Pilgrim’s Pride to pay $350M for Minnesota chicken processor

GREELEY – Chicken processor Pilgrim’s Pride Corp. (Nasdaq: PPC) on Tuesday announced the company has inked a deal to acquire Minnesota-based GNP Co. for $350 million in cash.

The deal gives Greeley-based Pilgrim’s control of GNP Co.’s Just Bare Certified Organic and Natural/American Human Certified/No-Antibiotics-Ever product lines, adding to Pilgrim’s own NAE and organic production.

The deal is expected to provide $20 million in annual cost savings, primarily from the optimization of production and distribution, and cost savings in purchasing, production, logistics and selling, general and administration, Pilgrim’s officials said.

Pilgrim’s officials said the acquisition is complementary in that it adds facilities in areas where Pilgrim’s doesn’t currently operate as well as differentiated branded products. GNP Co. also brings expertise in various technologies that Pilgrim’s will be able to adopt in its existing facilities.

The acquisition has the support of the Pilgrim’s board of directors, and is expected to close in the first quarter of 2017.

Pilgrim’s Pride’s stock price climbed 1.8 percent Tuesday to close at $18.30.

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