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Smithfield Foods history
Smithfield Foods company history timeline
In 1936 these two decided to establish their own ham business and succeeded in raising $10,000 from local investors.
Founded in Smithfield, Virginia in 1936, Smithfield Foods boasts more than 40,000 United States employees with nearly 50 facilities across the country.
The company traces its history to 1936, when Joseph W. Luter Sr. and his son, Joseph W. Luter Jr., opened the Smithfield Packing Company in Smithfield, Virginia.
They built the Smithfield Packing Company plant in 1946 on Highway 10.
By 1959, their workforce had grown to 650.
Joseph W. Luter Jr. served as Smithfield's chief executive officer (CEO) until his death in 1962.
1966: Luter, age 26, becomes president of Smithfield Foods.
Wan joined Henan Luohe Meat Products Processing United Factory — then a state-owned entity — in 1968, and eventually grew the business into WH Group.
1969: Controlling stake of Smithfield Foods is sold to Liberty Equities Corp.; Luter leaves the company.
1971: Liberty Equities changes its name to Smithfield Foods Inc.
He said it even lost money in December 1974—holiday-ham season—which was "like Budweiser losing money in July". Luter's restructuring of the company is credited with its improved performance.
1975: Luter returns as president/chief operating officer.
From then until 1975 he developed a ski resort, Bryce Mountain, in Virginia.
June 1978: The Virginia attorney general's office accepts an out-of-court settlement of $25,000 from Smithfield.
In 1978 it purchased a plant in Kinston, North Carolina.
1984: The company acquires Patrick Cudahy, Inc. and Esskay (processing only).
June 1985: A Richmond federal judge levies civil penalties of more than $1.2 million against a Smithfield subsidiary in a Clean Water Act lawsuit brought by the Chesapeake Bay Foundation and the Natural Resources Defense Council.
1986: Smithfield reports annual sales of $864 million.
In 1987, in a particularly prescient move, Luter launched a 50-50 partnership with Carroll's Foods, the country's fifth largest pork producer.
As one analyst in a 1988 Financial World article claimed, "Essentially, Joe Luter got the company back for ten cents on the dollar."
These included Hancock's Country Hams, Patrick Cudahy Incorporated, and Schluderberg-Kurdle Co. (renamed Esskay, Inc.). By 1988 annual revenues had skyrocketed to $864 million, well within striking range of the billion dollar mark.
1991: The company negotiates exclusive United States and Mexico rights to National Pig Development Co. (NPD) genetics.
Net income for 1992 began cycling downward again to $21 million.
The phasing out of a dated Baltimore facility the same month, the late 1992 acquisition of a John Morrell plant in Wilson, North Carolina, and the company's search for a plant situated to serve the West Coast all bode well for Smithfield.
With his extra profits, Luter had capitalized on downswings to buy back some 50 percent of the company's shares during the same 16-year period and had increased his individual stake to approximately 20 percent, according to a 1992 Forbes article.
1996: The company reports annual sales of nearly $2.4 billion.
In 1997 Smithfield Foods drew the largest civil penalty ever, assessed for violations of the Clean Water Act, a $12.6 million fine.
1998: The company acquires Circle Four Farms, a longtime hog production partner.
In August 1999 Smithfield further pursued its international expansion through a 50 percent owned integrated pork joint venture in Mexico.
In 1999 it bought two of the largest pig producers in the United States: Carroll's Foods for around $500 million and Murphy Family Farms of North Carolina; the latter was at that point the largest producer.
2000: Smithfield and the North Carolina attorney general strike a deal for the company to spend up to $65 million on research for a replacement to hog-waste cesspools.
Smithfield Foods, Inc. is the world's largest pork processor, with fiscal 2000 production of 6 billion pounds of fresh pork and processed meats.
2000: Smithfield Foods announces decision to purchase Farmland Foods' Dubuque, Iowa plant.
In early 2001 Smithfield and Tyson, the nation's largest poultry company, had fought for IBP, the country's largest beef company, which would have made either contender the nation's largest meat producer.
July 2002: Smithfield sends to market about 12 million hogs a year, roughly 12 percent of the domestic hog market.
2003: The company acquires Farmland Foods, the sixth-largest United States pork processor.
2004: Smithfield completes the purchase of two English meat companies in a bid to fatten up its presence in the United Kingdom.
2005: The company partners with Compass Group to limit antibiotic use in pork production.
2006: C. Larry Pope succeeding Joseph Luter III. Smithfield partners with celebrity cook Paula Deen for a line of products.
As of 2006 four companies—Smithfield, Tyson Foods, Swift & Company, and Cargill—were responsible for the production of 70 percent of pork in the United States.
2007: Earning praise from the Humane Society of the United States and PETA, Smithfield announces that it will replace the cramped "gestation stalls" that house pregnant sows with "group housing" over the next decade.
July 2008: The company says it will sell Groupe Smithfield, its main European subsidiary, to Spain's Campofrio Alimentacion.
His son, Joseph W. Luter IV, became an executive vice-president of Smithfield Foods in 2008 and president of the Smithfield Packing Company, by then the parent company's largest subsidiary.
Smithfield sold its 49 percent share in Butterball in 2008 for an estimated $175 million.
December 2009: Smithfield announces a $26.4 million loss for the second quarter of its fiscal year, its fourth consecutive quarterly loss.
In 2009 Smithfield was assessed a $900,000 penalty by the United States Justice Department to settle charges that the company had engaged in illegal merger activity during its takeover of Premium Standard Farms.
March 2010: The company reports that it returned to profitability in its fiscal third quarter.
September 2010: The company announces that its partner in Butterball LLC agreed to buy Smithfield's 49 percent stake in the giant turkey processor.
December 2010: The Humane Society of the United States releases a video showing pregnant pigs cramped in stalls and workers prodding or tossing pigs at a farm owned by a Smithfield subsidiary in Waverly.
In 2010, Dennis Treacy, the company’s first chief sustainability officer, formalized the company’s sustainability practices under six pillars.
June 2011: The company reports annual sales of $12.2 billion.
January 2012: Smithfield and Richard Petty Motorsports announce a multiyear partnership for the sponsorship of NASCAR Sprint Cup series events.
June 2012: The company reports annual sales of $13.1 billion.
In 2012 the company opened a restaurant, Taste of Smithfield, in Smithfield, Virginia, in the same Main Street building as its retail store, The Genuine Smithfield Ham Shoppe.
According to Lynn Waltz, the Chinese ate 85.3 pounds of pork per person in 2012, compared to 59.3 in the US.
April 2013: Facing mounting pressure to divest of its hog farms, Smithfield offers its strongest public defense yet for keeping the money-losing business.
On September 6, 2013, the US government approved Shuanghui International Holding's purchase of Smithfield Food, Inc.
C. Larry Pope serves the company as its President and CEO while George H. Richter as its COO. Since the year 2015, the majority of its stake has been owned by the Chinese-based Shanghai International Holdings Ltd., which is a state-owned holding company itself.
For decades Smithfield had run its acquisitions as independent operating companies, but in 2015 it set up the "One Smithfield" initiative to unify them; Circle Four Farms in Milford, Utah, for example, became Smithfield Hog Production-Rocky Mountain Region.
In 2016, Smithfield purchased the Californian pork processor Clougherty Packing PLC for $145 million, along with its Farmer John and Saag's Specialty Meats brands.
In August 2017 Smithfield acquired Pini Polska, Hamburger Pini, and Royal Chicken of Poland, and in September that year it announced that it would purchase two Romanian packaged-meat suppliers, Elit and Vericom.
WH Group went public on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange a year later, and furthered its American presence by buying Clougherty Packing, California's largest pork processor, in 2017.
In 2017, Smithfield introduced Pure Farms brand, offering food free of antibiotics, artificial ingredients, hormones, and steroids as well as plant-powered protein food products.
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In 2019 it acquired Maier Com in Romania.
In 2020, the company also launched Helping Our Heroes, a new initiative developed to support American veterans in the workplace.
Smithfield Foods Ranked on LinkedIn's 2022 Top Companies List in Consumer Goods
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Smithfield Foods competitors
| Company name | Founded date | Revenue | Employee size | Job openings |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pilgrim's | 1946 | $17.9B | 35,700 | 687 |
| Tyson Foods | 1935 | $53.3B | 139,000 | 508 |
| Post Holdings | 1895 | $5.0B | 11,410 | 593 |
| PepsiCo | 1898 | $91.9B | 267,000 | 634 |
| Whole Foods Market | 1978 | $16.0B | 91,000 | 1,802 |
| Blue Bell Creameries | 1907 | $500.0M | 1,000 | - |
| Clougherty Packing LLC | 1931 | $286.6M | 3,000 | - |
| Kansas City Sausage | 2008 | $16.0M | 30 | - |
| Rose Packing | 1924 | $140.0M | 650 | - |
| General Mills | 1866 | $19.9B | 35,000 | 170 |
Smithfield Foods history FAQs
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Smithfield Foods may also be known as or be related to Smithfield, Smithfield Direct, LLC, Smithfield Foods, Smithfield Foods Inc, Smithfield Foods Inc. and Smithfield Foods, Inc.