Meat + Poultry - March 2006 - 78

Names in the News
Bruce Bass, vice president of cattle
procurement at Tyson Foods, Inc.,
Springdale, Ark., retired after 35 years
with the company and its predecessor
IBP, Inc. Bass joined IBP in 1970 and
eventually became a cattle buyer. He
became procurement vice president
in 1991. John Gerber will be interim
head cattle buyer.
In another management move, Brent
Altwasser, head of Tyson's Lakeside
operation in Alberta, is leaving the
company in April to pursue other business interests.
Brad Patrick has been appointed as
the senior vice president of human resources for Sara Lee Food & Beverage, the North American retail food division of Sara Lee Corp., Chicago. He
oversees organizational and employee
development as well as HR management for the division.
Brandt Beef, Brawley, Calif., has received the Master Chefs' Institute Seal
of Excellence. The family owned, premium natural beef producer was put
through more than 120 experiments
and a blind taste test against three of
its competitors to meet Master Chefs'
Institute's standard of quality.
Brandt Beef can now display the institute's seal of excellence in its advertising.
"It's a privilege and honor to be recognized by the prestigious Master Chefs'
Institute," said Eric Brandt, vice president and managing partner. "As a small
family business it's overwhelming to receive this kind of national recognition for
a product we believe in so passionately."
Associates at 11 Perdue Farms Inc.'s
complexes achieved safety milestones
in 2005. Ten locations worked a combined total of more than 30 million safe
hours and one location celebrated seven years without experiencing an Occupational Safety and Health Administration-recordable lost-time case.
"At Perdue, we have some 20,000 associates who are dedicated to working
safely and the associates at these 11 locations are a shining example of that com-

mitment," says Jim Perdue, chairman of
the Salisbury, Md.-based company.
Perdue's Fayetteville, N.C., plant set
a company record for workplace safety
when it reached seven consecutive
years without an OSHA-recordable,
lost-time case.
Associates at Perdue's Accomac,
Va., and Monterey, Tenn., complexes
achieved the safety milestone of working 10 million hours without a lost-time
injury accident. "Achieving 10 million
hours of safety is a huge landmark in
our business performance and an indication of associates who are dedicated
to creating a safe work environment,"
said Charlie Carpenter, Accomac complex manager.
Perdue's Lewiston, N.C., complex
associates worked 3 million safe hours,
and the associates opted to donate the
money local management designated
for a celebration of this milestone to
hurricane relief efforts. The $26,410
earmarked for safety awards was donated to victims of hurricanes Katrina
and Rita. The facility's associates are
not strangers to setting high standards
for safety as they were the first Perdue
processing facility to reach 7 million
consecutive hours in October 2003.
Associates at Perdue's Bridgewater,
Va., processing plant worked 2 million
consecutive safe hours, while associates at six additional plants - Concord and Rockingham, N.C.; Perry,
Ga.; Georgetown and Milford Del.;
and Dothan, Ala. - worked 1 million
consecutive hours without an OSHArecordable, lost-time case.

on the sound basic business principles
that drive our company in our ongoing commitment to provide long- term
value to our shareholders."
As noted in the magazine, Pilgrim's
Pride posted the largest earnings increase of any company in Forbes'
food, drink and tobacco sector in 2005,
delivering an earnings gain of 107 percent over the previous year. The company also placed second on its list of
Top 10 companies in this sector based
on its five-year annualized total return
of 33.1 percent.
"Pilgrim's owes its 16 percent market
share ... to its 2003 $547 million cash
and stock acquisition of ConAgra's
chicken business, which doubled the
company's sales in 2004," stated the
magazine. "More impressively, by cutting overlapping costs and fully integrating ConAgra's operations into Pilgrim's
computer network within 10 months,
Pilgrim's was able to cut operating expenses by $125 million a year."

Pilgrim's
Pride
Corp.,
Pittsburg,
Texas, has been
named one of the
best-managed companies in America by
Forbes magazine.
"This recognition by Forbes further
highlights our solid management team
and our consistent management approach," said O.B. Goolsby, president
and C.E.O. "Throughout the years,
Pilgrim's Pride has continued to build

Tom Taylor has joined the USA Poultry & Egg Export Council as manager
of Asian promotions. A Savannah, Ga.,
native, Taylor will direct USAPEEC's
promotional and marketing activities
across Asia. He will also supervise
the council's offices in Hong Kong,
Shanghai, Beijing, Singapore, Tokyo
and Seoul. Most recently, he served as
an import-export representative for the
Atlanta office of CP Ships, where he
worked with poultry and egg exporters
in several states in the Southeast.

Robin Brooks, chairman and C.E.O.
of Brooks Food Group, Inc., will
be honored for significant long-term
achievements in minority business
development at the National Minority
Supplier Development Council Leadership Awards Dinner-Dance on May
23. The company's two processing facilities in Bedford, Va., and Monroe,
N.C., process and market poultry, appetizers and specialty frozen foods
sold to foodservice. The company employs 336 people with $95 million in
sales for 2004.

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