For Jim Perdue, stepping away from the family\u2019s chicken business helped prepare him to return \u2014 and later lead it as part of the company\u2019s third generation.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Perdue, chair of Perdue Farms and keynote speaker for the sold-out 2026 Resnick-Wynn Family Business Conference set for Feb. 20 at Florida Gulf Coast University\u2019s Cohen Student Union, previewed his appearance with Gulfshore Business.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Perdue grew up around what remains a family-operated business that has expanded beyond just chicken. The business now includes multiple proteins, such as turkey, pork, beef and lamb. It employs about 20,000 people at facilities in 15 states, along with international locations and more than 9,000 farming partners. The company\u2019s corporate headquarters are in Salisbury, Maryland. Perdue Farms reported about $9.83 billion in sales in its 2025 company and stewardship report.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe all worked there in summers,\u201d Perdue said of he and his sisters. \u201cWe grew up in a house right next to the office. That was kind of my playground. As we got into our teenage years, we got into the business.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Perdue graduated from Wake Forest University with a biology degree and developed an interest in agriculture. He later earned a master\u2019s degree in fisheries.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cMy objective was to grow fish and shellfish the way we were raising chickens,\u201d Perdue said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In 1983, at age 21, Perdue said he lacked confidence and chose to leave the family business.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter six or eight years, I had lots of confidence at that point,\u201d Perdue said. \u201cI had a meeting to come back.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
He later worked in chicken production facilities for eight years, then moved into sales before becoming CEO in 1991, a position he held until 2017. He continues to serve as chair.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Perdue said his outside experience played a key role in his development.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cHaving an outside experience was very important,\u201d Perdue said. \u201cI just recognized I had to leave. I didn\u2019t know exactly why but for the confidence issue.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Jim Perdue, chair of Perdue Farms, will deliver the keynote address at the 2026 Resnick-Wynn Family Business Conference at Florida Gulf Coast University on Feb. 20.<\/p>\n
Resnick-Wynn Family Business Conference<\/p>\n
\u201cI think you need to find out about yourself. It\u2019s hard to find out about yourself when you\u2019re in a family business. You need to find out who you are. What are your strengths? What are your weaknesses? Not everyone is confident when you\u2019re 21 years old.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Working in the fishery industry provided a different environment while still offering relevant experience.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI was working with the salmon industry,\u201d Perdue said. \u201cI was writing papers, getting research grants. When you write scientific papers, it\u2019s a very interesting business. It\u2019s very competitive, too. You find out about how competitive you are.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
After rejoining the company, Perdue helped expand its reach into new markets. He said the company made a strategic decision in the 1990s to expand to Chicago to stay within range of production facilities for its fresh products.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cYou need to be within 500 miles of a production facility, because it\u2019s a fresh product,\u201d Perdue said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
From Chicago, the company expanded into St. Louis and other Midwestern markets.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s how we grew, just satisfying the demand,\u201d Perdue said, noting that McDonald\u2019s introduction of Chicken McNuggets in 1983 helped boost demand for chicken.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cChicken was growing 5% every single year,\u201d Perdue said. \u201cFrom 1970 to probably into the 2000s. So, chicken took over beef. The average American ate 90 pounds per person per year. Now it\u2019s about 60. But chicken went from the \u201950s to the \u201990s. It\u2019s getting harder to continue to grow with that product. There\u2019s only so much meat a person can eat.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Perdue Farms now has five fourth-generation employees working in the business. Like Jim Perdue, each spent at least five years working outside the company before joining.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Said Perdue: \u201cWe encouraged it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For Jim Perdue, stepping away from the family\u2019s chicken business helped prepare him to return \u2014 and later…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":160213,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[76750,209,211,210,76749,19094,76747,76748],"class_list":["post-160212","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cape-coral","tag-business-conference","tag-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral-headlines","tag-cape-coral-news","tag-chicken-industry","tag-family-business","tag-jim-perdue","tag-perdue-farms"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160212","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=160212"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160212\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/160213"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=160212"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=160212"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=160212"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}