Pilgrim’s Pride CEO Fabio Sandri reported on the company's fourth quarter and year-end financial results for 2021, while also addressing how the company responded to 2021’s unique challenges in all of the geographical regions where it operates.
Challenges and progress
The company’s financial picture improved over the past year despite volatile market conditions.
“The Pilgrim’s Pride team was relentless in the face of input cost inflation and volatility, supply chain disruptions, labor shortages and a global pandemic. They managed through these challenges to deliver a strong performance in the fourth quarter and the fiscal year,” Sandri said in a press release.
Consumer demand recovered and foodservice business and retail sales improved by the end of 2021, in some cases even above pre-pandemic levels. Prepared foods continued to improve, and the Pilgrim’s and Just Bare brands grew significantly in both the retail and e-commerce channels.
Pilgrim’s Pride has also made significant strides in its ESG metrics and is ahead of expectations in greenhouse gas emission targets, said Sandri.
International markets
Pilgrim’s Mexico achieved a solid year through the growth of the Pilgrim’s, Del Dia and Alamesa brands in the retail and food service channels.
“Our business in Mexico dealt with elevated feed grain pricing for much of the year, but executed well and delivered results surpassing last year with fresh and prepared foods offerings,” said Sandri.
Its European market faced unique challenges this last year.
“Our legacy European businesses faced rising input costs and overall inflation, labor disruptions due to Brexit and very challenging market conditions,” said Sandri. However, “at the end of September, we welcomed Pilgrim’s Food Masters with its value-added branded products that strengthened our portfolio in Europe and created a differentiated platform for growth.”
Sales
The company reported net sales of $4.0 billion and a GAAP net income of $36.8 million. In regards to pricing for the past year, “strong U.S. consumer demand for chicken supported fresh meat pricing throughout 2021, and we expect this pricing environment to continue into the near future with the USDA projecting supply growth of only 1.6% for 2022,” said Sandri.
