Minnesota-based Gold'n Plump sold to Pilgrim's Pride

Mark Steil
Kyle Peterson sweeps spilled feed.
Kyle Peterson puts back a broom after sweeping spilled chicken feed into a truck at the Gold'n Plump plant in Sauk Rapids on Dec. 2, 2015. Gold'n Plump's biosecurity measures kept the avian flu out of its flocks.
Jackson Forderer for MPR News 2015

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Pilgrim's Pride, the nation's second largest producer of broiler chickens will buy the parent company of Minnesota-based Gold'n Plump.

Pilgrim's Pride will pay about $350 million for St. Cloud-based GNP Company, which includes the Gold'n Plump and Just BARE labels. The majority owner of Pilgrim's Pride is the Brazilian company JBS, the world's largest chicken processor.

GNP has production facilities in Cold Spring and Luverne, Minn., and Arcadia, Wis. An Illinois company, Maschhoff Family Foods, currently owns GNP.

GNP started business 90 years ago selling day-old chicks to farmers. The Gold'n Plump chicken label started in 1978.

During the devastating bird flu outbreak of 2015, it was one of the few poultry companies in the state to avoid infection.

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