From its humble beginning more than 60 years ago as a single feed store in a small East Texas town, Pilgrim's Pride Corporation (NYSE: PPC) has grown to become the largest poultry company in the world. Today Pilgrim's Pride is a Fortune 500 company with $7.6 billion in annual net sales and approximately 50,000 employees. The company processes approximately 9 billion pounds of poultry per year and exports to more than 80 countries.
The Early Days
The story began on October 2, 1946, when Aubrey Pilgrim and his partner, Pat Johns, purchased a feed and seed store for $3,500 from W. W. Weems in Pittsburg, Texas. Soon after forming the partnership, Aubrey asked his brother, Lonnie "Bo" Pilgrim, to join them. Bo's first job there was driving a feed store truck for 50 cents an hour.
In the early days, the Pilgrims would sell 100 baby chicks and a sack of feed to local farmers who would take the chicks home and raise them in their back yards, keeping some for family needs and bringing back the remainder when they were grown.
"They would sell the chickens back to us, and we would turn them loose in a pen near the store. Local people would come to purchase one of the chickens, and we would catch the one they'd chosen," Bo Pilgrim recalled in "One Pilgrim's Progress" (Nelson Business, $22.99), published in 2005.
Selling baby chicks to drive feed sales was one of several innovative ideas that would later lead to the "vertical integration" model of poultry production used by nearly every major poultry company today.
Overcoming Obstacles
The Pilgrim brothers faced a number of tremendous challenges in building their new business.
"There was nothing remotely close to a long-range plan, a strategic plan, or a business plan associated with Farmer's Feed and Seed," Bo recalled in his book. "I doubt if there was even very much time for daydreaming about a future. We were working long hours, sometimes hauling a load of peas over to the Cass County Canning Co. in Atlanta, Texas, not getting home until three o'clock in the morning, then getting to the store to open it at seven o'clock. The fact is, it was all about survival. Survival meant meeting a customer's expectations so the customer would become a return customer."
He soon learned not only to survive, but also how make a business grow.
"The first year I was with my brother as a partner, we added a warehouse to the store and, with it, a loading ramp, unloading pit, an elevator to carry feed to a bagging machine, and an electric sewing machine for the feed sacks," he said.
Bo's early process improvements allowed the company to dramatically reduce wasted grain, which used to be lost through the cracks of the floor in the feed store, and enabled the Pilgrim brothers to use automation to sell truckloads of feed out of the warehouse.
"We began to grow in a way that, looking back, was a set of small but integrated steps. We didn't know it at the time, of course, that our steps were linked in some way. We were simply responding to one opportunity after the next. In retrospect, the pieces of a fairly elaborate puzzle were beginning to fall into place," said Bo.
The puzzle soon began to take shape as opportunities came in the form of acquisitions and capital improvements. The first major expansion came in the 1950s, when the Pilgrim brothers purchased the Hudson Cotton Gin and a hatchery in Mt. Pleasant, Texas. They leased their first chicken-processing plant in Mt. Pleasant in 1960.
Tragedy struck in 1966 when Aubrey Pilgrim died of a heart attack, leaving Bo to lead the company he had worked so hard to help establish. As Bo remembers, "I can't begin to tell you what a shock Aubrey's death was to me. My whole world was shaken... Aubrey and I were brothers and business partners. Nobody was closer to me."
After a long, sleepless night, Bo Pilgrim decided it was up to him to continue the Pilgrim's legacy.
"That single decision gave my life direction from that day forward," he said. "I had every hope and intention and motivating desire to run the company to even greater heights. Failure was not an option."
Growth through Acquisitions
In the years ahead, the company continued to grow and thrive, purchasing Market Produce of Fort Worth in 1969 and undergoing two name changes: Pilgrim's Corporation and Pilgrim Industries, Inc. Several other acquisitions followed, and on November 15, 1986, Pilgrim's Pride Corporation became a publicly owned company listed on the New York Stock Exchange. One year later, the company expanded into Mexico.
In the 1990s, Pilgrim's Pride continued its growth, acquiring Green Acre Foods, Inc. in Nacogdoches, Texas. Fast-forward to the acquisition of WLR Foods, Inc., in 2001, which expanded the company's sales and marketing capabilities from coast to coast, and the purchase of ConAgra's chicken division in 2003, which doubled the size of the company and helped generate record sales and earnings growth for Pilgrim's Pride.
The latest chapter in the Pilgrim's story was added December 27, 2006, when Pilgrim's Pride completed the acquisition of Atlanta-based Gold Kist for $1.1 billion in cash and the assumption of approximately $144 million of debt. At the time, Gold Kist had been the third-largest poultry processor in America, processing 14 million birds per week and employing 16,500 people at the time it was acquired by Pilgrim's Pride.
With the addition of Gold Kist, Pilgrim's Pride became the world's leading chicken company in terms of production and the fourth-largest U.S. meat protein company by revenues. Today the company has a broader geographic reach and customer base, and maintains a balanced portfolio of fresh chicken and value-added products.
Leading the Way
Over the years, Pilgrim's Pride has established a longstanding reputation for industry- leading innovation. The company was one of the first in the poultry industry to produce individually quick-frozen cooked and fresh chicken products. In 1984, the Company developed the world's first boneless whole chicken. In 1997, after years of research into the role of certain vital nutrients in fighting heart disease and promoting wellness, the company introduced EggsPlus™, a healthier alternative to the ordinary egg that contains extra Vitamin E, Lutein and Omega-3 essential fatty acids.
More recently, Pilgrim's Pride introduced its EatWellStayHealthy Kids™ line of heart-healthy products, the first in the industry to feature the USDA- regulated word, "healthy," on its packaging, as well as the American Heart Association's "heart check-mark" seal of approval. And the company's Fridge-to-Freezer Pak™, which separates fresh chicken parts into small vacuum-sealed pockets, was selected as one of Progressive Grocer magazine's "Editors' Picks" for best new products of 2006.
These innovations have earned Pilgrim's Pride numerous awards for quality and service from its customers and accolades within its industry. Recent awards include the Supplier of the Year Award from Wal-Mart; the Distinguished Supplier Award from Darden Restaurants, Inc., the world's largest casual dining restaurant company; and the Poultry Supplier of the Year Award from Zaxby's, a major fast casual chicken restaurant chain.
Pilgrim's Pride has also been named among the "Most Admired Companies in America" by Fortune for six consecutive years, and was named one of the "400 Best Big Companies in America" by Forbes for the sixth time in 2007.
The Road Ahead
Admittedly, the growth and success of the past 60 years is a bit "mind- boggling" to Bo Pilgrim, who grew up in Pine, Texas (pop. 80), and attended classes in a three-room schoolhouse just after the Great Depression. But he believes the years ahead are filled with even more hope and promise.
"At one time, there were more than 1,000 poultry companies in the United States. Today, there are just a few dozen," Bo said. "The survivors are those that have been able to respond quickly and decisively to the changing tastes of customers and consumers. We've enjoyed a great deal of success over the past 60 years by staying one step ahead of our competitors, and our future looks even brighter," he said.
The Early Days
The story began on October 2, 1946, when Aubrey Pilgrim and his partner, Pat Johns, purchased a feed and seed store for $3,500 from W. W. Weems in Pittsburg, Texas. Soon after forming the partnership, Aubrey asked his brother, Lonnie "Bo" Pilgrim, to join them. Bo's first job there was driving a feed store truck for 50 cents an hour.
In the early days, the Pilgrims would sell 100 baby chicks and a sack of feed to local farmers who would take the chicks home and raise them in their back yards, keeping some for family needs and bringing back the remainder when they were grown.
"They would sell the chickens back to us, and we would turn them loose in a pen near the store. Local people would come to purchase one of the chickens, and we would catch the one they'd chosen," Bo Pilgrim recalled in "One Pilgrim's Progress" (Nelson Business, $22.99), published in 2005.
Selling baby chicks to drive feed sales was one of several innovative ideas that would later lead to the "vertical integration" model of poultry production used by nearly every major poultry company today.
Overcoming Obstacles
The Pilgrim brothers faced a number of tremendous challenges in building their new business.
"There was nothing remotely close to a long-range plan, a strategic plan, or a business plan associated with Farmer's Feed and Seed," Bo recalled in his book. "I doubt if there was even very much time for daydreaming about a future. We were working long hours, sometimes hauling a load of peas over to the Cass County Canning Co. in Atlanta, Texas, not getting home until three o'clock in the morning, then getting to the store to open it at seven o'clock. The fact is, it was all about survival. Survival meant meeting a customer's expectations so the customer would become a return customer."
He soon learned not only to survive, but also how make a business grow.
"The first year I was with my brother as a partner, we added a warehouse to the store and, with it, a loading ramp, unloading pit, an elevator to carry feed to a bagging machine, and an electric sewing machine for the feed sacks," he said.
Bo's early process improvements allowed the company to dramatically reduce wasted grain, which used to be lost through the cracks of the floor in the feed store, and enabled the Pilgrim brothers to use automation to sell truckloads of feed out of the warehouse.
"We began to grow in a way that, looking back, was a set of small but integrated steps. We didn't know it at the time, of course, that our steps were linked in some way. We were simply responding to one opportunity after the next. In retrospect, the pieces of a fairly elaborate puzzle were beginning to fall into place," said Bo.
The puzzle soon began to take shape as opportunities came in the form of acquisitions and capital improvements. The first major expansion came in the 1950s, when the Pilgrim brothers purchased the Hudson Cotton Gin and a hatchery in Mt. Pleasant, Texas. They leased their first chicken-processing plant in Mt. Pleasant in 1960.
Tragedy struck in 1966 when Aubrey Pilgrim died of a heart attack, leaving Bo to lead the company he had worked so hard to help establish. As Bo remembers, "I can't begin to tell you what a shock Aubrey's death was to me. My whole world was shaken... Aubrey and I were brothers and business partners. Nobody was closer to me."
After a long, sleepless night, Bo Pilgrim decided it was up to him to continue the Pilgrim's legacy.
"That single decision gave my life direction from that day forward," he said. "I had every hope and intention and motivating desire to run the company to even greater heights. Failure was not an option."
Growth through Acquisitions
In the years ahead, the company continued to grow and thrive, purchasing Market Produce of Fort Worth in 1969 and undergoing two name changes: Pilgrim's Corporation and Pilgrim Industries, Inc. Several other acquisitions followed, and on November 15, 1986, Pilgrim's Pride Corporation became a publicly owned company listed on the New York Stock Exchange. One year later, the company expanded into Mexico.
In the 1990s, Pilgrim's Pride continued its growth, acquiring Green Acre Foods, Inc. in Nacogdoches, Texas. Fast-forward to the acquisition of WLR Foods, Inc., in 2001, which expanded the company's sales and marketing capabilities from coast to coast, and the purchase of ConAgra's chicken division in 2003, which doubled the size of the company and helped generate record sales and earnings growth for Pilgrim's Pride.
The latest chapter in the Pilgrim's story was added December 27, 2006, when Pilgrim's Pride completed the acquisition of Atlanta-based Gold Kist for $1.1 billion in cash and the assumption of approximately $144 million of debt. At the time, Gold Kist had been the third-largest poultry processor in America, processing 14 million birds per week and employing 16,500 people at the time it was acquired by Pilgrim's Pride.
With the addition of Gold Kist, Pilgrim's Pride became the world's leading chicken company in terms of production and the fourth-largest U.S. meat protein company by revenues. Today the company has a broader geographic reach and customer base, and maintains a balanced portfolio of fresh chicken and value-added products.
Leading the Way
Over the years, Pilgrim's Pride has established a longstanding reputation for industry- leading innovation. The company was one of the first in the poultry industry to produce individually quick-frozen cooked and fresh chicken products. In 1984, the Company developed the world's first boneless whole chicken. In 1997, after years of research into the role of certain vital nutrients in fighting heart disease and promoting wellness, the company introduced EggsPlus™, a healthier alternative to the ordinary egg that contains extra Vitamin E, Lutein and Omega-3 essential fatty acids.
More recently, Pilgrim's Pride introduced its EatWellStayHealthy Kids™ line of heart-healthy products, the first in the industry to feature the USDA- regulated word, "healthy," on its packaging, as well as the American Heart Association's "heart check-mark" seal of approval. And the company's Fridge-to-Freezer Pak™, which separates fresh chicken parts into small vacuum-sealed pockets, was selected as one of Progressive Grocer magazine's "Editors' Picks" for best new products of 2006.
These innovations have earned Pilgrim's Pride numerous awards for quality and service from its customers and accolades within its industry. Recent awards include the Supplier of the Year Award from Wal-Mart; the Distinguished Supplier Award from Darden Restaurants, Inc., the world's largest casual dining restaurant company; and the Poultry Supplier of the Year Award from Zaxby's, a major fast casual chicken restaurant chain.
Pilgrim's Pride has also been named among the "Most Admired Companies in America" by Fortune for six consecutive years, and was named one of the "400 Best Big Companies in America" by Forbes for the sixth time in 2007.
The Road Ahead
Admittedly, the growth and success of the past 60 years is a bit "mind- boggling" to Bo Pilgrim, who grew up in Pine, Texas (pop. 80), and attended classes in a three-room schoolhouse just after the Great Depression. But he believes the years ahead are filled with even more hope and promise.
"At one time, there were more than 1,000 poultry companies in the United States. Today, there are just a few dozen," Bo said. "The survivors are those that have been able to respond quickly and decisively to the changing tastes of customers and consumers. We've enjoyed a great deal of success over the past 60 years by staying one step ahead of our competitors, and our future looks even brighter," he said.
From its humble beginning more than 60 years ago as a single feed store in a small East Texas town, Pilgrim's Pride Corporation (NYSE: PPC) has grown to become the largest poultry company in the world. Today Pilgrim's Pride is a Fortune 500 company with $7.6 billion in annual net sales and approximately 50,000 employees. The company processes approximately 9 billion pounds of poultry per year and exports to more than 80 countries.
The Early Days
The story began on October 2, 1946, when Aubrey Pilgrim and his partner, Pat Johns, purchased a feed and seed store for $3,500 from W. W. Weems in Pittsburg, Texas. Soon after forming the partnership, Aubrey asked his brother, Lonnie "Bo" Pilgrim, to join them. Bo's first job there was driving a feed store truck for 50 cents an hour.
In the early days, the Pilgrims would sell 100 baby chicks and a sack of feed to local farmers who would take the chicks home and raise them in their back yards, keeping some for family needs and bringing back the remainder when they were grown.
"They would sell the chickens back to us, and we would turn them loose in a pen near the store. Local people would come to purchase one of the chickens, and we would catch the one they'd chosen," Bo Pilgrim recalled in "One Pilgrim's Progress" (Nelson Business, $22.99), published in 2005.
Selling baby chicks to drive feed sales was one of several innovative ideas that would later lead to the "vertical integration" model of poultry production used by nearly every major poultry company today.
Overcoming Obstacles
The Pilgrim brothers faced a number of tremendous challenges in building their new business.
"There was nothing remotely close to a long-range plan, a strategic plan, or a business plan associated with Farmer's Feed and Seed," Bo recalled in his book. "I doubt if there was even very much time for daydreaming about a future. We were working long hours, sometimes hauling a load of peas over to the Cass County Canning Co. in Atlanta, Texas, not getting home until three o'clock in the morning, then getting to the store to open it at seven o'clock. The fact is, it was all about survival. Survival meant meeting a customer's expectations so the customer would become a return customer."
He soon learned not only to survive, but also how make a business grow.
"The first year I was with my brother as a partner, we added a warehouse to the store and, with it, a loading ramp, unloading pit, an elevator to carry feed to a bagging machine, and an electric sewing machine for the feed sacks," he said.
Bo's early process improvements allowed the company to dramatically reduce wasted grain, which used to be lost through the cracks of the floor in the feed store, and enabled the Pilgrim brothers to use automation to sell truckloads of feed out of the warehouse.
"We began to grow in a way that, looking back, was a set of small but integrated steps. We didn't know it at the time, of course, that our steps were linked in some way. We were simply responding to one opportunity after the next. In retrospect, the pieces of a fairly elaborate puzzle were beginning to fall into place," said Bo.
The puzzle soon began to take shape as opportunities came in the form of acquisitions and capital improvements. The first major expansion came in the 1950s, when the Pilgrim brothers purchased the Hudson Cotton Gin and a hatchery in Mt. Pleasant, Texas. They leased their first chicken-processing plant in Mt. Pleasant in 1960.
Tragedy struck in 1966 when Aubrey Pilgrim died of a heart attack, leaving Bo to lead the company he had worked so hard to help establish. As Bo remembers, "I can't begin to tell you what a shock Aubrey's death was to me. My whole world was shaken... Aubrey and I were brothers and business partners. Nobody was closer to me."
After a long, sleepless night, Bo Pilgrim decided it was up to him to continue the Pilgrim's legacy.
"That single decision gave my life direction from that day forward," he said. "I had every hope and intention and motivating desire to run the company to even greater heights. Failure was not an option."
Growth through Acquisitions
In the years ahead, the company continued to grow and thrive, purchasing Market Produce of Fort Worth in 1969 and undergoing two name changes: Pilgrim's Corporation and Pilgrim Industries, Inc. Several other acquisitions followed, and on November 15, 1986, Pilgrim's Pride Corporation became a publicly owned company listed on the New York Stock Exchange. One year later, the company expanded into Mexico.
In the 1990s, Pilgrim's Pride continued its growth, acquiring Green Acre Foods, Inc. in Nacogdoches, Texas. Fast-forward to the acquisition of WLR Foods, Inc., in 2001, which expanded the company's sales and marketing capabilities from coast to coast, and the purchase of ConAgra's chicken division in 2003, which doubled the size of the company and helped generate record sales and earnings growth for Pilgrim's Pride.
The latest chapter in the Pilgrim's story was added December 27, 2006, when Pilgrim's Pride completed the acquisition of Atlanta-based Gold Kist for $1.1 billion in cash and the assumption of approximately $144 million of debt. At the time, Gold Kist had been the third-largest poultry processor in America, processing 14 million birds per week and employing 16,500 people at the time it was acquired by Pilgrim's Pride.
With the addition of Gold Kist, Pilgrim's Pride became the world's leading chicken company in terms of production and the fourth-largest U.S. meat protein company by revenues. Today the company has a broader geographic reach and customer base, and maintains a balanced portfolio of fresh chicken and value-added products.
Leading the Way
Over the years, Pilgrim's Pride has established a longstanding reputation for industry- leading innovation. The company was one of the first in the poultry industry to produce individually quick-frozen cooked and fresh chicken products. In 1984, the Company developed the world's first boneless whole chicken. In 1997, after years of research into the role of certain vital nutrients in fighting heart disease and promoting wellness, the company introduced EggsPlus™, a healthier alternative to the ordinary egg that contains extra Vitamin E, Lutein and Omega-3 essential fatty acids.
More recently, Pilgrim's Pride introduced its EatWellStayHealthy Kids™ line of heart-healthy products, the first in the industry to feature the USDA- regulated word, "healthy," on its packaging, as well as the American Heart Association's "heart check-mark" seal of approval. And the company's Fridge-to-Freezer Pak™, which separates fresh chicken parts into small vacuum-sealed pockets, was selected as one of Progressive Grocer magazine's "Editors' Picks" for best new products of 2006.
These innovations have earned Pilgrim's Pride numerous awards for quality and service from its customers and accolades within its industry. Recent awards include the Supplier of the Year Award from Wal-Mart; the Distinguished Supplier Award from Darden Restaurants, Inc., the world's largest casual dining restaurant company; and the Poultry Supplier of the Year Award from Zaxby's, a major fast casual chicken restaurant chain.
Pilgrim's Pride has also been named among the "Most Admired Companies in America" by Fortune for six consecutive years, and was named one of the "400 Best Big Companies in America" by Forbes for the sixth time in 2007.
The Road Ahead
Admittedly, the growth and success of the past 60 years is a bit "mind- boggling" to Bo Pilgrim, who grew up in Pine, Texas (pop. 80), and attended classes in a three-room schoolhouse just after the Great Depression. But he believes the years ahead are filled with even more hope and promise.
"At one time, there were more than 1,000 poultry companies in the United States. Today, there are just a few dozen," Bo said. "The survivors are those that have been able to respond quickly and decisively to the changing tastes of customers and consumers. We've enjoyed a great deal of success over the past 60 years by staying one step ahead of our competitors, and our future looks even brighter," he said.
The Early Days
The story began on October 2, 1946, when Aubrey Pilgrim and his partner, Pat Johns, purchased a feed and seed store for $3,500 from W. W. Weems in Pittsburg, Texas. Soon after forming the partnership, Aubrey asked his brother, Lonnie "Bo" Pilgrim, to join them. Bo's first job there was driving a feed store truck for 50 cents an hour.
In the early days, the Pilgrims would sell 100 baby chicks and a sack of feed to local farmers who would take the chicks home and raise them in their back yards, keeping some for family needs and bringing back the remainder when they were grown.
"They would sell the chickens back to us, and we would turn them loose in a pen near the store. Local people would come to purchase one of the chickens, and we would catch the one they'd chosen," Bo Pilgrim recalled in "One Pilgrim's Progress" (Nelson Business, $22.99), published in 2005.
Selling baby chicks to drive feed sales was one of several innovative ideas that would later lead to the "vertical integration" model of poultry production used by nearly every major poultry company today.
Overcoming Obstacles
The Pilgrim brothers faced a number of tremendous challenges in building their new business.
"There was nothing remotely close to a long-range plan, a strategic plan, or a business plan associated with Farmer's Feed and Seed," Bo recalled in his book. "I doubt if there was even very much time for daydreaming about a future. We were working long hours, sometimes hauling a load of peas over to the Cass County Canning Co. in Atlanta, Texas, not getting home until three o'clock in the morning, then getting to the store to open it at seven o'clock. The fact is, it was all about survival. Survival meant meeting a customer's expectations so the customer would become a return customer."
He soon learned not only to survive, but also how make a business grow.
"The first year I was with my brother as a partner, we added a warehouse to the store and, with it, a loading ramp, unloading pit, an elevator to carry feed to a bagging machine, and an electric sewing machine for the feed sacks," he said.
Bo's early process improvements allowed the company to dramatically reduce wasted grain, which used to be lost through the cracks of the floor in the feed store, and enabled the Pilgrim brothers to use automation to sell truckloads of feed out of the warehouse.
"We began to grow in a way that, looking back, was a set of small but integrated steps. We didn't know it at the time, of course, that our steps were linked in some way. We were simply responding to one opportunity after the next. In retrospect, the pieces of a fairly elaborate puzzle were beginning to fall into place," said Bo.
The puzzle soon began to take shape as opportunities came in the form of acquisitions and capital improvements. The first major expansion came in the 1950s, when the Pilgrim brothers purchased the Hudson Cotton Gin and a hatchery in Mt. Pleasant, Texas. They leased their first chicken-processing plant in Mt. Pleasant in 1960.
Tragedy struck in 1966 when Aubrey Pilgrim died of a heart attack, leaving Bo to lead the company he had worked so hard to help establish. As Bo remembers, "I can't begin to tell you what a shock Aubrey's death was to me. My whole world was shaken... Aubrey and I were brothers and business partners. Nobody was closer to me."
After a long, sleepless night, Bo Pilgrim decided it was up to him to continue the Pilgrim's legacy.
"That single decision gave my life direction from that day forward," he said. "I had every hope and intention and motivating desire to run the company to even greater heights. Failure was not an option."
Growth through Acquisitions
In the years ahead, the company continued to grow and thrive, purchasing Market Produce of Fort Worth in 1969 and undergoing two name changes: Pilgrim's Corporation and Pilgrim Industries, Inc. Several other acquisitions followed, and on November 15, 1986, Pilgrim's Pride Corporation became a publicly owned company listed on the New York Stock Exchange. One year later, the company expanded into Mexico.
In the 1990s, Pilgrim's Pride continued its growth, acquiring Green Acre Foods, Inc. in Nacogdoches, Texas. Fast-forward to the acquisition of WLR Foods, Inc., in 2001, which expanded the company's sales and marketing capabilities from coast to coast, and the purchase of ConAgra's chicken division in 2003, which doubled the size of the company and helped generate record sales and earnings growth for Pilgrim's Pride.
The latest chapter in the Pilgrim's story was added December 27, 2006, when Pilgrim's Pride completed the acquisition of Atlanta-based Gold Kist for $1.1 billion in cash and the assumption of approximately $144 million of debt. At the time, Gold Kist had been the third-largest poultry processor in America, processing 14 million birds per week and employing 16,500 people at the time it was acquired by Pilgrim's Pride.
With the addition of Gold Kist, Pilgrim's Pride became the world's leading chicken company in terms of production and the fourth-largest U.S. meat protein company by revenues. Today the company has a broader geographic reach and customer base, and maintains a balanced portfolio of fresh chicken and value-added products.
Leading the Way
Over the years, Pilgrim's Pride has established a longstanding reputation for industry- leading innovation. The company was one of the first in the poultry industry to produce individually quick-frozen cooked and fresh chicken products. In 1984, the Company developed the world's first boneless whole chicken. In 1997, after years of research into the role of certain vital nutrients in fighting heart disease and promoting wellness, the company introduced EggsPlus™, a healthier alternative to the ordinary egg that contains extra Vitamin E, Lutein and Omega-3 essential fatty acids.
More recently, Pilgrim's Pride introduced its EatWellStayHealthy Kids™ line of heart-healthy products, the first in the industry to feature the USDA- regulated word, "healthy," on its packaging, as well as the American Heart Association's "heart check-mark" seal of approval. And the company's Fridge-to-Freezer Pak™, which separates fresh chicken parts into small vacuum-sealed pockets, was selected as one of Progressive Grocer magazine's "Editors' Picks" for best new products of 2006.
These innovations have earned Pilgrim's Pride numerous awards for quality and service from its customers and accolades within its industry. Recent awards include the Supplier of the Year Award from Wal-Mart; the Distinguished Supplier Award from Darden Restaurants, Inc., the world's largest casual dining restaurant company; and the Poultry Supplier of the Year Award from Zaxby's, a major fast casual chicken restaurant chain.
Pilgrim's Pride has also been named among the "Most Admired Companies in America" by Fortune for six consecutive years, and was named one of the "400 Best Big Companies in America" by Forbes for the sixth time in 2007.
The Road Ahead
Admittedly, the growth and success of the past 60 years is a bit "mind- boggling" to Bo Pilgrim, who grew up in Pine, Texas (pop. 80), and attended classes in a three-room schoolhouse just after the Great Depression. But he believes the years ahead are filled with even more hope and promise.
"At one time, there were more than 1,000 poultry companies in the United States. Today, there are just a few dozen," Bo said. "The survivors are those that have been able to respond quickly and decisively to the changing tastes of customers and consumers. We've enjoyed a great deal of success over the past 60 years by staying one step ahead of our competitors, and our future looks even brighter," he said.
