Peco Foods
by March 27, 2026 8:30 am 268 views
Peco Foods was founded in 1937 by John Herman Hickman, in Gordo, Ala., By the 1980s, Peco had grown into a fully integrated operation with processing plants, feed mills, and hatcheries in Alabama and Mississippi.
The company expanded into Arkansas in 2011 through the acquisition of live and processing operations in Batesville, followed by a greenfield expansion in 2016 that added plants in Pocahontas and Corning.
Today, the company is the seventh-largest poultry producer in the United States, with more than 7,500 team employees across 12 locations in Alabama, Arkansas, and Mississippi. In 2025, Peco opened a new training center in Batesville.
The fourth generation of the Hickman family now operates the company.