Smithfield Foods

Smithfield Foods, Inc.

Type	Subsidiary
Industry	Meat processing
Founded	Smithfield, Virginia, United States (1936 (1936))
Founder	Joseph W. Luter, Sr. Joseph W. Luter, Jr.
Area served	Worldwide
Products	Meat processing pork products
Production output	Raises 15 million pigs per year produces six billion pounds of pork
Revenue	US$14.4 billion (2012)
Operating income	US$793.8 million (2015)
Net income	US$452.3 million (2015)
Total assets	US$9.9 billion (2015)
Total equity	US$4.8 billion (2015)
Number of employees	50,200 (2016)
Parent	Shuanghui Group
Subsidiaries	Subsidiaries AgriPlus (Poland) Agroindustrial del Noroeste (Mexico) Animex (Poland) Carolina Food Processors Cumberland Gap Provision Co. Eckrich Farmland Foods Granjas Carroll de México John Morrell & Company Murphy-Brown Norson (Mexico) North Side Foods Corp. Premium Standard Farms Smithfield Ferme/Comtim Group (Romania) Smithfield Packing Company Smithfield Prod (Romania) Smithfield Foods (UK, formerly Ridpath Pek and The Norwich Food Company) Smithfield Foods International Group Smithfield Specialty Foods Group Smithfield Premium Genetics Group
Website	www.smithfieldfoods.com

Smithfield Foods, Inc., is an American meat processing company.

Headquartered in Smithfield, Virginia, it runs facilities in 26 U.S. states, including the largest slaughterhouse and meat-processing plant in the world, located in Tar Heel, North Carolina. It also has operations in Mexico and in 10 European countries, with a global total of over 46,000 employees and an annual revenue of $14 billion. Smithfield was purchased in 2013 by Chinese-based and state-owned holding company Shuanghui International Holdings Ltd.Shuanghui Group is the world's largest pork producer and processor. Smithfield was founded in 1936 by Joseph W. Luter and his son as the Smithfield Packing Company, now its largest subsidiary. From 1981, it began to purchase companies such as Eckrich, Farmland Foods of Kansas, Gwaltney of Smithfield, John Morrell, Murphy Family Farms of North Carolina, and Premium Standard Farms. It was able to grow as a result of its highly industrialized pig production, raising the animals using a vertical integration system of production that enables the company to control their development from conception to packing. Thousands of livestock are housed together in barns with metal roofs, known as concentrated animal feeding operations, where they are permanently confined.

The company raises around 15 million pigs a year and processes 27 million, producing over six billion pounds of pork. It was the top pig slaughter operation in the United States in 2007, at 114,300 pigs a day, and along with three other companies slaughtered 56% of the cattle processed there until it sold its beef group in 2008. Smithfield sells its products under a variety of brand names, including Cook's Ham, Gwaltney, John Morrell, Krakus Ham, Patrick Cudahy, Smithfield, and Stefano's. Kenneth M. Sullivan is the president and chief executive officer.