Arkansas Business

Mountaire Corp.

Mountaire Corp., based in North Little Rock, is a leading supplier of private-label chicken and value-added chicken products to grocery stores and food service customers worldwide.

The company's chicken production business (Mountaire Farms) maintains breeding and chicken-processing facilities in Delaware, Maryland and North Carolina, and the company sells its products under names such as Black Label (food service market), Blue Label (wholesale) and Bo-San Roasters (Asian market in the U.S.).

Mountaire Grain and Feed produces poultry feeds and operates grain elevators for corn, soybeans, wheat and barley.

Mountaire was founded in 1971, but the company's roots in the feed business date back to Arkansas in 1914 with the Hayes Grain and Commission Company, a commercial feed business. In 1931, the business became known as Cameron Feed Mills and in 1964, in partnership with local poultry producers, incorporated into Mountaire Poultry Inc. in 1964. In 1971, the companies became known as Mountaire Corp.

In 2011, Mountaire said its Mountaire Farms company would expand the processing facilities of its new affiliate, the Seaford Milling Co., in Selbyville and Millsboro, Del. The company said the expansion would increase the need for area poultry growers to support an additional 400,000 birds per week.

The company reported 2010 revenue of $1.3 billion and now employs more than 5,600 employees throughout the U.S.