Pilgrim's Pride: CEO History

Pilgrim's Pride controls the full chicken production chain, from breeder flocks and feed mills to processing and packaging, and sells in three reporting segments: U.S., Europe and Mexico. The U.S. business is the largest; Europe was built mainly through Moy Park (2017), Tulip (2019) and Kerry's meats and meals business (2021), and Mexico grew through the 2015 purchase of Tyson's Mexican operations. The company is headquartered in Greeley, Colorado. Pilgrim's Pride was founded in October 1946 in Pittsburg, Texas, by Aubrey Pilgrim and Pat Pilgrim with partner James Weems as a small farm supply store, expanding over eight decades into one of the world's largest poultry producers headquartered in Greeley, Colorado, and majority-owned by JBS S.A.

Pilgrim's Pride makes money by raising, processing and selling chicken and, in Europe, pork and prepared meals. It owns breeder flocks, hatcheries, feed mills and processing plants, and pays independent contract growers to raise birds in grower-owned houses. Products are sold to restaurant chains, retailers, foodservice distributors and export buyers, with a growing share coming from value-added and branded items such as Just Bare, Pilgrim's, Moy Park, Richmond and Fridge Raiders.