Source: The Modesto Bee
The new ownership at Foster Farms plans to retain its 12,000-strong workforce and the company’s mix of poultry products, Chief Executive Officer Donnie Smith said. “There’s no reason for anybody at Foster Farms to be concerned about whether or not they’re going to have a job,” he said on a Zoom call Tuesday with The Modesto Bee. “Our intent is to grow the business.” Smith spoke two weeks after Atlas Holdings, based in Greenwich, Connecticut, purchased Foster Farms from the family that founded it in 1939. The price was not disclosed. The operation includes turkey processing in Turlock and chicken plants in Livingston, Fresno, Porterville, Oregon, Washington, Louisiana and Alabama. The sale happened about a month after a congressional panel alleged that Foster Farms pressured local health officials to keep the Livingston plant open amid a COVID-19 outbreak. Smith declined to comment on the report but did speak to safeguards going forward: “I have been involved in the production of food my entire adult life and my entire business career. During all those years, I have always had two top priorities. One is the safety of our team members, and the second is the safety of our food.” Smith, 62, came out of retirement as CEO at Tyson Foods, based in Arkansas, to lead Foster Farms. He had worked from 1980 to 2016 for Tyson, the world’s second-largest processor of chicken, beef and pork after Colorado-based JBS Foods. Foster Farms is much smaller than Tyson but still the top-selling chicken and turkey brand in the West, with about $3 billion in annual sales. The company is among the largest private employers in the San Joaquin Valley Smith said consumers can expect little change to the products from Foster Farms. Its hundreds of items include fresh whole birds and parts, ground meat, marinated meat, frozen nuggets, deli slices and corn dogs. The brand name will carry on. “I’ve always admired their product mix and don’t see any reason to change it,” Smith said. He spoke from the Livingston headquarters following a week of visits to most of the plants he now oversees. Max and Verda Foster founded the business at a small ranch west of Waterford. It expanded in part through acquisitions, including the side-by-side turkey plants in Turlock, and its own investment in new sites. The CEO was always a family member until Laura Flanagan was appointed in 2016, followed by Dan Huber in 2019.
Foster Farms also has supported many causes in the areas where it operates. It gave $3 million toward the Gallo Center for the Arts in Modesto and helped build the Max Foster Sports Complex in Livingston. The company was already a big donor to food banks when the pandemic prompted it to give even more. Smith said that will continue: “We will be very community-focused and deeply rooted in all of the communities that we serve.” Atlas Holdings began in 2002 with the purchase of an Indiana paper mill. It now owns 24 companies in diverse sectors, including metals, wood, packaging, automotive interiors, power generation, construction services and supply chain management. Its only other food producer besides Foster Farms is Wizards Nuts, which operates as Flagstone Foods out of Minneapolis. Atlas also is in the business of “mining” cryptocurrency in an energy-intensive process. Atlas employs about 50,000 people at more than 300 locations around the world. It reports about $14.5 billion in annual revenue. Smith declined to comment on what ownership by a holding company would mean for a business that had been family-owned for 83 years. He deferred to the Atlas partners, who spoke to this in a June 7 news release: “We have a long history of partnering with proud family-owned companies to honor their past while driving additional operational, environmental and financial success for the next generation,” Sam Astor, Ed Fletcher and Mike Sher said in a joint statement. “Working closely with Donnie Smith, the leadership team and our dedicated team members, that is precisely what we intend to do at Foster Farms.”
