New Foster Farms owner to retain brand name. Impact on employees unclear
Foster Farms announced Tuesday that it has been sold to a Connecticut holding company, ending the poultry processor’s 83 years of family ownership.
Atlas Holdings bought the Livingston-based business for an undisclosed price. It includes turkey processing in Turlock and chicken plants in Livingston, Fresno, Porterville, Oregon, Washington and Alabama.
The news release announcing the sale did not say how it would affect the 12,000 or so employees. It did say that Donnie Smith, former chief executive officer at industry giant Tyson Foods, will assume that role at Foster Farms.
The new owner will keep the Foster Farms brand.
“I’ve long been an admirer of the Foster family and the business they’ve built over the past eight decades,” Smith said. “In this new era, we will maintain and further that legacy, rooted in animal welfare, superior product quality, customer service and community engagement.”
The Modesto Bee inquired by email about how the new ownership would affect other managers, plant employees and product lines. Those details are not being provided at this time, responded Shea Maney, senior associate at Kekst CNC, a public relations firm based in New York City.
Dan Huber had been CEO at Foster Farms since 2019, only the second non-family member in that role.
Max and Verda Foster founded the poultry company on a small ranch west of Waterford in 1939. It has become the top-selling poultry brand in the West, with about $3 billion in annual sales.
Foster Farms long has been one of the largest employers in the San Joaquin Valley and a benefactor to many causes. Its hundreds of chicken and turkey products include fresh birds and parts, ground meat, deli slices, marinated items and frozen, breaded products.
The company also has had challenges. A 2013 salmonella outbreak sickened several hundred people. The management’s handling of COVID-19 cases in employees drew a scathing report from a congressional panel last month.
Atlas, based in Greenwich, already owns about 25 companies in various industries, employing about 50,000 people at 300 sites around the world. They include aluminum processing, automotive, building materials, construction services, food manufacturing and distribution, packaging, power generation, printing, supply chain management and wood products. Atlas has about $14.5 billion in annual revenue.
“We are thrilled to welcome Foster Farms to the Atlas family of great global businesses,” said partners Sam Astor, Ed Fletcher and Mike Sher. “We have a long history of partnering with proud family-owned companies to honor their past while driving additional operational, environmental and financial success for the next generation.”
Foster Farms has several poultry ranches supplying its plants, along with feed mills that handle corn and soy shipped by rail from the Midwest. In recent years, it has added organic and free-range birds.
The family launched a dairy business in 1941, also under the Foster Farms brand. It is now known as Crystal Creamery and was not part of the sale to Atlas.
Smith spent 36 years with Tyson and was CEO from 2009 to 2016. It is based in Springdale, Arkansas, and is much larger than Foster Farms.
This story was originally published June 7, 2022 at 2:56 PM.
