Seaboard Corporation

Seaboard Corporationis a diversemultinationalagribusinessandtransportationconglomeratewith integrated operations in several industries. In theUnited States,the company mainly engages inporkproduction and processing and ocean transportation. Internationally, Seaboard is primarily engaged incommoditymerchandising,grainprocessing,sugarproduction andelectrical powergeneration. The parent company, Seaboard Corporation is based in theKansas Citysuburb ofMerriam, Kansas.Its subsidiaries include Seaboard Foods, Seaboard Marine, Seaboard Overseas & Trading Group (SOTG), Tabacal Agroindustria, Transcontinental Capital Corporation, Ltd. (TCCB), and Mount Dora Farms. It has 52.5% controlling interest inButterball,LLC. Its principal operating divisions are pork, commodity trading and milling, marine, sugar, and power. More than 50% of the corporation is owned by members of its founding family, the Breskys.

Seaboard Corporation

Company type	Public
Traded as	AMEX:SEB Russell 1000 Component
Industry	Agricultureandshipping
Founder	Otto Bresky
Headquarters	Merriam,Kansas , United States
Area served	Worldwide
Key people	Robert L. Steer (Director and Chairman of the Board, President and CEO)
Products	pork,commodities,poultry,sugar,produceandelectrical power
Number of employees	11,800(2017)
Subsidiaries	Seaboard Foods, Seaboard Marine, Seaboard Overseas & Trading Group (SOTG), Tabacal Agroindustria, Transcontinental Capital Corporation, Ltd.(TCCB), Mount Dora Farms, and 50% non-controlling interest inButterball,LLC
Website	www.seaboardcorp

Seaboard Corporation's subsidiaries and affiliates employ more than 23,000 people in more than 45 different countries, mostly in the U.S.,Latin AmericaandAfrica.With net sales of approximately $6.8 billion annually, Seaboard Corporation is #444 on the 2020Fortune 500list, having risen almost 40 spots in 2 years.Stock is traded on theNYSE MKTunder the symbol SEB.

History

Seaboard's history is deeply tied to grain. Otto Bresky purchased his first flour mill inAtchison, Kansas,in 1918. During the next 40 years he would purchase additional flour mills, mostly inKansas,under the name Rodney Milling.

In 1959 the company went public through a merger with Hathaway Industries, Inc., apublicly tradedcompany. The name changed to Seaboard Allied Milling Corporation, and stock was traded under the symbol SEB.

The newly formed company began concentrating on milling operations closer to major metropolitan areas along the East Coast and in the Southeast. Beginning in the early 1960s Seaboard built five U.S. mills over the course of a 14-year period. The company's first investment outside the U.S. was the joint acquisition of a flour mill inEcuador.Seaboard later constructed mills inSierra Leone,Guyana,LiberiaandNigeria.

When Otto Bresky retired as Seaboard's chairman and member of the board of directors in 1973, his son H. Harry Bresky took his place. After serving in WWII, Harry joined his father in the milling business and assumed the title of president in 1967, then later CEO. Seaboard built its current corporate headquarters in Merriam, Kansas in 1980.

In 1982 Seaboard sold its domestic flour milling division toCargill, Inc.and changed its name to Seaboard Corporation, while continuing its milling operations outside the U.S. Harry Bresky and Seaboard took noticeable steps to diversify the company, initially by entering the poultry industry and by further international investments. Even though Seaboard eventually sold these original poultry interests toConAgrain 2000 for $375 million,the poultry business proved the efficiency of avertically integratedbusiness model. This model of integration would continue to be successful in Seaboard's expansion and growth.

Seaboard Marine, Ltd. was formed in 1983 to providecontainerizationservices between the U.S. and other international ports. In 1986 Mount Dora Farms, Inc. was established in Latin America to produce fruits and vegetables. The company utilized itsmarine transportationdivision to ship its produce from South America toMiami.Today Mount Dora Farms, Seaboard's produce division, specializes in processingjalapeñosinHondurasto ship to the U.S. and European markets.

Also during the decade of the ‘80s, Seaboard purchased two baking companies in Puerto Rico and ventured intoshrimp farmingin Ecuador and the Honduras. It constructed a new polypropylene bag plant in Nigeria. The Puerto Rico bakeries were sold in 1998, and after a brief entry intosalmon farming,Seaboard eventually sold off all seafood investments in the early 2000s.

Transcontinental Capital Corporation, Ltd. formed in 1989 with the purpose of supplying electrical power to theDominican Republic.The newsubsidiarywas the first independent power producer in the Dominican Republic.

In 1990, Seaboard Corporation began pork production and processing. The company's pork division, Seaboard Foods, acquired a pork processing plant inAlbert Lea, Minnesota.As it had done with poultry, Seaboard quickly began to invest in processing pork, constructing its first feeder pig facility and feed mill in NortheastColoradoin 1991. In 1992 Seaboard began construction on a state of the art pork processing facility inGuymon, Oklahoma.To support the Guymon facility, Seaboard constructed feed mills inOklahoma,TexasandKansas.Guymon eventually opened in 1996. The $110 million plant had the capacity to process over four million hogs annually, employing more than 1,000 workers, utilizing two shifts. The Minnesota pork processing plant closed in 1994.

That same year, in 1996, Seaboard acquired an interest in Tabacal Agroindustria, anArgentinecompany engaged in sugar cane production and refining andcitrusproduction. Two years later, in 1998, Seaboard Corporation purchased a controlling interest in a winery inBulgaria.

Seaboard added Daily's® Premium Meats, a bacon processor with two processing plants inSalt Lake City, UtahandMissoula, Montanato its integrated operations in 2005. Seaboard also has an exclusive agreement to market Triumph Foods pork products utilizing a processing plant inSt. Joseph, Missouri.

H. Harry Bresky retired in July 2006, but remained chairman of the board until his death in March 2007. Steven J. Bresky, his son, then served as Seaboard Corporation's president and CEO and its director and chairman of the board until his death in 2020.

Seaboard once again entered the poultry business with the acquisition of half ownership in Butterball, LLC in 2010.

With continued expansion in commodities trading, alcoholdistilleryoperations and specialty crops processing abroad, Seaboard exceeded $4 billion in revenue by 2010. In 2011 Seaboard Corporation made the Fortune 500 for the first time in company history.

In 2018, Seaboard acquired the West-African agri-food group Mimran, increasing its flour and feed milling capacity with approximately 15 percent to over 24,000 metric tons per day.

Divisions

Pork

Seaboard was a pioneer in the vertical integration of the U.S. pork industry. Seaboard Foods, its Pork Division, is able to efficiently control pork production across the entire life cycle of the hog. Seaboard Foods hog production facilities in Oklahoma, Kansas, Colorado, Iowa and Texas consist of genetic and commercial breeding,farrowing,nursery and finishing buildings. They produce more than 5 million hogs annually. Hogs processed at Seaboard's main plant in Guymon, Oklahoma are primarily Seaboard Foods raised hogs. At full capacity, the facility processes approximately 20,000 hogs per day, selling to further processors, food service operators, grocery stores, distributors, export and retail outlets. The Pork segment is mainly a U.S. business, with some export to Japan, Mexico, Russia, Korea and other foreign markets. In 2013 Seaboard was ranked #2 in pork production and #4 in processing in the U.S. (including Triumph Foods volume).

Since 2008 Seaboard Foods has been producingbiodieselfrom theanimal by-productsof Guymon's processing plant. High Plains Bioenergy, a wholly owned subsidiary of Seaboard Foods, produces more than 30 million gallons annually. High Plains Bioenergy is located next to the Guymon, Oklahoma, processing plant and also has the capabilities to produce vegetable oil.

Seaboard bought a defunct ethanol plant in Hugoton Kansas and converted it to a renewable diesel plant.

Other ventures include renewable natural gas made frombiogas.

In 2009 Seaboard Foods opened, Seaboard Foods de México, to produce fresh boneless hams, using mostly bone-in hams from Guymon's U.S. facility.

Commodity trading and milling

Managed under the name Seaboard Overseas and Trading Group (SOTG), the Commodity Trading and Milling segment sources, transports, and marketswheat,corn,soybean meal,and other commodities. These commodities are purchased worldwide, with primary destinations in Africa, South America and the Caribbean.

SOTG operates facilities in 23 countries. With ten trade offices in nine countries, Seaboard traded more than 8 million tons of agricultural products into approximately 100 countries in 2013.

Marine

The Marine segment providescargoshipping services mostly between the United States and 26 countries in theCaribbean Basin,Central and South America. Seaboard Marine's primary office is in Miami, but also operates out of the Port of Houston, Brooklyn, New York and New Orleans. The division's fleet consists of 30 vessels and over 60,000 dry, refrigerated, specialized containers and related equipment. It uses a network of offices and agents with full service capabilities to allow truck or rail transport to and from various U.S. ports.

Sugar

Tabacal Agroindustria in Argentina has an annual capacity to produce approximately 250,000 metric tons of sugar and approximately 15 million gallons of alcohol. The mill is located in theSalta Provinceof Argentina, with administrative offices in Buenos Aires.

This segment also owns a 51megawattcogenerationpower plant. The plant is fueled by the burning of sugarcane by-products during harvest season. It also sells dehydrated alcohol to certain oil companies under an Argentine governmentbio-ethanolprogram.

Power

Seaboard's Transcontinental Capital Corporation (TCC) electric power generating facility is in the Dominican Republic. Using a system ofdiesel enginesmounted on floatingbarges,TCC generates a combined rated capacity of approximately 178 megawatts. As an independent power producer, Seaboard generates electricity for the local power grid, selling mainly to government-owned distribution companies.

Other

With a 50% acquisition of Butterball, LLC, Seaboard added a turkey segment to its portfolio in 2010.Butterball is the largest vertically integrated producer, processor and marketer of branded and non-branded turkey and other products. Butterball produces approximately one billion pounds of turkey each year.

Through Mount Dora Farms, Seaboard processes jalapeño peppers at its plant in Honduras.

Corporate

Each of Seaboard Corporation's segments is separately managed, and each was started or acquired independent of the other segments. Most of the sales and costs of Seaboard's segments are significantly influenced by worldwide fluctuations in commodity prices and changes in foreign and political conditions.

As of September 27, 2014, Seaboard Foods Pork segment sold to Triumph Foods LLC a 50% interest in Daily's Premium Meats, its processed meats division.

Awards

Seaboard Foods received the 2014 Achievement Award from NGVAmerica for Outstanding CNG Fleet & Station Program. NGVAmerica is the national organization driving the use of natural gas.

For seven consecutive years, Seaboard Marine has been recognized by the Jamaican Exporters Association (JEA) for its growth and development of Jamaica's export sector. The JEA is a non-government members association.

In August 2014, Seaboard Marine was awarded aLogistics Management magazine2014 Quest for Quality Award in Ocean Carriers for the third consecutive year. Logistic Management's over 7,000 readers chose top performers in various transportation sectors.

Criticism

Corporate welfare

In 1998,Timemagazine published "The Empire of the Pigs" by investigative journalistsDonald BarlettandJames Steelethat chronicles "how an extremely resourceful corporation plays the welfare game, maximizing the benefits to itself, often to the detriment of those who provide them". It reports that Seaboard Corp. had a history of worker abuse and environmental damage during the same period that stock prices rose dramatically from $116 to $387 per share.Rick Hoffman, CEO of the company's Seaboard Farms subsidiary, responded that "there were no programs that Seaboard solicited by the state that did not already exist for other new businesses", and that much of the moneyTimeclaimed was earmarked for Seaboard did not actually benefit the company.

Land misappropriation

In 1996, Seaboard bought the sugar plantation and refinery San Martin de Tabacal, in Salta, Argentina, and immediately fired 6,000 workers. Many of them were members of the AvaGuaraníand Kolla indigenous communities, who maintain a claim to ancestral lands they have inhabited and farmed for centuries. In 2003, they were removed at gunpoint, re-invigorating a campaign to have Seaboard Corp. and San Martin de Tabacal return their land. The campaign gained the support ofAdolfo Pérez Esquiveland other international activists.In August 2007, a judge ordered Seaboard to cease all tree and earth removal pending a decision on land ownership.

Animal cruelty

Female pigs in gestation crates

In January 2012, an undercover exposé of Seaboard pig operationsrevealed numerous severe welfare concerns includingsanitation, abandonment of dead or medically suffering animals, violent abuse, and callous indifference to pain.

Following the investigation, Seaboard facedFederal Trade Commission(FTC) andSecurities and Exchange Commission(SEC) complaints alleging false statements in defense of the abuses documented in video.

External links

• Official website
• Hoovers
• SEC Filings
• Tabacal Agroindustria homepage
• LMM Farine SA