Pure Prairie Poultry filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the Minnesota Bankruptcy Court on September 20.
The company, headquartered in Charles City, Iowa, has been in business since 2021, when it purchased a shuttered poultry plant that was previously operated by Simply Essentials before it closed it in 2019.
According to a report from KIMT, the court filing revealed that Pure Prairie Poultry owed hundreds of debtors between $100 million and $500 million, while only having between $50 million and $100 million in assets.
The company is also seeking immediate access to post-petition financing of $15 million (debtor in possession financing) to ensure continued operations during this case as it implements a sale process.
Pure Prairie Poultry describes itself as a company that delivers premium quality chicken products to retail, deli, and foodservice segments. It says its products are “all natural, air-chilled, and well-trimmed,” and “come from chickens raised under strict animal welfare standards, with no antibiotics ever, and fed a vegetable- and grain-based diet.”
The plant in 2023 received funding to renovate and update the plant, with $37.6 million coming in the form of a loan packaged, guaranteed by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) through the Food Supply Chain Guaranteed Loan Program. Greater Commercial Lending (GCL), facilitated the loan.
Brian Roelofs is the president and CEO of the company, and others that had been named to its leadership team have had years of experience with other past and present poultry companies, including Foster Farms, Tyson Foods, Petaluma Poultry, GNP Company, Prairie’s Best Farms and Zacky Farms.
