S&P Foods Inc., a longtime Spokane meat producer, merged the operations of a large competitor here, Hathaway Meats Inc., into its own operations in October, and the beefed-up wholesaler is expected to post $55 million to $60 million in sales in 2001, says Tim Loveall, S&P Foods president and part owner.


Those sales would be just ahead of the volumes the two companies realized separately in recent years, which ranged from $25 million to $28 million each.


S&P, a 48-year-old company that makes sausage, deli meats, and other meat products and sells them wholesale to food-service companies, has moved all of the former Hathaway Meats operations into its 2-year-old, 73,000-square-foot plant at 210 N. McKinnon in the Spokane Valley.


Loveall says S&P has retained the vast majority of Hathaways employees and now employs just over 150 people.


Bringing Hath-away in allows the companies to best utilize our facilities and run them at capacity, he says.


The former Hathaway operation, he says, brings a strong distribution network to S&P, which has concentrated more on meat production than distribution during the past 10 to 15 years. The merger also adds beef jerky and some other value-added retail products to S&Ps product mix.


Mike Hathaway, former president of Hathaway Meats who now works as vice president of retail sales at S&P, says Hathaways facilities were aging, and the company decided to merge with S&P rather than undergoing a costly upgrade of its buildings. The company, which Hathaways grandfather started 47 years ago, had operated processing plants in the Spokane Valley and in Coeur dAlene, a separate distribution center in the Valley, and a distribution center in Great Falls, Mont.


We were working out of four buildings that were very inefficient, Hathaway says. Im glad (the merger) happened. So far, it looks like a very good thing.


With the exception of the building in Coeur dAlene, which it currently is looking to lease out, Hathaway had operated in leased quarters.


S&P distributes its meat products to customers in 10 Western states.