MOULTRIE -- A long-established local meat processor is stepping out of the business and leasing its facility to a long-established Cordele butcher and family friend.

Stripling's of Cordele took over Dunn Meats Wednesday. For years, Dunn's has provided hogs for Stripling's, owned by Ricky and Lisa Hardin, to process into sausages.

"They have been one of my best customers for a number of years, and so when I started in the ice business (Ice House America) -- my father and myself are involved in the ice business -- they were looking to put a store here in Moultrie, so I said, 'Why don't you lease this from me,'" said Daniel Dunn.

The difference is that Stripling's will focus more on retail and will run a mail-order business. It will not, however, process cows or hogs brought in by individuals, said Daniel's mother, Judy Dunn.

"That's what's going to be missed the most," she said. "There were very few mom-and-pops like that still open."

In fact, Dunn's processed its last cow Friday May 27 for Danny Dunn's aunt, Ophelia Alligood, to celebrate her 90th birthday a couple of days later.

"It just makes sense for us, because now what we'll do is the whole process from start to finish. So, we'll have the wholesale division and also the retail division," the Hardins' daughter Ashley Goss said.

Stripling's Country Store is like an old fashioned butcher shop, so one should expect steaks, pork chops, ribs, pork and beef tenderloin, roast, ham, bacon custom cut and wrapped upon order. It specializes in sausages -- fresh, smoked, mild, medium, hot, link and pan.

"We're also known for our beef jerky," Goss said.

The Hardins already are installing a porch to the outside of the West Boulevard building where, in a few weeks when the retail store opens, a few rocking chairs can be put to good use.

Specialty items from jams and jellies to sauces and marinades will be stocked as well.

The primary draw was that the facility is federally inspected, because Dunn Meats made sausage for Winn Dixie, Judy Dunn said. Stripling's mail-order ambition requires a federally inspected plant, Goss said.

The current employees will keep their jobs, including original butchers Sanford Davis, who owns his own shop in Norman Park, and Raymond King, the Dunns said.

Danny and Donnie Ray Dunn opened Dunn Meats in 1973. Donnie Ray had moved to Louisiana to work at a paper company and Danny moved to Winter Park, Fla., to work with Florida Power, Judy said. It was Danny's idea to move back to Moultrie.

The brothers were introduced to the business by their father. After working in the old Swift plant for years, William "Buster" Dunn opened a custom slaughter plant in Montezuma, Ga., in the 1960s and 70s, Judy said. Danny got hands-on meat processing experience as a senior in high school working the second shift in Swift's bacon department.

Daniel Dunn worked at the local plant through high school and college and stayed with the family business to apply his marketing degree.

Stripling's got its start when Ricky's uncle, James Stripling, opened a small butcher shop on the family farm, selling whole hog sausage and fresh pork cuts. After his uncle died, Ricky and his father, Jack, bought the shop.

Now, Stripling's has two Cordele locations: One on Ga. Highway 300 at Lake Blackshear and Ga. Highway 280 across from the Georgia Veterans State Park.

Ashley and her husband Clint are changing their careers and moving from Gwinnett County to run the Moultrie facility. She worked with Edward Jones Investments, while Clint was a mathematics teacher and coach, she said.

Dunn Meats has been a solid community citizen donating sausages time after time for fundraisers.

"We appreciate everything the community did for us too. We couldn't have done it without them or their employees. We give our employees the credit, because they did a great job over the years and stuck with us," Judy said.



On the Internet: www.striplings.com.