- Foster Farms (poultry company)
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Foster Farms Type Private Founded Modesto, California, U.S. (1939) Headquarters Livingston, California, U.S. Foster Farms is a United States West Coast poultry company. The company has been privately owned and operated by the Foster family since 1939. The company is based in Livingston, California with operations throughout the West Coast and a few on the East Coast. The company specializes in a variety of chicken and turkey products advertised as fresh and naturally locally grown.[1]
Contents
History
Beginnings
Foster Farms was established in 1939 by Max and Verda Foster. They began by investing $1,000 into a farm in Modesto, California, on which they raised turkeys. The back porch was Max's office and the first hatchery was built next to their bedroom so the eggs could get constant care.[2] In 1942, Max quit his day job as a reporter and city editor for the Modesto Bee.[1] Around this time, the Fosters expanded into raising cattle and chickens. As the business grew, the Fosters acquired another farm and a feed mill in the 1950s. The feed mill allowed the company some independence from outside feed contracts.[1] In 1959, Foster Farms built a processing plant in Livingston, California, and in 1960, the company's headquarters was moved there from Modesto. Livestock were slaughtered, processed, and packaged at the Livingston plant on an assembly line.
The 1970s
In 1969, Max and Verda Foster turned the company over to their son, Paul Foster, who became President of Foster Farms.[2] In 1973, Foster Farms opened a major distribution center in El Monte, California, serving southern California. In 1977, Paul died of a sudden heart attack, and his brother Thomas became president of the company.[2]
The 1980s
In 1982, the company bought the property of The Grange Company and its branch, Valchris Poultry.[3] After this purchase the company re-entered the turkey business and began to produce deli products under the Foster Farms name. By the 1980s, Foster Farms had many new products to offer, such as bologna, poultry franks and luncheon meats.[4] Sales tripled between 1975 and 1988; by 1987, Foster Farms was selling about 140 million chickens per year,[3] making it the largest chicken producer in California. The company's hens laid around 2.2 million eggs per week, which were then transported to hatcheries and kept in an incubator for 18 days.[3] When the chicks hatched, they were taken to different ranches for about 52 days, while they ate the company's own corn and soybean meals.
A day-old chick
Throughout the 1980s, Foster Farms began to make commercials, with one winning a Clio Award in 1988.[5] By the mid-1980s, their sales had continued to improve, and they expanded again, purchasing Oregon's largest poultry producer, Fircrest Farms in Creswell, in 1987.[3] In 1988, the company leadership decided to increase production capacity.[4] They created a new fryer ranch with one million square feet of poultry housing in Merced, California, upgraded their feed mill in Ceres, California, and built a new 85,000-square-foot (7,900 m2) distribution facility and sales office for Northern California in Livingston.[3] In November 1989, Foster Farms obtained a turkey processing plant in Fresno, California, from Roxford Foods. The turkey processing plant was converted into a chicken processing plant, where new equipment was added, enabling the plant to process 80 million more chickens a year.
With the discovery that saturated fat intake was linked to heart disease, Americans began to eat less red meat and more chicken.[4] This change dramatically increased sales for Foster farms. Sales began to drop in 1987, after a report broadcast on the television newsmagazine show 60 Minutes claimed that a high percentage of chicken was infected with salmonella.[5] In response, the company invited the media to visit its processing centers so that customers could see that Foster Farms chickens were not harmful.
The 1990s
In 1992, brothers George and Tom gave up their roles of president and chief executive to a non-family member, Robert Fox. The Foster brothers remained on the company's board. Sales began to expand once again and so did the company, purchasing Lynden Farms for approximately $8.2 million in 1994. By 1996 annual sales totaled around $900 million.[3] The company had become the largest poultry producer on the entire West Coast and the eighth largest in the nation. In 1997, the company bought the leading poultry producer in Washington, Pederson's Fryer Farms, for approximately $7 million.[4] The company opened a $45 million, 500-job processing facility in South Kelso, Washington in 1998.[3] It also acquired the Butterball Turkey Company's turkey processing plant and feed mill in Turlock, California, along with a hatchery in Fresno, California, and purchased Griffith Foods, an Alabama producer of corn dogs. In 1999 Tom Foster died; George Foster remained active in the company.[2] That same year Foster Farms produced over 750 million pounds of poultry and was the second-largest corn dog producer in the United States.
The 2000s
In October 2001, Foster Farms acquired the chicken operations of Southern California's Zacky Farms.[2] This addition included Zacky Farms' Fresno plant, hatchery, feed mill, and live productions ranches, as well as its Los Angeles distribution center. With the addition of 1,500 new employees, production increased significantly.[2] In 2003, Foster Farms introduced the Fresh & Easy line of individually wrapped, pre-washed boneless, skinless breast and thighs.[2] In 2004, the company built a new distribution center.[2] Today Max and Verda's grandson, Ron Foster, is the company's CEO. He worked with his grandfather for 23 years and now oversees Foster Farms' more than 10,000 employees.[2]
Controversies
In late 1997, hundreds of employees went on strike for two weeks. They agreed to a new contract and went back to work at the end of October 1997.[6] Hundreds of San Joaquin Valley poultry plan workers struck in October 2005, accusing Foster Farms of unfair labor practices.[7]
In 1998, Foster Poultry Farms pleaded guilty in the United States District Court to a violation of the federal Clean Water Act. Foster Poultry Farms dumped 11 million gallons of chicken-manure-polluted water into the San Luis National Wildlife Refuge.[8]
Finances and industry statistics
Also in 2005, Foster Farms was awarded California's highest environmental honor, the Governor's Environmental and Economic Leadership Award (GEELA), from Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.[citation needed] The GEELA program recognizes exceptional leadership and notable contributions in conserving California’s resources and recognizes the significance of a joint project between Foster Farms and the East Bay Municipal Utility District (EBMUD).
The company received the 2005 POWER Award from Public Officials for Water and Environmental Reform.[citation needed] The annual POWER Award honors companies that provide solutions to the state's water issues and serve as models to others in this regard.
Foster Farms is one of the biggest West Coast poultry producers. The revenue increase has been accompanied by a decrease in manpower. As of December 2007, the company’s revenues stood at approximately $2.00 billion, an 11.1% change in revenue from the previous year. At the same time, the company was estimated to employ approximately 10,500 people.[9]
Advertising
Foster Farms commercials feature talking chickens who falsely claim to be from Foster Farms. However, for various reasons, such as eating junk food or being from the other side of the country, it is clear that the impostors are not of the purported high quality of Foster Farms chickens, leading people to reject them.
References
- ^ a b c Foster Poultry Farms Source: International Directory of Company Histories, Vol. 32. St. James Press, 2000 quoted by FundingUniverse.com.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i FosterFarms.com. 2007. 26 Oct. 2008. "About Us: History" at Fosterfarms.com
- ^ a b c d e f g Lindblom, Mike. “Small Towns Like Its Huge Chicken Plant.” Daily News. Sep 2, 1996: A1.
- ^ a b c d Smith, Timothy. "Changing Tastes: By End of This Year Poultry Will Surpass Beef in The U.S. Diet." Wall Street Journal. Sep. 17, 1987:1
- ^ a b Tyson, Rae. "Beef Industry Hits Hard Times." USA Today. March 5, 1996:B4
- ^ Los Angeles Times, October 29, 2008, 1997, “Workers return to Foster Farms Plant,” http://articles.latimes.com/1997/oct/29/business/fi-47804[12]
- ^ Los Angeles Times, October 26, 2005, "Foster Farms poultry workers go on strike," http://articles.latimes.com/2005/oct/26/business/fi-rup26.6
- ^ United States Environmental Protection Agency, January 23, 1998, http://yosemite.epa.gov/opa/admpress.nsf/a883dc3da7094f97852572a00065d7d8/1a96ac8b6affb5f985256595006fccc6!OpenDocument
- ^ Forbes.com, November 3, 2008, "America’s largest private companies," http://www.forbes.com/lists/2008/21/privates08_Foster-Farms_IPCZ.html
External links
Foster Farms Sites
Foster Imposter Sites:
- http://thefosterimposters.com/
- http://fosterfarms.com/about/imposters/tv_commercials.asp
- http://imposterdigest.com/
Categories:- Companies based in Merced County, California
- Companies established in 1939
- Brand name poultry
- Food production companies of the United States
- Meat processing in the United States
- Agriculture in Oregon
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