Simmons Finds ?Buddy? in Hiring of New CEO

Former Pilgrim executive will stick with strategy

Lindy M. “Buddy” Pilgrim, the former chief operating officer of Pilgrim’s Pride Corp. in Pittsburg, Texas, has been named the new CEO of Simmons Foods Inc. Mark Simmons, son of the company’s founder, will remain chairman of the privately held Siloam Springs firm.

Simmons Foods had $420 million in gross sales for 1999, up 5 percent from $400 million in 1998. Simmons said in a prepared statement that he believes Pilgrim will help the company continue its growth.

As president and chief operating officer of Pilgrim’s Pride, the nation’s fourth-largest poultry company, Pilgrim directed its core business strategy and helped increase the company’s sales to $1.3 billion and its stock rise from $6 per share to $21.

“I think [Simmons Foods] has a great business strategy,” Pilgrim said. “They made fundamental shifts in the last year that I agree with. Mark is a great guy to deal with and the people here are superb.

“I really wasn’t looking for a job, and Mark wasn’t looking for a CEO. We both just saw this as a natural fit, and it all came together rather quickly.”

The position was created for Pilgrim, who has served as a consultant to Simmons for the last year through his Integrity Management Services Inc., a Dallas-based development and consulting firm. The firm, which Pilgrim founded in 1990, led to him serving as a consulting vice president and general manager for Hudson Foods Inc. Hudson has since been acquired by poultry leader Tyson Foods Inc. of Springdale.

Simmons said Pilgrim’s consulting relationship with Simmons Foods grew into a “perfect fit” for the company’s new CEO. Previously, Simmons Foods operated with an “office of the president” strategy that entailed all of the company’s divisions reporting to then-president and chief operating officer Lynch Butler.

Pilgrim, who received an MBA in finance and accounting from Louisiana State University, will now oversee Simmons Foods’ poultry group and report directly to Simmons. Lynch Butler, who has moved to vice-chairman, will continue to hold operating responsibilities for Simmons’ pet food, protein and hen processing groups.

Last summer Simmons refocused its core operations on the food service industry and completely redeveloped its Siloam Springs facilities. Since food service is the area of the poultry business where Pilgrim made his mark, Simmons Foods spokesman Doug Siemens said, the hiring is simply a natural progression for the company.

Pilgrim said he plans no additional shifts in Simmons Foods’ business.

“Buddy has a proven track record in food service,” Siemens said. “When you look at what he’s done, it’s pretty impressive.”

Pilgrim, the nephew of Pilgrim’s Pride founder Bo Pilgrim, left his family’s company in July of 1998 after serving for five years as chief operating officer. An ordained minister, he then founded the non-profit ministry Integrity Leadership Institute which teaches Biblical business and success principles in Dallas. He has spent the last year writing two books and also does daily radio and weekly TV programs that support his ministry.

His book, “Seven Steps to Unlimited Success,” is due out this year.

“We are excited about the focus and added talent that this change will bring to our company,” Mark Simmons said in a press release. “Buddy has demonstrated skills, experience and values that we believe are a perfect fit with the current and future needs of our company.”

Pilgrim’s Pride employs almost 13,000 people, processes more than 1.5 billion pounds of chicken a year and produces more than 50 million dozen table eggs a year.

Simmons Foods, which celebrated its 50th anniversary in 1999, is a family owned food company that employs 4,400 people in Arkansas, Oklahoma and Missouri. Simmons also has contracts with more than 425 family farmers in the three states.

Pilgrim and his wife, Vicki, have two sons, Aaron, age 18, and Jacob, 14.