Hormel Foods, the company behind Skippy peanut butter and Spam, is buying family-owned chicken processor Brakebush Brothers in a deal that could reshape its foodservice business. Brakebush, founded in 1925 and headquartered in Westfield, Wisconsin, has built its name on value-added chicken products sold to restaurants and food-service customers nationwide.
A Billion-Dollar Bet on Chicken
According to Hormel Foods, the company has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Brakebush Brothers, LLC, with a purchase price of approximately $1.055 billion. Separately, KSL.com reported the deal was valued at $1.06 billion, a figure echoed by investing.com's coverage of the announcement. Both figures come from credible outlets describing the same transaction, and the discrepancy has not been resolved in public statements.
Brakebush has generated approximately $1.2 billion in net sales over the last 12 months, the company said in its announcement. The business operates five production facilities and two research and development labs, all built on a foundation the family traces back a full century.
What Brakebush Brings to the Table
Founded in 1925, Brakebush describes itself on its own website as having been “US Family Owned and Operated since 1925.” The company makes value-added chicken products spanning center-of-plate entrees, snacks, sides, and ingredients for foodservice customers. Brakebush also says its fully cooked and par-fry production lines are capable of turning out more than 10,000 pounds of product per hour, a scale that helps explain why Hormel sees the company as a strategic prize.
That production muscle isn't new. Brakebush expanded its footprint in December 2023 when it acquired the Lake Foods chicken-processing facility in Hartwell, Georgia, a deal that Food Processing reported brought the company's total production facility count to five nationwide. Terms of that earlier acquisition were not disclosed, according to the same outlet, and the Hartwell plant portions raw chicken into sized, marinated, and ready-to-cook products.
Why Hormel Wants In
Hormel said the Brakebush acquisition will “meaningfully expand the company's position in value-added chicken” and is expected to strengthen its foodservice platform, per the company's own announcement. Hormel expects to report Brakebush's operations primarily within its Foodservice segment once the deal closes.
The move comes as consumer habits shift. Investing.com's report on the deal noted that consumers have increasingly sought protein-rich meal options amid growing demand for chicken as the broader focus on health and wellness grows — a trend Hormel appears eager to capitalize on with a processor already producing at industrial scale.
Deal Timeline and Advisers
The transaction is expected to close during Hormel Foods' fiscal 2027 first quarter, subject to customary closing conditions, including regulatory approval, according to the company's announcement. Wells Fargo is serving as Hormel's exclusive financial adviser with Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath as its legal adviser, while William Blair is acting as Brakebush's exclusive financial adviser and Michael Best & Friedrich LLP as its legal counsel, per a report from hi.investing.com.
Beyond the closing timeline and the advisory teams named in the announcement, Hormel and Brakebush have not detailed how the acquisition might affect staffing, facility operations, or branding once the deal is finalized. For now, the companies are framing the transaction simply as a combination meant to grow Hormel's chicken business and its reach into restaurants and foodservice kitchens across the country.
