Pilgrim's Pride Corp.

Pilgrim’s is a vertically integrated poultry company based in Greely, Colorado. It is owned by Brazilian company JBS S.A., the world’s largest protein company. The company was founded as a feed and seed store selling chicks in 1946. In the 1950s and 1960s, the company transitioned into chicken processing. In 1986, the company went public and it was listed on the New York Stock Exchange. The company made a series of large acquisitions in the 1990s and 2000s including Green Acre Foods Inc., WLR Foods Inc., ConAgra’s chicken division and Gold Kist. In December 2008, amid the global financial crisis, the company declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy. In December 2009, JBS USA, a unit of JBS S.A., acquired 64% of the company’s stock. JBS now controls 78.5% of Pilgrim’s stock. The company’s stock now trades on the Nasdaq Stock Market under the symbol PPC. Pilgrims employs 61,800 people and offers more than 2,500 products. Its brands are Pilgrim's, Pierce, Gold Kist Farms, Just Bare, Gold'n Plump, Moy Park, O'Kane, DelDia, Country Pride, To-Rico’s, Savoro, Little Italy, Alamesa, Selecto and County Post.
Pilgrim's produced 161.7 million pounds of ready-to-cook chicken on a weekly basis in 2023, an increase from 161.3 million pounds processed in 2022. Its 2023 sales were $17.3 billion, an increase from $17.1 billion in 2022. Pilgrim’s sales break out is 36% retail, 38% industrial, 17% foodservice and 9% export.
Its product mix is 79% fresh and 21% frozen. Its product forms at point of sale are 95% cut-up and 5% cooked. According to its 2023 survey response, 47% of Pilgrim’s Pride’s birds are raised either antibiotic-free or no antibiotics ever, and 2% are U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Organic certified.