More To Seaboard Than The Pork
/
Speaking at the Ag Business Council’s August luncheon, Chad Groves offered a deep dive into the operations of the Seaboard Corporation—an iconic agribusiness which is also the Kansas City area’s largest publicly traded company by revenue. Seaboard’s pork division, Seaboard Foods, is on its own the largest American-owned pork company. It was founded by Otto Bresky in 1918 as a milling operation and is headquartered in Merriam, Kansas. The Bresky family still retains 73% of the business.
As it has grown, Seaboard has prided itself on retaining the feel of a family business that plays the long-game—and indeed the Bresky family still retains 73% of the business. But the scope of the enterprise has widened. In 1982 Seaboard sold its domestic flour milling division to Cargill and changed its name to Seaboard Corporation, while maintaining its milling operations outside the U.S. Harry Bresky and Seaboard took noticeable steps to diversify the company, initially by entering the poultry industry and by further international investments. Though Seaboard eventually sold these original poultry interests to ConAgra in 2000, the model of vertical integration has remained.
Groves told Council members that strategy remains embedded in Seaboard’s leaders as they plan for the future. He noted he is committed “to bringing excellence to the table and finding innovative ways to add value to Seaboard’s connected food system.”
That system is complex, but innovative.. Here’s a snapshot picture of Seaboard’s operations. It involves the following segments:
Pork – Produces and sells fresh and frozen pork products to further processors, food service operators, grocery stores, distributors, and retail outlets throughout the United States, Japan, Mexico, and other foreign markets. Seaboard controls its supply chain from genetics to retail in a partnership with Triumph Foods.
Commodity Trading and Milling – Focuses on integrated agricultural commodity trading and processing, and logistics operation that internationally markets wheat, corn, soybean meal, and other agricultural commodities in bulk to third-party customers and to non-consolidated affiliates.
Marine – Provides cargo shipping services between the United States, the Caribbean Basin and Central, and South America.
Sugar & Alcohol – Involves the production and processing of sugar and alcohol in Argentina, to be sold locally.
Power – Operates a floating power generating facility that produces independent power in the Dominican Republic.
Turkey – involves the production and sale of branded and non-branded turkeys and other products, through its ownership stake in Butterball.
Throughout his talk, Groves emphasized Seaboard will be unwavering in its commitment to meeting customer expectations, delivering quality products and providing exceptional customer service, making Seaboard’s Prairie Fresh brand and Daily’s brand the top choice for customers and consumers around the world.”