Stampede Culinary Partners is North America’s premier sous vide manufacturer and an innovative partner in providing food solutions. To CEO Brock Furlong however, the organisation is also a ‘second family’.
“It might sound like an odd way to describe a business,” Brock says, “but that is just how passionate I feel about Stampede and how we do things.”
For nearly thirty years, Stampede has been providing a wide range of high-quality food products and related solutions to customers across North America. These include custom orders of prepared, portioned, or raw meats, plant proteins, ready meals, sous vide items, and even pet food. For Brock though, it’s not so much about what Stampede does, but how the company does it.
“How we do things to help serve our customers is the most important part of Stampede,” the CEO declares. “It is at the very foundation of our growth.”
The ‘how’ that Brock refers to is shaped by Stampede’s five core values: Improve Daily, Embrace Innovation, Commit to Teamwork, Challenge Directly and Respectfully, and Perform Passionately. They are centred around the company’s ultimate goal: Customer Satisfaction.
“Our customers hold the scorecard and determine our success,” Brock explains. “Fortunately, our methods have resonated with them, and they have voted with their business. Through their confidence, trust and loyalty, Stampede has built a $1 billion value-added protein company spanning all fifty United States and now Canada.”
Creativity and Speed
Along with its values, a key factor in Stampede’s high levels of customer satisfaction is the company’s ability to tailor its solutions to the unique demand of its clients. Working with creativity and speed, the organisation is a valuable partner for food businesses looking to elevate their brands and captivate their audiences.
“Our customers own the specification, not Stampede,” Brock affirms. “We co-operate with our clients to ensure they meet or exceed their profitability targets on the items we create, working shoulder to shoulder with them until success is achieved.”
As with any relationship, trust is a vital part of all Stampede’s client partnerships. To build the kind of trust necessary for successful collaboration, Stampede ensures all its relationships are based around one word: transparency.
“From development of an item through to costing and supply, we share all details with our customers ensuring their insight can allow for smarter design and execution decisions,” Brock reports. “As trust deepens, we work collaboratively to ensure mutually profitable execution of the custom product solutions we create.”
In the food industry, a topic that goes hand in hand with trust is safety. In Stampede’s 2025 Food Safety Survey, 92% of consumers considered food safety a top priority when choosing restaurants or grocery products. Similarly, more than 85% of consumers said they would be willing to pay more for items with clearly communicated safety measures.
“Our Food Safety Survey insights reinforce why our transparency and proactive food safety efforts matter – not just for consumer confidence,” Brock remarks, “but for stronger, more resilient partnerships across foodservice, retail, and distribution.”
Consistently High Standards
To maintain consistently high standards across the entire organisation, Stampede has developed a full safety system known as the Stampede Safety Lock Advantage program. The system is designed to provide multiple and insurmountable food safety hurdles. These include product specific interventions, N60 testing, captured boot programs, strict cold chain management, and full sanitation every twenty-four hours.
A firm handling of the basics means Stampede can spend more time developing solutions for its clients. Research and development play an important role at the company, with Stampede taking a wholistic approach to product innovation.
“We like to say we have 2,300 R&D personnel at Stampede because all our employees are involved in the creation and execution of our products,” Brock reveals. “Every single one of our products is custom, which means we need participation from the full team to ensure success.”
Earlier in 2025, Stampede unveiled new test kitchens at its production facilities in Sunland Park, New Mexico, and Alma, Georgia. The kitchens will enhance Stampede’s ability to develop, test, and refine food solutions.
“Our test kitchens allow local culinary and R&D resources to support rapid development right in the facilities,” Brock states. “Work in the test kitchens makes certain that, when it comes to presenting our ideas to customers, we know our innovations can be flawlessly commercialised.”
Sous Vide Pioneers
Stampede has long been an innovator in the food sector. In particular, the company was an early pioneer of sous vide cooking, opening a dedicated sous vide facility as early as 1997. Today, Stampede is North America’s number one sous vide manufacturer.
“Quite simply, sous vide is the world’s best cooking approach,” Brock asserts. “It is the only cooking method that allows you to control both time and temperature. This is critical in cooking a product safely to a specified level of ‘doneness’. Food can also be marinated, seared, or smoked before sous vide cooking, so our team can cook to perfection on every run.
“To support our sous vide capabilities,” Brock adds, “we have invested in clean rooms that allow us to remove items from the sous vide package and then pull, slice or dice that product. It’s another way of increasing convenience for the customer.”
With a quarter of 2025 already in the books, Stampede is now looking to build on its existing relationships, as well as growing to support new customers. This vision for the future is embodied by the company’s full name, Brock explains.
“Stampede Culinary Partners is a new name for us that better emphasises what we do,” he points out. “The ‘Culinary’ part focuses on our creative, on-trend solutions, and the word ‘Partners’ references the way we interact with our customers and suppliers.”
In the years ahead, Stampede is likely to welcome more companies into its Culinary Partners family, as it looks to expand its production footprint. This will allow the organisation to have an even greater impact on the lives of consumers, and for Brock, that is what really counts.
“What we do matters a great deal. We are supplying safe, delicious product solutions that are so good, they’ll trigger a core memory,” Brock proclaims. “We are contributing to events and memories in homes, restaurants, planes, colleges and hospitals throughout North America. We are intensely proud of that role and each of the families that works hard to deliver that outcome each and every day.”
