PERDUE, FRANKLIN PARSONS ("FRANK") 1920-

FARMER, BUSINESSMAN

Chicken Recognition

When Frank Perdue took over as head of his family's chicken farm in 1952, it was a successful middle-sized local supplier of poultry to larger processing companies. But through a careful program of expansion and the use of new scientific methods, he turned Perdue Farms into one of the largest integrated processors in the United States. Through a massive advertising campaign starting in 1971, Perdue Farms also became the first marketer of fresh poultry to develop brand recognition among consumers, while Perdue, its chairman and chief executive officer, attained celebrity status as the company's chief spokesman and the star of its commercials.

Early Life and Career

Perdue's experience with chickens started in his childhood, when he assisted with the family egg business that his father, Arthur W. Perdue, had started in the early 1920s in Salisbury, Maryland. Frank was given fifty chickens to tend, and he was allowed to keep the money he earned through the sale of their eggs. He attended Salisbury State College from 1937 to 1939 but left to return to the family business. When an outbreak of leukosis at about this time destroyed much of their flock of two thousand leghorn chickens, the Perdues switched to the more disease-resistant breed of New Hampshire reds and effectively shifted their enterprise from egg to poultry production. Business improved during World War II as meat prices soared and the demand for chicken increased. Perdue Farms raised thousands of chicks to maturity using a special feed mixture and then sold them to meat-processing companies at the Delmarva broiler auction in Delaware.

Frank Takes Over

Frank Perdue became president of Perdue Farms in 1952. The company showed moderate growth until 1958, when Perdue built a new complex comprising both hatcheries and facilities for processing and storing vast amounts of feed from grain and soy-beans; any excess meal or soybean oil would be sold to maximize profits. By 1967 the company's annual revenue from sales had grown from an average of $6 million when Perdue had assumed the presidency to more than $35 million. Noting that bigger profits were being made in processing than in raising and supplying poultry, Perdue expanded his company's operations by acquiring a processing plant in 1968. He also began to use computers to devise optimal feeding formulas for his chickens, and he employed geneticists and veterinarians to help develop and maintain a healthy flock.

Advertising

Even greater expansion was just around the corner, however, fueled by an enormously successful multimedia advertising campaign launched by the Scali, McCabe, Sloves agency in 1971. The television ads starred Perdue, a new advertising approach that the company's chairman originally resisted since he had no performing experience. The fact that Perdue was obviously not a professional actor, however, apparently made him a more convincing spokesperson to his audience. After a few months of the initial campaign in the New York area, a Perdue Farms survey indicated that local brand recognition had risen to 51 percent; in fact, the ad campaign pioneered brand identification in the fresh-poultry market. Perdue gradually increased his advertising budget, and the campaign spread to other major cities on the East Coast. In television ads, looking rather like a traditional New England farmer in a business suit, Perdue made such tongue-in-cheek claims as "The Perdue roaster is the master race of chickens," and "My chickens eat better than you do."

The Successful Seventies

Demand continued to grow, so in 1971 Perdue opened a second processing plant in Accomac, Virginia, followed in 1976 with an additional hatchery and a third processing plant in Lewiston, North Carolina. Although the combined production of the three plants totaled nearly two million broilers per week, Perdue opened another processing plant in Felton, Delaware, in 1977 and a plant in Georgetown, Delaware, in 1979 that specialized in processing roasters. Throughout the expansion Perdue insisted on maintaining high standards, guaranteeing consumers that every piece of poultry bearing the Perdue label had been subjected to a second inspection by company graders after it had been certified as Grade A by U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) inspectors. By the end of the decade the company's annual sales exceeded $150 million and by the mid 1980s would reach almost $750 million.

Continuing Success

Perdue's enterprise continued to grow throughout the 1980s. In 1981 Perdue opened an upscale fast-food restaurant in Queens, New York—specializing in chicken, of course—but he remains primarily committed to production rather than to retailing. The profitability of the business has allowed Perdue to avoid public offerings of stock, making Perdue Farms one of the largest privately owned companies in the United States.

Future

In 1991 Perdue's son Jim became chairman of Perdue Farms. Frank Perdue remained as chairman of the executive committee of the company, which in 1994 operated ten processing plants in six states and rang up __BODY__.3 billion in sales. In addition to its operations in the United States, the company also sees opportunities for expansion in Southeast Asia.