JBS USA

Swift & Company is the wholly owned subsidiary of JBS S.A. (BM&F Bovespa:JBSS3), a Brazilian company that is the world's third-largest processor of fresh beef and pork, with nearly US$10 billion in annual sales as of 2007. It is also the largest beef processor in Australia.

Swift & Company is based in Greeley, Colorado. Its competitors include Cargill, Smithfield Foods, and Tyson Foods. In 2007, it was acquired by Brazilian JBS S.A..

History

The meat packaging company was founded in 1855 by Gustavus Franklin Swift. In addition to meatpacking, Swift sold various dairy and grocery items, including Swiftning shortening, Allsweet margarine, Brookfield butter and cheese, and Peter Pan peanut butter. Swift began selling frozen turkeys under the Butterball brand in 1954.

Swift began moving into other fields, including insurance and petroleum, in the 1960s, and formed a holding company, Esmark, in 1973. Two years later, Esmark bought International Playtex from Meshulam Riklis' Rapid-American Corporation.

Esmark left the petroleum business in 1980, selling Vickers Petroleum to Mobil, while Swift's fresh meat business was spun off as a separate company, Swift Independent Packing Company (SIPCO) the same year. Esmark went on to purchase Norton Simon Inc. in 1983 before being purchased by Beatrice Foods the next year.......
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