Venerable local business changing hands
Helen Provenzano, owner of Mike’s Packing Co., sold her business to Steve Antoinette.
Butcher Cam Bishop is shown at Mike’s Packing Co.
Mike’s Packing Co. is undergoing a changing of the guard and a changing of the name.
Helen Provenzano sold her 51-year-old family business to Steve Antoinette, a financial account manager/farmer from Donegal Township. The closing occurred Monday, as did tears – of joy and sorrow.
“I’m really excited,” said Antoinette, 31, father of two and a Canon-McMillan and Penn State University graduate.
The new name – Pennsylvania Packinghouse LLC – took effect today. The packing house sits on two acres along Weirich Avenue in Canton Township.
This was a bittersweet transaction for Provenzano, who will soon turn 75 and has worked in the meat-packing business for about 65. She embraces hard work and interaction with customers, but a health issue – her first, she said – forced her to retire.
“I have bad legs,” said Provenzano, who was undergone three grafts on one leg. “I’ve worked 4 a.m. to 5 p.m. every day, and anyone on their feet too long, on concrete, usually has this happen. I’ve gone too many years without tight socks.”
Provenzano said she has been considering this move for about a year, but did not seriously pursue it until after talking with Antoinette earlier this year.
“Steve would bring his cattle here to be butchered and cut up,” she said. “One day I said, ‘My legs hurt so bad. I want to sell.’ He said he’d buy.”
Monday morning, he did.
While winding down her business – and career – Provenzano has been on her feet less recently and said she feels better. As long as she is well enough, she will be in the shop assisting the new owner with the transition. It isn’t a long commute; she lives in the house next door.
“This has been real hard,” she said last week of the pending transaction. “I’ve gotten so many nice hugs from people. I will miss the customers, but I will be here for a while. I want to stay active. Busy is the best place I know.”
Antoinette has no beef with having her on board temporarily. He has been raising cattle for four years in Donegal, and has been bringing the animals to Mike’s to be humanely slaughtered at the back of the building and processed. Over time, he has developed a strong rapport with Provenzano and lead butcher Cam Bishop.
The new owner also is an account manager, with a number of clients in the oil and gas industry. Antoinette said he bought meat at Mike’s and took freshly cut steaks, ribs and other items from Mike’s to well site workers. “They raved about it,” he said.
That, of course, isn’t happening as frequently these days because of the oil and gas downturn.
“I don’t know if (that industry) will get back to where it was, but there will be an increase,” said Antoinette, who grew up in Canonsburg.
Consulting with his predecessor inside the shop last week, Antoinette praised the operation of Mike’s Packing and pledged to keep the staff intact. His wife, Kara, and an uncle, Gary Antoinette, will work there as well.
“The biggest asset is your people. And Helen is going to be there to help with the transition,” Steve Antoinette said.
Bishop, however, may have been the linchpin to the deal. “Without him, this doesn’t happen,” said Antoinette, a father of two young children. “You can’t buy that kind of experience and his personality dealing with customers.”
A friendly sort who looks as if he could wrestle cattle to the ground, Bishop will be plant manager as well as top butcher. He will be in charge when Antoinette is not on site.
Bishop, who commutes from St. Clairsville, Ohio, has been a butcher for 42 years, the past three at Mike’s. He previously spent a quarter-century, combined, at Green Valley Packing Co. in Taylorstown and the now-closed Gashel’s Meat Market in Claysville.
“We want to make the business an old-style butcher shop/meat shop that provides quality,” Bishop said. “It looks like there’s a need for this in the area.”
For Helen Provenzano, this will be the end of a long but satisfying era. She was a young schoolgirl when she started helping out at the original Green Valley, which her father built following World War II. He sold that business to George Weiss in 1961, and four years later built Mike’s Packing.
Mike started that enterprise for his son, Mickey, who died in a truck accident a couple of years later. Helen, who worked for an insurance company at the time, started helping her father at the shop during the evening and continued to work with him. She took over the operation in 2003, after Mike died at 88.
Now she is off her feet more frequently, and her legs thank her.
Hours at Pennsylvania Packinghouse will be 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Friday; 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday; closed Sunday and Monday.