Retail
Supermarket Retail
Pilgrim's sells fresh and prepared chicken to most of the leading supermarkets across the United States, as well as to a large number of independent grocers through brokers and distributors.
Under the Pilgrim's brand, we sell a full line of fresh tray pack cut up and whole chickens that lead the industry in flavor and product quality. Our customers are increasingly looking to us to generate fresh, innovative ideas that are built around convenience, quality and value. And we are delivering on that promise through a wide variety of products that are healthier, easier to prepare and more delicious than ever.
Our Quick & Lean line of fresh chicken is a great example of convenient fresh chicken products that helps home cooks quickly provide healthy, protein-packed meals. The line consists of highly trimmed, 99% fat-free chicken such as boneless/skinless breasts, tenderloins and thin-sliced breasts. products for families, we recently reduced the sodium content of our marinated fresh chicken products by 45 percent without sacrificing flavor. In fact, consumer testing determined our new, lower sodium product was preferred over our leading competitor's product.
Also under the Pilgrim's brand, we sell a full line of fully cooked favorites, such as our consumer-preferred nuggets and our distinctive and delicious Wing Dings, the best-selling wing in foodservice in the country. Our ready-to-cook line includes such perennial favorites as the Blazin' Wings. And our individually frozen line of chicken combines delicious chicken that always cooks up quick and easy with the convenience of flash-frozen product, allowing you to store what you don't use in a resealable bag.
In addition to our full line of branded products, Pilgrim's sells private label (store brand) product to supermarket chains across the country. These retailers rely on us to actively identify consumer preferences and develop products to meet those needs. We are committed to meeting those needs but also to serving our customer retailers by consistently delivering high-quality products that will help them succeed and deliver value to their shoppers.
Club Retail
In the warehouse club channel, Pilgrim's sells fresh and prepared chicken to the leading club retailers in the United States.
Under the Pilgrim's brand, we sell fresh cut up and whole chickens that lead the industry in flavor and product quality. Consistent with the warehouse club value proposition, these products are generally in larger packages than at traditional supermarkets, and are packaged in trays or in the innovative saddle pack. Our saddle pack line of fresh chicken is a great example of convenient packaging making cooking easier and quicker. The line consists of chicken in easily separated, leak-resistant tear-off po
Consumers rely on us to provide fresh chicken products that help home cooks quickly provide healthy, protein-packed meals. In keeping with our dedication to providing those consumers wholesome and healthy products, we recently reduced the sodium content of our marinated fresh chicken products by 45 percent without sacrificing flavor. In fact, consumer testing determined our new, lower sodium product was preferred over our leading competitor's product, allowing home cooks to use what they need immediately and then store the rest, saving time and eliminating messiness or the need for additional plastic storage bags.
Our value added and fully cooked products are developed as we track consumer trends, and are consumer tested and preferred before being brought to market. It's an exciting time at Pilgrim's as we drive true product innovation through consumer insights.
In addition to our branded products, Pilgrim's sells rotisserie chickens and other ready-to-eat products in clubs. We are committed to meeting the needs of our customer retailers by consistently delivering high-quality products that will help them succeed and deliver value to their shoppers.
Deli Retail
Pilgrim's is an industry leader in providing chicken products to supermarket delis across the United States because we are focused on actively identifying consumer preferences and developing products consumers want.
From rotisserie chickens and fried chicken to sandwiches and wings, we are clearly focused on providing value-conscious consumers with high-quality, great-tasting meal solutions. Drawing from our extensive experience in foodservice, we work hard to develop delicious products for consumers to eat in-store or at home.
For example, our new Honey-Dipt chicken line was developed as we identified a need for products with the sweet and savory flavors that consumers crave. Consisting of boneless wings, tenders, strips and sandwich fillets, this line of deli products is destined to be a consumer favorite and bring repeat business to retail delis everywhere.
Additionally, our line of rotisserie chicken flavors was developed to target regional preferences and we conduct qualitative and quantitative consumer research in key geographic markets to validate new flavor ideas. And our fried chicken breading was created to deliver crunchiness and a delicious flavor for several hours after cooking.
Pilgrim's is committed to meeting the needs of our customer retailers not only by consistently delivering high-quality products, but also by helping them with tips for cooking and merchandising product. Our goal is to partner with deli managers and to help them succeed in meeting the needs of their shoppers, by providing fresh and convenient meal solutions.
Foodservice
National Accounts
Pilgrim's sells prepared chicken to the national and regional chain restaurants throughout the United States. Foodservice operators are increasingly purchasing prepared chicken products, which allow them to reduce labor costs while providing greater product consistency, quality and variety across all restaurant locations. Pilgrim's is well positioned to meet their requirements because we are able to ensure supply, demonstrate innovation and new product development and provide competitive pricing.
Major chains find Pilgrim's attractive due to our quality and food safety programs, multiple manufacturing sites with the newest technology, and our innovative new product development resources. Whether it's marinated and frozen all the way up to fully cooked, grill marked and cut into strips, Pilgrim's Corporation continues to provide high quality, innovative products to the chain restaurant segment.
Our further processing facilities, with a wide range of capabilities, are particularly well suited to the high-volume production as well as low-volume custom production runs necessary to meet both the capacity and quality requirements of the foodservice market. And finally, we have established a reputation for dependable quality, highly responsive service and excellent technical support.
Additionally, as a result of the experience and reputation developed with larger customers, we have increasingly become the principal supplier to mid-sized foodservice organizations. Our in-house product development group follows a customer-driven research and development focus designed to develop new products to meet customers' changing needs. Our research and development personnel often work directly with institutional customers in developing products for these customers. And we are a leader in utilizing advanced processing technology, which enables us to better meet our customers' needs for product innovation, consistent quality and cost efficiency. We are committed to our foodservice customers' success and will continue to work hard to consistently provide them with high-quality products and excellent customer service.
Fresh Foodservice
Pilgrim's produces and markets fresh, refrigerated chicken for sale to quick-service restaurant chains, delicatessens and other customers throughout the United States that prefer to cook the chicken in-house.
These chickens are usually of specific weight ranges and are usually pre-cut to customer specifications. They are often marinated to enhance value and product differentiation. By growing and processing to customers' specifications, we are able to assist quick-service restaurant chains in controlling costs and maintaining quality and size consistency of chicken pieces sold to the consumer.
Pilgrim's has become the primary or secondary supplier to national and international chain restaurants who require multiple suppliers of chicken products. Additionally, we are well suited to be the sole supplier for many regional chain restaurants. All of this is due to our operational strengths in terms of full-line product capabilities, high-volume production capacities, research and development expertise and extensive distribution and marketing experience. We are committed to our foodservice customers' success and will continue to work hard to consistently provide them with high-quality products and excellent customer service.
Frozen Distribution
Pilgrim's sells value added chicken products to the foodservice market under the Pierce Chicken brand. We sell these industry leading products to over 400 distributors nationwide who ship to various foodservice segments, including chain restaurants, independent restaurants, schools and institutions, hospitals, prisons and more.
Since the 1950s, Pierce Chicken® has been driven by our passion to offer absolutely the best-tasting, highest-quality chicken available in foodservice. Customers – then and now – know us for superior flavor, consistency, piece count and yield. We refused to stop there though. Innovation is in our blood. We're always working on being first to market with the next great taste in chicken.
Back in the 1950s – decades before consumers and operators fueled demand for the convenience of cut-up chicken – the innovators at Pierce Foods introduced Pierce-Chik (later to become Tru-Danish), North America's first cut-up, pre-cooked, frozen chicken. It was a bold move at a time when the labor intensive scratch preparation from whole birds was the norm. The idea of providing high-quality, fully cooked, easy-to-prepare and consistently flavored chicken took hold and has become the preferred format in foodservice.
Pierce Foods became Pierce Chicken in 2000, to create a total focus on providing the very best poultry products available. In 2005, Pierce Chicken became part of Pilgrim's, a global leader in the poultry industry. Today, Pierce Chicken offers more than 200 innovative, high-quality chicken items which are sold nationwide. One thing, however, hasn't changed – Pierce Chicken's drive to be the foodservice poultry innovation leader and a partner in our customers' success.
Export
Consumers around the world have a growing appetite for chicken from the United States, and Pilgrim's is meeting that increased demand by ensuring the best products and services to our customers. Pilgrim’s products are reaching more than 85 countries in the world throughout 4 different continents.
Pilgirm's is focused on quality, value, and fulfilling consumer needs all over the globe. Different nationalities are enjoying the taste and tenderness of fresh or frozen whole chicken and chicken parts produced by Pilgrim’s. In addition, Pilgrim's offers fully cooked chicken products, chicken franks and other processed items that are consumed in numerous famous restaurant chains around the world.
Some facts about our presence in the world:
- Rockingham Franks, one of Pilgrim's brands, is the top-selling U.S. chicken hot dog in the world.
- Several hundred truckloads of Pilgrim's chicken are delivered monthly to families in Mexico. The U.S. exports more than 20,000 tons/month and Pilgrims has a great participation in this volume.
- Asian countries such as Japan, China, Hong Kong, Singapore and Vietnam, taste the unique and distinctive local dish consisting of chicken paws and boneless/bone-in legs from Pilgrim’s.
- Respect for culture and religion can be found in all of Pilgrim’s operations throughout most of the the Middle Eastern countries (UAE, Kuwait, etc). All Halal requirements and procedures are strictly followed allowing Pilgrim's to sell a full line of Halal certified chicken products.
- CIS countries, including but not limited to, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan and Afghanistan are countries that already currently enjoy Pilgrim’s products.
Exports to Mexico
Pilgrim's has three processing plants and 12 distribution centers in Mexico. We are the second largest producer and seller of chicken in Mexico. We have worked hard to differentiate our products in Mexico through high-quality client service and product improvements such as dry-air chilled products.
We sell our chicken products primarily to wholesalers, large restaurant chains, fast food accounts, supermarket chains and direct retail distribution in selected markets. Because our plants are located in the central region in Mexico, we primarily service the central states in Mexico. The northwestern Mexico states are supplied mainly through imports from the United States.
Supermarket chains in Mexico have learned to look to us for innovation in fresh products and the market for our value-added products is increasing. And we'll continue to innovate and to capitalize on our vast US experience in both products and quality, while at the same time improving on our already well-known customer service.