Shenandoah Valley Organic LLC

Shenandoah Valley Organic LLC (SVO) is an organic poultry producer based in Harrisonburg, Virginia. It was founded by CEO Corwin Heatwole on his farm with a 300-bird flock in 2012. It works with farmers raising chickens in barns around the Shenandoah Valley region of Virginia. It employs 790 people. SVO processes organic birds in a poultry processing facility in Harrisonburg it purchased from Pilgrim’s Pride Corp. in 2014. The plant was previously used to process tom turkeys by Golden Acre Farms and Wampler Foods. SVO processes only organic chickens. It buys chicks and organic feed from Pennsylvania. Under its model, growers own the processing. The growers' contract with SVO works on a cost-plus model. The cost used in calculating the grower's payment is an average cost based on performance of all the growers. Each individual grower is paid the same amount per pound, even knowing what the price will be prior to placing each flock. SVO produced 2 million pounds of ready-to-cook chicken on a weekly basis in 2022, an increase from 1.6 million pounds processed in 2020. Its 2022 sales were $230 million, an increase from $180 million in 2021. SVO’s products are sold under the Farmer Focus brand. Its product mix is 84% fresh and 16% frozen. At point of sale, its products are 99% cut-up and 1% cooked. According to its 2022 survey response, 100% of its flock is U.S. Department of Agriculture Organic and Global Animal Partnership certified. It also produces halal poultry. In December 2022, Farmer Focus, a SVO retail brand, announced that its organic chicken was available at 3,100 stores across the Midwest, East Coast and Mid-Atlantic regions of the U.S. That same month, Farmer Focus named Stephen J. Shephard as president and COO and Kathryn Tuttle as chief commercial officer.