Dave Williams is not your typical entrepreneur, after retiring from a Californian sheriff’s job, he decided to open beef jerky plant in Las Vegas. Williams recollects, the moment he announced the news to the Southern California sheriff’s department. He explains that when he told them he was going to retire from law enforcement to join the world of beef jerky manufacturing, it took some of his colleagues by surprise.
Yet he was confident in his decision: for around six years, Williams had watched as a man he considered one of his best friends built a family recipe for beef jerky into a staff of about 65 people who produce over 40,000 bags of jerky a month.
“It’s super impressive to watch him,” Williams expressed. “I consider him to be a genius in manufacturing.”
After approximately 30 years with the Sheriff’s Department, Williams is now CEO of Slice of Life Foods, which has eviscerated an industrial building south of McCarran International Airport and will build a plant capable of producing as many as 100,000 bags of jerky per day, once it’s fully built out.
“I feel very comfortable here,” he explains, as he describes his new role. “I retired on 6th January and started my training the following Monday. It felt like transferring to another department.”
Williams will count on his experience managing patrol stations and divisions within the Sheriff’s Department to help the Las Vegas plant get up and running. The plant will not only produce Boyd Specialties products – which includes Carnivore Candy, a line of dinosaur-themed jerky – but brands for other jerky companies as well.
Slice of Life hopes to hire about 125 people when all’s said and done. Presently, 15 employees will transfer from California, and interviews for meat cutters, butchers, packagers and other positions will commence around March, when Williams supposes construction to be completed. The plant will start with a staff of around 40. The building is situated at 1945 E. Pama Lane, near the intersection with Eastern Avenue.
Slice of Life will also feature a tasting room for jerky aficionados. Williams hopes to collaborate with a brewery to offer beer and jerky pairings for patrons. “We’re really excited about the project,” Williams exclaimed. “We are thrilled to be part of Vegas.”
Williams met Boyd at the age of 15, when they worked for a pizza restaurant. Over the years, they kept in touch and met up to play golf during those rare moments of free time. During the recession, Boyd was laid off after about 30 years with a roof tile business. Boyd used his redundancy pay to build up his family’s beef jerky business. At that time, Williams received some jerky as a Christmas present. Boyd’s mother came up with the family’s signature jerky recipe back in 1958. “I helped to guide him,” Williams said. “I lived through his entrepreneurial experience.”
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