Plukon Food Group is an internationally active

corporate group A corporate group, company group or business group, also formally known as a group of companies, is a collection of parent and subsidiary corporations that function as a single economic entity through a common source of control. These types of gr ...

in the

meat industry The meat industry are the people and companies engaged in modern industrialized livestock agriculture for the production, packing, preservation and marketing of meat (in contrast to dairy products, wool, etc.). In economics, the meat industry is ...

. It is one of the largest processors of poultry meat in Europe. In 2019, Plukon was the second largest chicken processor in the EU, as well as 16th in the world, with a slaughter volume of 426 million chickens. The activities of the group are concentrated in the company ''Bankiva B.V.'' headquartered in Wezep in the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

.Consolidated financial statement for the fiscal year beginning on January 1, 2020 and ending on December 31, 2020 of Plukon Food Group Deutschland GmbH & Co. KG, Visbek. Published in

Bundesanzeiger The ''Bundesanzeiger'' is an official publication of the Federal Republic of Germany published by the German Ministry of Justice with a scope similar to that of the Federal Register The ''Federal Register'' (FR or sometimes Fed. Reg.) is the ...

on Juni 27, 2022. The group has three shareholders: the German

EW Group The EW Group GmbH (also known as the Erich Wesjohann Group), headquartered in Visbek, Germany, is a global family owned holding, which integrates more than 300 active subsidiaries. The company is operating primarily at the beginning of the value ...

, the Dutch feed company De Heus, and the directors around Peter Poortinga, who together own 25% of the shares.

History

In 1978, Plukon was created as a merger of the 1964 established brand ''Friki'' and the poultry company ''Bekebrede'' in Barneveld, the name being the acronym ''Pluimvee Kombinatie Nederland''. In 2011, German poultry company ''Stolle'' was merged into the Plukon group. In 2015, the EW Group became

shareholder A shareholder (in the United States often referred to as stockholder) of corporate stock refers to an individual or legal entity (such as another corporation, a body politic, a trust or partnership) that is registered by the corporation as the ...

of Plukon. In the following years, Plukon acquired the French poultry producer DUC, the Spanish poultry producer VMR and the German hatchery Optibrut.

Structure

Plukon operates 30 branches in the Netherlands,

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

Belgium Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

and

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

. In total, Plukon employs near 9000 people; its weekly slaughter capacity is about 9 million chickens. The company's sales in 2022 amounted to over 3.0 billion euros. Plukon's main sales territories are the Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, France, the United Kingdom and Ireland. In Germany, products are marketed either fresh or frozen under the brands ''Friki'', ''Pingo'', ''Stolle'', ''Maiski'', ''FairMast'' and private labels. For chicken fattening, Plukon utilizes day-old chicks of the hybrid chicken breed Cobb from the supplier

WIMEX Group The WIMEX Group is an internationally active German company in the meat industry, meat and Agribusiness, agricultural industry, based in Köthen, Saxony-Anhalt. With an annual capacity of 435.455 million hatching eggs, it is the largest pr ...

. The five-member supervisory board includes Germans Jürgen Steinemann (chairman) and Erich Wesjohann.

Plukon in Germany

Plukon is (as of 2019) the fifth largest company in the poultry industry in Germany. Plukon Germany employs 1,400 people and operates five facilities.

Controversies

Since 2014, there have been repeated protests against the Plukon slaughterhouse in

Gudensberg Gudensberg () is a small town in northern Hesse, Germany. Since the municipal reform in 1974, the nearby villages of Deute, Dissen, Dorla, Gleichen, Maden and Obervorschütz have become parts of the municipality. Geography Gudensberg is situated ...

, Germany. In February 2014, several hundred people demonstrated against a planned expansion of the facility, followed by another demonstration in 2015. In April 2021, the trade union Nahrung-Genuss-Gaststätten organized a demonstration in Gudensberg for better working conditions of the workers. In May 2021, environmental activists blocked the access roads of the poultry slaughterhouse in Gudensberg in an action of civil disobedience. The activists demanded a closure of the plant for reasons of animal welfare and danger of Corona infections.

References

External links

* {{Coord, 52, 27, 10.0, N, 5, 59, 44.0, E, type:landmark, display=title Poultry companies Intensive farming Meat companies of the Netherlands Companies based in Gelderland Dutch companies established in 1978