Walmart is going to greater lengths than ever to steer its own supply chain. The Wall Street Journal reports that the retail giant is taking a stake in a planned Nebraska beef processing plant to help stock its meat sections, one step in a plan to develop a network of facilities to supply its stores. 

The partnership between Walmart and Sustainable Beef comes as some food retailers move to take greater control of the commodity-processing portion of their supply chains. Costco Wholesale built its own poultry-processing plant recently to help provide the chain’s signature rotisserie chickens.

Walmart has already moved in that direction by opening a milk-processing plant in Indiana in 2018 and a beef facility in Georgia in 2020. 

The company is among the most active retailers in managing its own logistics and transportation, including one of the largest private trucking fleets in the U.S.