Pilgrim's Pride Exits Turkey Business
Pilgrim's Pride Corporation announces the sale of its turkey production facility and distribution center in New Oxford, Pa., to New Oxford Foods LLC, a subsidiary of Hain Pure Protein Corp. As a result of this sale, which is effective immediately, Pilgrim's Pride is no longer a producer of turkey, a business it entered in 2001 with the purchase of WLR Foods Inc. "The sale of the New Oxford complex will allow Pilgrim's Pride to focus on our long-term strategy of building our core chicken business," says Clint Rivers, president and chief executive officer. "Despite the positive improvements made in our turkey business over the past few years, we found that our small size and scale in this segment made it difficult to achieve acceptable levels of profitability on a consistent basis."