Perdue Farms history

The company started out selling table eggs, then in 1925, Perdue built the company's first hatchery, and switched to selling layer chicks to farmers instead of eggs.

In the meantime, Frank Perdue went off to college, entering Salisbury State College in 1937, but left after two years to rejoin the family business.

His son Frank Perdue joined the company in 1939 at age 19 after dropping out of college.

He kept his own flock of chickens on the side and had 800 hens of his own by 1941.

In 1950 Frank assumed control of the company.

By 1952, when Frank Perdue succeeded his father as president of the company, Perdue Farms was racking up annual sales of $6 million on a volume of 2.6 million birds.

Incorporated in 1953, the company began the process of vertically integrating its operations by constructing hatcheries, feed mills, and storage facilities.

Indeed, by 1967 Perdue Farms was posting annual sales of more than $35 million.

In 1968, the company began operating its first poultry processing plant in Salisbury.

As early as 1971, Holly Farms watched the Perdue experiment in selling at the retail level under its own brand name with great interest and concluded that Perdue Farms could be beaten--at least in part because Perdue Farms was pricing its broilers as high as ten cents per pound above other brands.

In 1972 the company hired Scali McCabe Sloves, a small New York agency, to handle its advertising; in turn, the agency made perhaps the most fateful decision in the history of Perdue Farms--putting Franklin Parsons Perdue himself on the air.

Arthur Perdue died in 1977 at the age of 91.

Frank Perdue officially succeeded him as chairman in 1979.

In 1983 Perdue Farms introduced chicken franks--hot dogs stuffed with chicken instead of pork or beef.

As it turned out, neither Perdue nor Holly Farms could quite outdo the other, but both succeeded well enough so that in 1985 the two companies together accounted for one-fourth of all the fresh chicken sold in the United States.

Responding to the needs of health-conscious consumers, Perdue's feed researchers in 1986 implemented a new diet that substantially reduced fat in chickens.

Frank Perdue resigned as chief executive officer in 1988 but remained as his company’s chairman and advertising spokesman.

And a 1990 television commercial had Frank Perdue driving a nail into a birdhouse with a competitor's frozen chicken to highlight Perdue's freshness.

Barmash, Isadora, “The Quieter Style of the New Generation at Perdue,” New York Times, July 16, 1992.

In 1993 ad agency Scaly, McCabe, and Solves merged with The Lowe Group to form Lowe & Partners/SMS. A concerned Frank Perdue expressed reservations about such a large agency paying sufficient attention to his account.

By 1994 Jim Perdue had been persuaded to follow in his father's footsteps and become a spokesman for the company.

Perdue Farms celebrated its 75th anniversary as a family-run business in 1995.

The company expanded into Japan in 1996 by recruiting food wholesaler Toshoku Ltd. to sell its precooked chickens.

The television commercial "Now Arriving" was crafted in May 1997 by Perdue's longtime agency Lowe & Partners/SMS. It shows company president Jim Perdue—Frank's son and new company spokesman—being greeted in an airport by a Hare Krishna who offers him a marigold.

Cavetto, Neil. "Retired Perdue Farms Chairman." The Cavuto Business Report, June 19, 1998.

In the year 2007, Perdue Farms decided to raise and supply poultry which was free of antibiotics and other artificial growth agents.

In 2010, there was a structural change in the company when it was taken over by another holding company of the family, FPP Family Investments Inc.

In 2013, the company was declared to be the Third Largest Producer of Broiler Chicken in America.

Scandal enveloped the chicken clan in 2014 when a Web video emerged showing foul conditions at a Perdue farm.

2015 Continuing to focus on premium proteins and trusted brands, Perdue Farms acquired Natural Food Holdings, including the NIMAN RANCH® brand, the PRAIRIE GROVE® brand and pork processing operations.

2016 Groundbreaking Commitments to Animal Care transformed the company's approach to raising chickens, moving from the industry norm of basic needs to the Five Freedoms

2017 The PERDUE® brand continued to make advertising history by introducing a fourth generation of family advertising spokespersons.