How Jim Perdue Built A $9B Food Giant

Added: 2026-05-16

[00:00:00][music] >> The third generation usually destroys a family business and at the age of 25, Jim Perdue, the then heir to America's most famous chicken empire, nearly did just that, choosing to walk away from the billion-dollar family business to farm seafood on his own. But when his father, Frank Perdue, threatened to sell the company, Jim returned.

[00:00:26]Instead of copying his father, he transformed the business.

[00:00:30]Under his leadership, Perdue Farms became one of America's largest organic chicken producers, eliminating antibiotics across its farms, and expanding into regenerative beef. Perdue Farms now has a 30% market share in the organic chicken segment, and it's the US's largest organic soybean oil producer, not to mention, it's among the biggest grain traders.

[00:00:55]The company brings in over $9 billion a year and it's still 100% family-owned, with about 50 Perdue family members, including five from the fourth generation, with jobs at the company.