Pilgrim’s Pride CEO Fabio Sandri said the company is looking to grow, and acquisitions could be a part of that growth plan.
However, he said that the company wants to make sure any company or facility acquired fits with the present operations.
“We will always be a prudent acquirer,” Sandri said during a quarterly earnings call on August 1. “In the past, we’ve proven that we can create value on acquisitions, and there’s been a lot of opportunities out there.”
According to Sandri, there are “three major building blocks” Pilgrim’s Pride considers when pursuing an acquisition.
1. Chicken
While Pilgrim’s Pride does have pork operations in its European business, he said chicken is a protein in which the company has proven it can excel with and create shareholder value.
2. Prepared food
Sandri said one key way for Pilgrim’s Pride to differentiate its portfolio is through branded prepared food offerings.
“We look to grow that business,” he said.
While Pilgrim’s has expanded its prepared food offerings largely through organic growth, “but we’re always looking for opportunities either in the U.S. or abroad to increase the portfolio for prepared food,” Sandri said.
3. New geographies
Sandri said the other criteria for a potential acquisition is that it be “a different geography for the chicken categories.”
He did not specify whether those be in regions of the United States where Pilgrim’s operates, or in new countries.
In the past, the U.S.-based Pilgrim’s Pride has made its entrance into new countries with the acquisition of its Mexican operations from Tyson Foods in 2015 and the purchase of Northern Ireland-based Moy Park in 2017.
Pilgrim's Pride Corp. is based in Greeley, Colorado. The company produced 161.7 million pounds of ready-to-cook chicken on a weekly basis in 2023, according to information from the WATTPoultry Top Poultry Companies Database.
