GNP Company Receives Industry Innovator Award

On October 7, 2011, in Industry Notes, by Maggie Ernst

The GNP Company was awarded the Jesse Jewell Industry Innovator Award by Meatingplace this week. Michael Helgeson, the company’s CEO, and Don Helgeson, board chairman, were presented the award on Wednesday during the National Chicken Council’s annual conference held in Washington, D.C.

In presenting the award, Tom Johnston, managing editor at Meatingplace, cited GNP’s strong commitment to innovation and sustainability, including a new multi-million-dollar wastewater treatment facility in Cold Spring, Minnesota that began operating in July this year, the company’s effort to identify and label the actual carbon footprint of one of its fresh chicken products, and its $110- million investment to expand and improve the company’s Arcadia, Wisconsin processing plant. This year, the previous single-brand company named Gold’n Plump morphed into multi-brand company with the launch of its newest brand–Just BARE, and changed their name to GNP. In order to operate a successful chicken business in Minnesota, “the constant has been the need to continue to evolve and innovate,”  said Michael Helgeson.