Pure Prairie Farms completes purchase of closed Charles City chicken plant; plans spring reopening

By Bob Steenson, bsteenson@charlescitypress.com

There is a new owner of the former Simply Essentials plant in Charles City — an owner that plans to have the plant “fully operational” by the coming spring.

The newly formed Pure Prairie Farms Inc., which describes itself as a “premium chicken integrator,” recently completed a U.S. Bankruptcy Court-approved purchase of the closed chicken plant. The purchase price for the assets of the former Simply Essentials company was $9.5 million.

Anita Janssen, Pure Prairie Farms’ vice president of strategic initiatives, talked with the Press Wednesday about the company and its plans.

“It is a state-of-the-art plant that was basically built in 2016. It was completely redone. The capabilities are ready to go,” she said. “The plant has been shut down for 2½ years, so there will be a significant amount of testing of the equipment, but our plan is to be operational sometime late spring of 2022.”

The Kansas City-based Simply Essentials invested more than $30 million in new processing equipment when it purchased the plant, and Janssen said the exact startup date will depend on what they find during the testing, “but we have been through the plant and it is complete.”

“A lot of this has come together fairly quickly. We’ve been working on it for a long time and yet it has come together quickly,” she said. “We do believe that, yes, we will have chickens, and we will have employees. We feel we are drawing from a good employee base.”

She said more information on hiring employees for the plant, including wage scales, will be available later.

“For now, we have recruited and we are in the process of recruiting additional senior management positions. As roles become open we will be posting them on our company website and on other employment websites,” she said.

A job fair in the community has not been decided on yet, “but it certainly is an option,” she said.

Jannsen said the strengths of the venture include a management team with strong Midwestern poultry production experience, and having the farmers who produce the chickens having a stake in the company.

“The growers have formed a legal entity, and all of the farmers that are going to be growing for the plant will be a part of that entity, and that entity is invested in the company and has a seat on the board with all the other investors,” she said.

“It is very unique. I am not aware of any other structure like it,” she said. “We’re very excited about the farmers having that stake. They’re a very valued group of stakeholders and investors to us, and we believe that’s going to have a strong roll in our ongoing success.”

Janssen said previous owners of the facility “had different business models than what we have going into this.”

“Our model, while it is premium in nature, is a proven model in the industry, and we’ve assembled a team that has executed that business model before,” she said. “We really feel that, coupled with the farmer partners — the stakeholders and investors — we really feel that is going to pave the way to success for us.”

Information from the company said that the plant will produce organic chicken including “all natural, highly trimmed products, made from chicken flocks in which antibiotics have never, ever been used, and that have been fed a vegetable- and grain-based diet.”

The press release said Pure Prairie Farms will be “well-poised to capitalize on the growing desire for premium poultry products, as U.S. consumer demand rises to a forecasted 113 pounds of chicken consumed, per capita, in 2021.”

Brian Roelofs, Pure Prairie Farms’ president and chief executive officer, said, “Everyone that’s come together in this effort has a passion for the chicken business.”

He agreed that the improvements already made at the Charles City plant should allow the facility “to become fully operational by spring of 2022.”

“It’s been a long journey, and we are excited to bring this state-of-the-art plant back to life. Not only for everyone involved, but for the greater community of Charles City,” Roelofs said, adding, “It’s now the place we call home.”

Roelofs also talked about the value of having local farmer growers, investors and experienced management working together as “a deeply committed team.”

“Pure Prairie Farms plans to further differentiate itself from industry giants as it focuses on the value of relationships,” he said.

After Simply Essentials closed the plant in August 2019, a group of creditors including chicken growers who said they were not paid for chickens delivered to Simply Essentials, filed a petition in March 2020 to force the company into bankruptcy.

After initially filing for bankruptcy protection in California, Simply Essentials eventually agreed to file bankruptcy in Iowa. The U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Iowa approved the sale of Simply Essentials assets to Pure Prairie Farms Inc. for a bid of $9.5 million earlier this month, on Dec. 6, and the sale was closed last week.

Janssen said she wasn’t sure how many of the original growers who had contracts with Simply Essentials were part of the new farmer investment group, but it’s “a very large percentage of them.”

Roelofs said, “Through the entire process, which has been years in the making, we’ve remained steadfast in our commitment to growers as partners. We look forward to building an even stronger team as we work together, as one, to offer unmatched chicken experiences and value for one another.”

Along with Roelofs, executive positions include poultry industry veterans of former Minnesota-based GNP Co., before it was purchased in 2016, including Brad Vokac, vice president of sales and marketing, and Eva Wiechmann Miller, vice president of supply chain for Pure Prairie Farms.

George Peichel, chief financial officer, and Janssen, vice president of strategic initiatives, round out the company’s top leadership, both having previously held executive positions with former Iowa-based chicken company Prairie’s Best Farms.

“Our intent is to become an employer of choice and for Pure Prairie Farms to share its prosperity with the greater Charles City community,” Roelofs said. “Through the experience of our team and appreciation for people, we are 100 percent committed to further building relationships through stewardship, integrity, cooperation and excellence, together.”

Pure Prairie Farm’s premium quality chicken products will initially focus distribution efforts in the upper Midwest, the company said, adding that persons interested in sales information can contact the Pure Prairie Farms sales team at info@pureprairiefarms.com.