User:Dekkanar/Sandbox

Unusual articles

SIU's sports mascot is the Saluki, which is one of the oldest dog breeds. The Saluki was chosen as SIU's mascot on March 19, 1951 in part because of southern Illinois' long association as an Egypt in Illinois.

As instructed byt the DYK talk page, I am trying to attract the attention of an admin to update the DYK template on the main page because it has not been updated in 11 hours. If you are abailable to help, thank you very much. -~

Foran Spice Company -  http://foranspice.com/index.htm

History
Prior to 1996, Louis Rich, the brand name for the turkey division of Oscar Mayer and a division of Kraft Foods, owned the processing plant in West Liberty, IA. In early 1996, Kraft announced that they would close the plant in December of that year if no buyer came forward to purchase the plant. Many of the Iowa turkey growers who sold to Kraft discussed purchasing the plant to ensure that demand for their birds continued to exist. In May 1996, forty-seven of the turkey growers formed the Iowa Turkey Growers Cooperative(ITGC). The ITGC purchased the plant from Kraft and took over in December. To oversee operation of the facility, the growers hired meat industry veteran Ken Rutledge to be President and COO of the new company. Oscar Mayer helped the new company by promising to purchase half of the plant's output in 1997 and a quarter of the output in 1998 from the new owners to help the startup company.

Production under ITGC ownership began in January 1997. The company initially faced difficulties as the turkey market was oversupplied and prices hit historic lows. While financial projections had assumed a price of $1.92 per pound for turkey, prices averaged $1.46 per pound in 1997. During this time period, four of the original growers left ITGC. Turkey prices eventually rebounded and near the end of 1998 and West Liberty Foods was bolstered by sales to Sara Lee.

Since then, sales by West Liberty Foods have grown steadily. In 2000 the company acquired another plant in Sigourney, IA from Pinnacle Foods in order to meet rising orders for product. West Liberty Foods expanded again in April, 2003 when it opened a new processing plant in Mount Pleasant, IA which was then expanded in 2004. Company leadership changed in 2004 when Ed Garrett was named president and COO when Rutledge resigned to take a position with another growers' organization. In 2006 the company entered into a marketing alliance agreement with Midvale, Utah based Norbest Foods.