Jennie-O

Jennie-O Turkey Store is a brand name of turkey products. It is a subsidiary of the Hormel Foods Corporation in Willmar, Minnesota.

Jennie-O

Product type	Turkey, ground turkey, turkey burgers, turkey tenderloins
Owner	Hormel
Country	United States
Introduced	1940
Markets	Industry food processing
Previous owners	Earl B. Olson, founder
Website	www.jennieo.com

Jennie-O Foods Inc Plant #1, Willmar, Minnesota

Jennie-O processing plant, Willmar, Minnesota

History

The company was founded by Earl B. Olson in 1940, when he began raising turkeys. In 1949, he bought the former Farmers Produce Company of Willmar and its turkey processing plant.^[1] In 1953, it was renamed to Jennie-O after his daughter, Jennifer Olson.^[2]

Wallace Jerome also played a role in the formation of the current Jennie-O organization. In 1941, Jerome founded the Turkey Store Company.^[3]

The company was privately owned by the Olson family until 1986, when it was sold to Hormel Foods, of Austin, Minnesota. In February 2001, Jennie-O Foods, Inc., and The Turkey Store Company, consolidated under Hormel to create the brand Jennie-O Turkey Store.^[4]

Locations

Jennie-O has a total of six company locations, five of which are in Minnesota and one in Wisconsin.^[5] The Minnesota locations include Willmar/Spicer, Faribault, Montevideo, Pelican Rapids, and Melrose. The only Wisconsin plant is found in Barron.

Controversy

Since 2022, Jennie-O has received $103.81 million in taxpayer-subsidized United States Department of Agriculture Indemnity payments after exterminating their flocks due to avian influenza. The Animal Legal Defense Fund and Animal Partisan allege the company used the controversial killing method known as Ventilation Shutdown Plus (VSD+) in some of those depopulations.