OUR HISTORY


Peanut Corporation of America is headquartered in Lynchburg, Virginia and runs operations in three states. The corporation has morphed considerably since its inception in 1977. Hugh and Stewart Parnell, a father and son team, built the company as a family business catering largely to the candy, ice cream, and confection industries. Stewart Parnell’s two brothers, Hugh, Jr. and Mike, were also involved in those early days.

In 1976, a group of peanut growers from Gorman, Texas, approached the Parnell team with a business proposal that included the family taking control of a Gorman peanut roasting facility, something the Parnells hadn’t previously been involved in. This business was in need of a good leader to produce sales for their company. The Parnells agreed to take over control of the facility in Gorman, and with a 50’x 100’building, started roasting peanuts in late 1977. At first, business grew slowly. Sales were anemic and Parnell and his father and brothers worried that sales to the ice cream industry, alone, would not allow the venture to succeed.

“The first year our sales were only around $50,000. It did not take long to figure out that, to survive, we had to find other venues to sell our peanuts,” Parnell said. “Luckily, we found a new niche by selling to bakeries, candy manufacturers, rebaggers, and other snack manufacturers.”

“We started this business working out of our house in Virginia with my mom doing all the accounting,” Parnell continued. “Through the years, the rest of the family, including my two brothers and one sister, came into the business. By 1994, our sales had exceeded 30 million dollars and included over 95 permanent employees. The Gorman plant had grown to 65,000 square feet,” Parnell exclaimed.

In 1995, Parnell and his father and siblings sold their business to a large commodities corporation, while Parnell’s father, Hugh, retired from the peanut industry. Stewart Parnell and his two brothers were kept as management consultants by the company’s new corporate owner.

This arrangement lasted until 2000, when Stewart Parnell left the large corporation that had purchased his business and followed his entrepreneurial urge, buying back the now-closed Gorman, Texas, processing plant. Parnell then met another entrepreneur from North Carolina, who had been operating a peanut processing facility in Blakely, Georgia, with mixed results. Parnell had the experience and management skills sought by the Georgia plant owner, and the two formed a partnership. Parnell and his new partner have tripled the revenue in the Georgia plant in the three years since. That plant, Parnell said, is profitable for the first time in 15 years.

Parnell’s ambitions have long included opening a new peanut processing operation in West Texas, where he says the future of the peanut industry is.

“With Peanut production now moving away from Central Texas and toward the West Texas area, it made more sense for us to move our operation from Gorman to West Texas,” said Parnell. “With help from several past business associates in this area, we are about to relocate to Plainview, and couldn’t be happier about it. We sincerely look forward to growing and expanding our business in the Plainview area and welcome the opportunity to becoming a respected part of this community.”

Peanut Corporation of America, with the completion of the Plainview facility, will employ over 110 people in three states, with plants located in all three of the major peanut producing areas of the United States: Suffolk, Virginia; Blakely, Georgia; and now Plainview, Texas. Peanut Corporation of America now offers almost every peanut-related service customers could need. These processing plants oil- and dry-roast, blanch (remove the skin) and granulate peanuts, and produce peanut butter. The corporation still markets its products primarily to ice cream manufacturers, candy manufacturers, bakeries, and food and snack processors around the world, but has recently begun offering peanuts for retail consumption under the brand name “Parnell’s Pride”.

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