our branding and creative services agency, Designapolis, believes that our product’s packaging should tell a clear and simple story about what the Jensen brand stands for even before consumers open it,” Olivera notes, adding that the brand whose packaging communicates clearly and simply what it promises to deliver tends to be the most successful.

“We’ve been in the process of redesigning our family of products and can attest to the fact, that visually communicating who we are and what we are about, directly translates to our bottom line,” he adds.

With a higher profile in the public eye, Jensen aims to keep releasing products that consumers crave – or in the case of its Slater’s 50/50 Bacon Burger, a product they didn’t even know they needed. The 50/50 Burger, originally found in Slater’s 50/50 Restaurants in California, is a blend that uses half ground beef and half bacon in its formulation. Olivera points out that Americans eat 17.9 pounds of bacon a year on average, so the frozen burgers are a new way to provide the taste of a savory bacon burger.

The company’s burgers can be found under a variety of brands, including Fat Burger, Bo Jackson Burgers and numerous store brands. Its focus on quality new products also includes a partnership with Certified Angus Beef.

“Quality is something that never goes out of style so partnering with CAB for our 100% Ground Chuck Burgers and Chuck and Brisket Bravado Burgers was a natural choice,” Olivera notes.