J.R. Simplot Company - Introduction

Introduction

999 Main Street
Boise, Idaho 83702
U.S.A.
Telephone: (208) 336-2110
Fax: (208) 389-7515
Web site: http://www.simplot.com

Private Company
Incorporated: 1956
Employees: 12,000
Sales: $3 billion (2002 est.)
NAIC: 311411 Frozen Fruit, Juice, and Vegetable Manufacturing; 112111 Beef Cattle Ranching and Farming; 325311 Nitrogenous Fertilizer Manufacturing; 325312 Phosphatic Fertilizer Manufacturing; 325314 Fertilizer (Mixing Only) Manufacturing; 325320 Pesticide and Other Agricultural Chemical Manufacturing

The J.R. Simplot Company is one of the largest privately-held agribusiness firms in the United States with interests in food, fertilizer, turf and horticulture, and cattle feeding. The company's growth charts the rags-to-riches rise of J.R. Simplot, an Idaho potato farmer who assembled a corporate empire around a small potato growing business to create a remarkable model of vertical integration in the agricultural industry. As one of the largest frozen potato processors in the world, J.R. Simplot produces three billion pounds of french fries each year, supplying the likes of McDonald's, Burger King, and KFC. The company is also one of the largest producers of beef cattle in the United States and the second-largest frozen vegetable producer in the world.

The complexion of Idaho's economy during the early 2000s reflected the fortunes of the state's most prominent citizen. Idaho's chief manufactured good was processed foods; its largest agriculture crop was potatoes; its greatest number of livestock, cattle; its most abundant nonfuel mineral, phosphate; its principal industry, agriculture. Each of these primary segments of Idaho's economy described part of the diverse empire developed by John Richard (J.R.) Simplot, a self-described "goldurn potato farmer" whose life charted the remarkable progression of an eighth-grade dropout into a multibillionaire. During the course of his meteoric rise in the business world, Simplot became involved in an eclectic array of businesses, assembling a variegated corporate empire that underpinned Idaho's economy and constituted one of the great American fortunes. At the heart of Simplot's wide-ranging business interests was the J.R. Simplot Company, a corporate entity that at first blush appeared to comprise a motley, disconnected collection of businesses, ranging from mining operations to potato fields to livestock feedlots. The J.R. Simplot Company, however, was not the product of J.R. Simplot's compulsion to own everything without regard for the cohesiveness of the whole. Instead, the J.R. Simplot Company's seemingly odd mix of businesses were indicative of J.R. Simplot's intent to control all aspects related to the cultivation and processing of his potatoes. Around the business of growing and processing potatoes, a vertically integrated empire developed, the magnitude of which belied the humble origins of its creator.