Serving Mississippi, Alabama, Arkansas, and Louisiana
When the late Dallas Gay came to Mississippi in 1983, he was looking to expand a Georgia-based chicken rendering operation where he served as president of operations. At the time, North Georgia Rendering Co. had two of the largest chicken rendering operations in the nation, according to a 1984 article in The Enterprise-Tocsin.
The executive soon learned that Mississippi already had a chicken rendering plant, and that is when some of the state’s industry experts told him about the Delta’s catfish industry, which did not have a rendering plant servicing the vibrant industry.
“He flew up to the Delta, he flew in to a little strip in Belzoni,” Jeff Gay told The E-T in a recent interview.
It was there that Dallas Gay met with some of the leaders in the nation’s then-booming catfish industry, and it was there that he decided that his expansion would involve fish and not poultry.
Dallas Gay and his wife, Bobbie, moved from Georgia to Sunflower County to build Protein Products from the ground up. Forty years later, the catfish rendering plant located on Highway 3 between Moorhead and Sunflower is still servicing the industry in Mississippi, Alabama, Arkansas, and Louisiana.
“They basically started the plant and ran the plant,” Jeff Gay said, later adding, “They worked long days. My mother did all of the bookkeeping, and he ran the facility and got it going.”
Long days at a rendering plant can be harsh, Jeff Gay said.
It’s not glamourous work, but it is essential, not only to the catfish industry, but also to the nation as a whole.
The Sunflower County plant purchases multiple tractor trailers per day full of fish waste, known in the industry as offal.
Fish waste comes down to water, solids, oils and fat.
The goal of the rendering process, which essentially is recycling, is to separate the water from rest of the waste, resulting eventually in fish meal and fish oil.
“Those products are feed ingredients for any kind of an animal,” Jeff Gay said.
Without the rendering process, disposal of offal in places like landfills would be unsustainable, making it almost impossible for the catfish industry to survive.
This is true for all processed animals, Jeff Gay said.
Protein Products, which is currently the only catfish rendering plant in the United States, is an extension of that industry.
“You have to have rendering,” Jeff Gay said. “We are very essential to the food chain.”
When the plant opened in 1984, there were 13 full-time employees at the plant, according to The E-T’s 1984 article, and the plant serviced six large catfish processors in the area. The number of employees has more than doubled since then, and Jeff Gay said that the plant is currently contracted with a dozen catfish processors over four states.
Dallas and Bobbie Gay would eventually move back to Gainesville, Georgia around 1989. By that time, the plant was rolling, and two years later, their sons were hired on and eventually took over operations.
Jeff Gay oversaw sales, and Tommy Gay handled the accounting side and operations.
Over the years, their roles have evolved, and recently, Jeff’s son Chris and Tommy’s son Thomas were hired, representing three generations as executives at Protein Products.
“They are starting about the ages that we started,” Tommy Gay said. “Our long-term goal for the company is that these boys will take it over.”
Thomas Gay is currently vice president of operations, and Chris Gay is vice president of sales.
It’s not just three generations at the helm that makes Protein Products a family company.
“This is a family,” Tommy Gay said. “It’s a family business in that my family started it, but the family is everyone here.”
Plant General Manager Melvin Smith, who started at Protein Products in 2016, said that everyone at Protein Products is treated like they are family, and that is why so many have stuck around the operation.
“I feel like I was born and raised around here. Everyone is so friendly,” Smith said.
Tommy Gay said that while labor is always a struggle, Sunflower County and the surrounding area have provided great workers for decades.
“When we can find local folks who live here and want to work here, that is such a plus for us. That’s our goal always is to hire local,” he said.
In late June, Protein Products celebrated its 40th year in business here in the county.
During that celebration, they honored one employee with 36 years of service and three others with around 25 years on the job.
Also, during that week Bobbie Gay, who worked all of those long hours with her husband to bring Protein Products online four decades ago, was here to celebrate with her sons, grandsons and the work family she helped to create.
“That’s pretty special to us,” Jeff Gay said.
As for the future, there’s no slowing down for Protein Products. The plant is essential to the catfish industry, and it must run every single day.
“We just want to keep making the business better and continue to foster the relationships that we have with the industry,” Tommy Gay said. “The plant will continue to reinvest.” DBJ
Bryan Davis is the Publisher & Editor of The Enterprise-Tocsin newspaper in Sunflower County. This article was reprinted with permission from The Enterprise- Tocsin.