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 | |
| Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Meat processing |
| Founded | 1936, as Smithfield Packing Company, Smithfield, Virginia, United States |
| Founders | Joseph W. Luter, Sr. Joseph W. Luter, Jr. |
| Headquarters | 200 Commerce Street, Smithfield, Virginia |
Area served | Worldwide |
Key people | Shane Smith (CEO) |
| Products |
|
Production output |
|
| Brands | Cook's, Eckrich, Gwaltney, John Morrell, Krakus, and Smithfield, among others |
| Revenue |  US$14.4 billion (2015)[2] |
| US$793.8 million (2015)[2] | |
| US$452.3 million (2015)[2] | |
| Total assets | US$9.9 billion (2015)[2] |
| Total equity |  US$4.8 billion (2015)[2] |
Number of employees | 50,200 (2016)[2] |
| Parent | WH Group[3] |
| Website | www |
Smithfield Foods, Inc., is an American pork producer and food-processing company based in Smithfield, Virginia. It operates as an independent subsidiary of the multinational conglomerate WH Group.[4][a] Founded in 1936 as the Smithfield Packing Company by Joseph W. Luter and his son, the company is the largest pig and pork producer in the world.[5] In addition to owning over 500 farms in the US, Smithfield contracts with another 2,000 independent farms around the country to raise Smithfield's pigs.[6] Outside the US, the company has facilities in Mexico, Poland, Romania, Germany, Slovakia and the United Kingdom.[7] Globally the company employed 50,200 in 2016 and reported an annual revenue of $14 billion.[2] Its 973,000-square-foot meat-processing plant in Tar Heel, North Carolina, was said in 2000 to be the world's largest, slaughtering 32,000 pigs a day.[8]
Then known as Shuanghui Group, WH Group purchased Smithfield Foods in 2013 for $4.72 billion.[9][10] It was the largest Chinese acquisition of an American company to date.[11] The acquisition of Smithfield's 146,000 acres of land made WH Group, headquartered in Luohe, Henan province, one of the largest overseas owners of American farmland.[b]
Smithfield Foods began its growth in 1981 with the purchase of Gwaltney of Smithfield,[13] followed by the acquisition of nearly 40 companies between then and 2008, including:
- Eckrich
- Farmland Foods of Kansas City
- John Morrell
- Murphy Family Farms of North Carolina
- Circle Four Farms of Utah
- Premium Standard Farms[14]
- Nathan's Famous
- Healthy Ones
The company was able to grow as a result of its highly industrialized pig production, confining thousands of pigs in large barns known as concentrated animal feeding operations, and controlling the animals' development from conception to packing.[8]
As of 2006 Smithfield raised 15 million pigs a year and processed 27 million, producing over six billion pounds of pork[1] and, in 2012, 4.7 billion gallons of manure.[15] Killing 114,300 pigs a day, it was the top pig-slaughter operation in the United States in 2007; along with three other companies, it also slaughtered 56 percent of the cattle processed there until it sold its beef group in 2008.[16][c] The company has sold its products under several brand names, including Cook's, Eckrich, Gwaltney, John Morrell, Krakus, and Smithfield.[17] Shane Smith has been the president and chief executive officer of Smithfield Foods since July 2021.[18]
- ^ a b Tietz, Jeff (December 14, 2006). "Boss Hog: The Dark Side of America's Top Pork Producer". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on March 30, 2017.
- ^ a b c d e f g h "Form 10-K. Smithfield Foods, Inc: Financial statements and supplementary data". United States Securities and Exchange Commission. January 3, 2016. p. 67ff.
- ^ "About Us: Company Operations". W H Group. Archived from the original on April 27, 2019.
- ^ "Leadership".
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
Reuters21Nov2016was invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Cite error: The named reference
Diamond18Jan2018was invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Subsidiaries, Smithfield Foods, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
- ^ a b Barboza, David (April 7, 2000). "Goliath of the Hog World; Fast Rise of Smithfield Foods Makes Regulators Wary". The New York Times.
- ^ De la Merced, Michael J.; Barboza, David (May 29, 2013). "Needing Pork, China Is to Buy a U.S. Supplier". The New York Times.
- ^ Polansek, Tom; Zhu, Julie (June 8, 2017). "Exclusive: China's WH Group targets beef and poultry assets in U.S. and Europe". Reuters.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
PBS2014was invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Hettinger, Jonathan; Holly, Robert; Meers, Jelter (July 15, 2017). "Foreign Investment in U.S. Farmland on the Rise". AgoPro. Archived from the original on April 8, 2020.
- ^ "Timeline: The history of Smithfield Foods". The Virginian-Pilot. May 29, 2013.
- ^ Ralph Deptolla (August 5, 2011). "Smithfield's journey to sustainability: A work in progress". Global Business and Organizational Excellence. 30 (6): 6–16. doi:10.1002/JOE.20401. ISSN 1932-2054. Wikidata Q63347134.
- ^ Maron, Dina Fine (July 12, 2013). "Defecation Nation: Pig Waste Likely to Rise in U.S. from Business Deal". Scientific American.
- ^ Seward, Robert A. (2009). "Regulations on Meat Hygiene in the USA," in Fidel Toldrá (ed.), Safety of Meat and Processed Meat. Springer, p. 650.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
brandsJuly2017was invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Delesline, Nate (July 7, 2021). "New Foods leader takes over". Smithfield Foods. Retrieved July 7, 2021.
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