Jennie-O

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Jennie-O is a brand name of turkey products manufactured by Hormel in Willmar, Minnesota.

The company was founded by Earl B. Olson in 1940, when he began raising turkeys. In 1949 he bought the former Farmers Produce Company of Willmar and its turkey processing plant. In 1953, it was renamed to Jennie-O after his daughter, Jennifer Olson. The company continued to expand over the years, both by internal growth and thru buying similar processing companies. It was widely known for producing turkey products that simulated other meats, such as the turkey hot dogs, turkey ham, turkey pastrami, etc. It is now one of the two largest turkey processing companies in the US. (The other is Cargill, also from Minnesota.)

The company was privately owned by the Olson family until 1986, when it was sold to Hormel Foods, of Austin, Minnesota. Earl Olson remained active as an adviser and consultant to the company, being in the office nearly daily until his death from cancer on December 11, 2006, at age 91.

In February 2001, two of the turkey industry's leading companies, Jennie-O Foods, Inc., and The Turkey Store Company, merged to create a new, single company - Jennie-O Turkey Store, Inc.

Jennie-O is also short for Jennie Onassis, the lesser known sister of Jackie Onassis. She founded a meat club in 1938 which later took off into a meat making production company.