Jim Leighton, chief executive officer of Australia-based poultry company Ingham’s Group, purchased 93,721 shares of stock in the company, Ingham’s disclosed on its investor relations website.
Leighton, who was appointed to the CEO position in October 2018, purchased the shares on December 16, according to the change of director’s interest notice. The shares traded for an average price of AU$3.49 (US$2.48) for a total transaction of AU$327.086.29 (US$231,976.09.
Leighton’s shares will be held in escrow until December 15, 2022.
Leighton was most recently president and founder of 40North Foods, which was a start-up venture backed by Pilgrim's Pride and JBS. Prior to that, he served as chief operating officer, interim CEO and director at Boulder Brands, where he played a key role scaling the business and ultimately selling it to Pinnacle Foods.
Lieghton also spent seven years at Perdue Farms and, in his last role there, served as president of the company’s global multi-billion dollar food group (retail branded and non-branded, food service, and turkey and chicken businesses). He spent his formative years in a variety of operations roles at Nabisco Foods, The Hain-Celestial Group and ConAgra.
The Ingham’s CEO position became open in August 2018, when Mick McMahon departed, following an earlier announcement of his intention to resign. Quinton Hildebrand served as the CEO during the interim.
Ingham’s, according to the WATTAgNet Top Poultry Companies Database, is Oceana’s second largest poultry company, slaughtering 181.3 million birds annually. Its operations involve both broiler and turkey production. The company has operations in both Australia and New Zealand. The company has seven processing plants, seven further processing plants, 11 hatcheries and 10 feed mills. Earlier in 2019, Ingham’s, which is currently Australia’s second-largest feed producer, revealed it would build a new feed mill in Murray Bridge, Australia, which would increase the company’s feed production capacity in south Australia to 11,000 metric tons per week.
