Jennie-O Turkey Store

Jennie-O Turkey Store, based in Wilmar, Minnesota, is owned by Hormel Foods Corp. It is the combination of Jennie-O Foods Inc., purchased in 1986, and The Turkey Store Co., purchased in 2001. Its turkey products – including deli meats, whole turkeys, ground turkey, turkey breast, turkey burgers and sausages – are distributed around the U.S. and in more than 60 other countries. It employs 6,500 people.
Jennie-O Turkey Store slaughtered an estimated 1.1 billion pounds of live turkey in 2023, an increase from 925 million pounds in 2022.
In March 2023, Hormel CEO Jim Snee shared thoughts on highly pathogenic avian influenza’s (HPAI) impact on the business over the last year. He said turkey exports were down due to HPAI-related trade restrictions, as well as a limited supply. He estimated that commodity turkey volumes for export declined almost 80% compared to the first quarter of fiscal 2022. At the time, Jennie-O’s turkey supply had not been hit by HPAI since December 2022, and the company expected turkey meat availability to improve in the second half of the year.
In September 2023, Jennie-O celebrated the completion of an 8-acre solar field during a ribbon-cutting event at its plant located in Montevideo, Minnesota. The field is projected to generate 3.2 million kilowatt hours (kWh) annually between the community solar and onsite solar projects.
In September 2023, on a conference call discussing the company’s financial status, Snee said the companywide volume and net sales for value-added meats improved primarily due to higher turkey volumes. Smiley said to support that higher turkey volume, Jennie-O expanded its promotional and advertising activity.
In November 2023, Hormel announced that it would cease its turkey harvest operations at its plant in Barron, Wisconsin, in 2024 and would be focusing completely on the production of value-added products to support the company’s growth. Previously, the Barron plant operated both turkey harvest operations and value-added production lines.