2015 Farm to Fork Report

SAFETY • QUALITY • RESPECT • INTEGRITY • INNOVATION

Tending to What Matters Most

Our values—Safety, Quality, Respect, Integrity and Innovation—are more than just words. They are guiding principles that lead our decisions and behaviors, and are inherent in our 4Ps of social responsibility: People, Planet, Poultry and Progress.

Tending to What Matters MostSAFETY • QUALITY • RESPECT • INTEGRITY • INNOVATION

The cover photo is a salad created by Roots for the Home Team®, a groundbreaking program that partners with youth garden programs in ethnically diverse areas of the Twin Cities and sponsored by Just BARE®.

ABOUT USCONTENTS 1

ABOUT US

Our Operations & Business ............ 2

Our People ............................................ 3

OUR VALUES IN ACTION

People .....................................................4

Planet ......................................................6

Poultry ....................................................8

Progress ............................................... 10

GOOD NEWS ..........................................12

FOCUS FORWARD ................................13

A Message From Our President

In 2015, we made focusing on what matters most a top priority. And we did that by keeping our values of Safety, Quality, Respect, Integrity and Innovation at the forefront. To that end, we:

• Doubled-down on our food safety and quality efforts, adding new people and resources. See page 9.

• Bolstered our ability to develop game-changing ideas and innovation that will help us stay ahead of consumer trends and push the boundaries of health, value and convenience. See pages 8-9.

• Repositioned our Human Resources team on developing our people—dedicating resources and programs to improving safety and training. See pages 5 and 11.

• Continued to explore new production methods to eliminate phosphates (see page 9) and reduce our use of antibiotics.

• Kept Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI), which devastated many poultry providers in the Upper Midwest, out of our operations through stringent, effective biosecurity controls.

• Managed through the growing pains that expansion often brings. See page 11.

Our success, in large part, is due to the continued dedication and commitment of our nearly 2,100 team members and family farm partners.

In 2016, we need to continue to:

• Foster a safety-first, people-centric culture.

• Attract and retain people with a passion for being part of the good food movement.

• Innovate to meet the needs of consumers who demand increasingly more attributes from their foods.

• Remain unwavering with respect to our animal welfare commitment and biosecurity practices.

As I look to 2020, I realize the importance of growing responsibly to achieve our vision of becoming “the FIRST choice nationally for fresh ideas in natural chicken.” We must continue to embrace change and strive for sustainability across the entire supply chain, all while keeping chicken affordable and accessible to a growing domestic and world population.

This is a great responsibility—one which we all should be truly proud to be a part of.

We’ll never stop tending to our values of Safety, Quality, Respect, Integrity and Innovation. They provide direction on how we act every day and thus keep our business successful and thriving into tomorrow.

To our partners, vendors, suppliers, and most importantly our team members and family farm partners, I want to send you a simple message:

You all matter to GNP Company®. Immensely. And I thank you for the difference you each make every day.

To health and happiness,

Steve Jurek President

“We’ll never stop tending to our values of Safety, Quality, Respect, Integrity and Innovation. They provide direction on how we act every day and thus keep our business successful and thriving into tomorrow.” - Steve Jurek, President

Founded as St. Cloud Hatcheries in

1926Part of multi-protein

since 2013

Chicken is the PREFERRED meat protein, predicted to lead in U.S. per capita consumption at 91.2 pounds per person in 2016.* *Source: USDA

OUR OPERATIONS & BUSINESS

2015 SALES: $470 MILLION

$0(in MILLIONS) 1995

SALES

2000 2005 2010 2015

$100

$200

$300

$400

$500

0(in MILLIONS)

100

200

300

400

500

HISTORICAL GROWTH OF SALES AND DRESSED POUNDSDRESSED POUNDS

GNP Company brands are distributed in nearly all 50 states. This map shows our customer warehouse/distributor locations from where our products are shipped to grocery stores, grocery store delis, and restaurants nationally.

RETAIL

INDUSTRIAL / SURPLUS

FOODSERVICE

RETAIL DELI

2 vertically integrated operations in Minnesota and Wisconsininclude:

MN

WIArcadia

Independence

St. CloudCold SpringSauk Rapids

Luverne

independent, farmer-owned breeder and broiler barns

hatcheries and feed mills

primary and value-added processing plants

3

411

4

Minnesota-based home office and distribution center support all GNP Company operations.

SALES BREAKDOWN ... by distribution center ... by business segment

ABOUT US2 GNP Company® is the Upper Midwest’s leading provider of premium branded and custom chicken products to retail, deli, foodservice, and industrial customers nationally.

OUR PEOPLE OUR VALUES

1700+TEAM MEMBERS

More than 360 family farm

partners

age generations represented 440%

female60%

male

4 of 10 people of color

SOME of the LANGUAGES SPOKEN:

EnglishSpanishSomaliVietnameseLaotianKaren

40CAREERFIELDS+

SAFETY our first priority...for our people and our products

QUALITY products and services that exceed expectations

RESPECT for all people, our animals, and the planet

INTEGRITY acting with strong ethical character...safely, responsibly, and humanely

INNOVATION continually improving...finding new ways to learn, grow, and create

Our senior leadership team of seven has more than

135 years of experience at GNP Company At GNP Company®, our approach to corporate social

responsibility is simple: to thrive by living our values every day while balancing our economic Progress with the needs of our People, Planet and Poultry.

We are dedicated to ensuring safety and quality at every step, from farm to fork—and beyond. As members of a global community, we strive to reduce the environmental footprint of our operations by focusing on the supply chain both upstream and downstream.

ABOUT US 3

PEOPLE4

Employee suggestions in action = $185,500

in savings!

2012GNP Company * According to the previous year data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

2013 2014 2015 2016Industry

5.0 5.8 3.7 4.9 3.65 4.5 5.6

GOAL:return to below industry average

4.3

32% of team members have worked 10+ yrs

16% of team members have worked 20+ yrs

59% of family farm partners 10+yrs

35% of family farm partners 20+yrs

49% of GNP Company’s team members are fully engaged, this is...

better than 75% of all employees worldwide

89% of our family farm partners “agreed” or “strongly agreed” that our performance/services met their expectations in the areas of Service Representative, Feed Mill, Hatchery, Breeder/Live Haul Crew, Contract, Parts Department, and Overall Company.

• GNP Company team members participated in these sponsored health and wellness initiatives:

- GNP Company’s Health & Wellness Center in Arcadia: use is up!

- The Micro-Mart at our Luverne Plant: Sales of healthy alternatives to traditional vending selections continue to grow.

- Flu shots, biometric screenings and wellness challenges are being embraced.

• The poultry industry showed a fourth consecutive year of decline in average illness/injury rates (4.3), based on 2014 U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

• After six years of meeting or beating the industry rate, GNP Company saw a rise this year (5.6). We continue to partner with the industry in making continuous improvement of our safety processes a focus in 2016 and beyond.

Team Member Safety & Wellness

Team Member & Family Farm Partner Longevity

Team Member & Family Farm Partner Engagement

Processing Plant Injury/Illness Rate: GNP Company vs. Industry*

Our strong relationships with team members, family farm partners, customers, valued suppliers and our community members are at the heart of our business. We are passionate about what we do and how we impact lives.

Each year, GNP Company® honors 10 individuals who demonstrate an extraordinary commitment to our values. We know that our success as a company is directly tied to our people. And we believe that those who demonstrate outstanding performance deserve to be recognized as Leaders.

2015 Leadership Recognition winners:SAFETY: Dan Myren, WI / Sandy Brunner, MN

QUALITY: Sheri Daggett, WI / Maria Preciado, MN

RESPECT: Jess Hanvold, WI / Paul Rosa, MN

INTEGRITY: Darrel Pronschinske, WI / Lynn Holmvig, MN

INNOVATION: Robert McCormick, WI / Nic Fuchs, MN

Awarded by the Michael and Karel Helgeson Generations Scholarship Fund to 12 children of GNP Company team members and family farm partners (now in its second year)

# of Cold Spring team members graduating from:

Occupational English as a Second Language (ESL)

Advanced ESL

1017

96% 97%

11

# of team members graduating from GNP Academy

Team members received training for on-the-job effectiveness

Have better understanding of skills required AND could apply learnings to their jobs as a result of training

Awarded in tuition reimbursement and other career-related educational programs

Team Member Training & Development

$134K

$24K

Family Farm Partner image???

PEOPLE 5Two NEW Safety Processes Improve Safety at Work, Behind the WheelOur GNP Safety Way Journey: 2014-2018

GNP Safety Way —a pilot program started in our Luverne, MN operation in January 2014—is paying dividends. Its goal, according to GNP Company’s Corporate Health and Safety Manager Kari Waters, is to provide a system that actively engages team members in the safety process. “Engaged team members work more safely, and create a safer work environment,” explains Kari.

The GNP Safety Way is built around a standardized process that proactively provides key business indicators (KBI) to measure success. More importantly, it empowers team members to create cultural and system changes that build safety into day-to-day operations.

Kari is excited to see the process advance and participation numbers grow. “With 85-90% of Luverne team members participating and 100% participation at the Independence, WI Hatchery (launched in June 2014), team members are living our Safety value through a deep knowledge and commitment to make our processes more reliable, productive and safe,” she says.

The goal for full corporate-wide adoption of GNP Safety Way initiatives is 2018. Though the roll-out is aggressive, Kari is confident in the company’s ability to meet the timeline (as outlined below). “We’ve already reaped significant improvements from the process,” Kari adds, “I’m excited to see the impact when implemented company-wide.”

Driving Down At-Risk Behavior by 20%

In 2013, GNP Company® implemented DriveCam® Safety Processes in all of our commercial motor vehicles. DriveCam is a driver risk management program that identifies and helps to proactively address at-risk driving behaviors BEFORE an accident occurs. In doing so, it encourages safer driving.

Here’s how it works: DriveCam’s palm-sized, digital event recorder is mounted in a vehicle. It captures video and audio inside and outside the vehicle when triggered by abrupt actions (such as hard braking, sudden acceleration, swerving or a collision), and provides real-time feedback to the driver. A cellular system uploads driving event data, which is then analyzed by experts and used by GNP Company leadership to help coach drivers toward changing at-risk behaviors.

"While DriveCam is the tool that identifies at-risk driving behaviors, it’s the coaches who have the power to use the information to help drivers improve their driving skills,” explains Kari.

The process also provides a means to enhance safe driver recognition when positive driving behaviors are identified.

Examples of at-risk driving behaviors identified with this process include: speed violations, rolling stops, excessive cornering speeds, driving too fast for road conditions, seatbelt violations and failing to leave an out.

Comparing FY 2015 to FY 2014, we achieved a 20% reduction in at-risk behaviors.

2014 2015 2016 2017 2018

Luverne, MN - Plant St. Cloud, MN - Live Haul Full adoption company-wide

Independence, WI - Hatchery Cold Spring, MN - Plant / St. Cloud, MN - Hatchery / Arcadia, WI - Breeder Dept.

“Our team members and their safety are critically important to us. By focusing on proactive measures like the GNP Safety Way and DriveCam® Safety Process, we have the best chance of identifying and making improvements before an injury or accident can occur.” - Kari Waters, Corporate Health & Safety Manager

FOCUSFORWARD

Creating cultural and values alignment

GNP SAFETY WAY TIMELINE

PLANET6

2017 GOAL = 20% Reduction vs. 2011 Baseline

• Fell short of 2015 target (a 12% intensity reduction from 2011 baseline) for electric (KWH), gas (Therms), diesel (gallons) and LP (gallons). However, intensity was lower in all categories vs. the previous year.

• Cross-functional power management teams continue to meet monthly to review and identify new ways to reduce our energy use.

Life Cycle Thinking Drives Positive ChangeLCAs (short for life cycle assessments) in 2010 and 2012 on a select range of our Just BARE® products helped improve our understanding of the impact of our operations, and were the driving force behind our life-cycle thinking and 5-year Planet Goals in the areas of energy, water and waste.

Following is our progress against these goals and Carbon Emissions. NOTE: many metrics are reported on “intensity,” not “absolute” numbers, to provide better year-over-year (YOY) comparability.

We are dedicated to reducing our environmental footprint across our value chain. Maintaining a healthy ecosystem is critical to our survival as a company–and as a global community! We’re committed to measuring and reducing environmental impacts within our own operations and across our supply chain.

2017 GOAL = ZERO Waste

• We remain committed to becoming a ZERO-waste company, and are working to make improvements at every stage of the waste hierarchy. Although it’s unlikely we will reach our 2017 ZERO-waste goal, it’s a target we continue to aspire to reach.

• The waste metrics we currently track focus primarily on reducing and reusing.

• We continue our search for innovative packaging that offers greater sustainability and still meets food safety standards and cost targets.

2017 GOAL = 40% Reduction vs. 2011 Baseline

• Water plays a vital role in our ability to deliver safe, wholesome products to market. As such, ongoing food safety intervention improvements challenge our ability to consistently hit our goal.

• In 2015, we used 6.24 gallons of water per processed chicken—which, at 22.16%, fell short of our 26% reduction target from the 2011 baseline (still slightly lower than 2011 baseline level).

Waste Reduction

Energy Use Intensity Water Use Intensity

ENERGY USE INTENSITY / per chicken processedFY

2013588.57Electric (KWH) 568.76 564.28 3.59%894.54Gas (THERMS) 735.29 799.98 12.08%188.16Diesel (GALLONS) 171.94 167.43 1.77%611.06LP (GALLONS) 499.42 572.34 16.54%

FY2014

FY2015

Gap fromFY2015 Goal

WATER USE INTENSITY / gallons per chicken processedFY

20145.38 gal

FY2013

6.26 gal 6.24 gal 22.16%

FY2015

Gap fromFY2015 Goal

-26%

Change vs.FY2011

FY2015 WASTE METRICSFY

2013

Cold Spring Plant - Packaging Waste / Usage Variance

Arcadia Plant - Packaging Waste / Usage Variance

Cold Spring Plant - Compactor Pick-up (tons)

NOTE: Luverne Plant not reported as metrics were incorrectly tracked

Cold Spring Plant - Recycled Corrugated (tons)

6.0%3.0%252.0144.0

4.4%1.5%327.2213.0

6.3%2.0%285.6191.1

6.5%2.9%378.0202.6

-32%-48%-13%5%

FY2014

FY2015

FY2015GOAL

CHANGEvs. FY2013

PROCESSING

RAW MATERIALS

PACKAGING

DISTRIBUTION& RETAIL

POULTRYGROWOUT

MATERIAL PROCESSING

NATURALENVIRONMENT

DISPOSAL

LANDFILL

INCINERATION

CHICKENLITTER

USER

37% come from our own operations, including energy use and packaging materials.

28% result “downstream”

from the distribution, retail sale, cooking and

disposal of products.35% of our GHG (Green House Gas) emissions (also referred to as carbon emissions or CO2e) occur “upstream” and are related to growing corn and other feed ingredients.

THE LIFE CYCLE OF OUR PRODUCTS

Source: 2012 LCA

WASTE HIERARCHY*

Changing our behavior

Reusing material

Recycling and reprocessing materials

Recovering energy

Targeting ZERO landfill

1 REDUCE

2 REUSE

3 RECYCLE

4 RECOVER

5 LANDFILL

*www.epa.gov/homeland-security-waste/waste-management-hierarchy-and-homeland-security-incidents

298,292,000 227,210,0002013

POTABLE WATERTO PLANT

(gallons)

% CHANGEvs. PY 0.06%

Potable = Water IN Effluent = Water OUT

EFFLUENT WATERTO RIVER

(gallons)

285,844,060 258,630,0002014

286,009,000 241,340,0002015

-6.69%

PLANET 7Respecting and Protecting the Environment Through Off-settingSince 2010, GNP Company® has partnered with Renewable Choice Energy to support the development of more sustainable energy by buying renewable energy certificates, or RECs (also called renewable energy credits). RECs are produced when a renewable energy facility generates electricity.

Renewable Choice Energy then invests those dollars to develop clean energy facilities. Paul Helgeson, Sustainability Manager believes purchasing RECs is a great way to support ground-breaking innovation in the area of renewable, more sustainable energy. “But it’s not enough,” he says. “We must also continue to reduce our dependence on, and use of, fossil fuels for lasting climate change.”

Paul hopes to take the concept of off-setting even further—applying it to sustainable farming credits. Since 2012, he’s been working with the Environmental Initiative to create a similar system that will financially reward farmers for achieving a high level of water quality protection on their farms. This, in turn, will help companies improve sustainability across their commodity crop supply chains. This project has been funded by a grant from the McKnight Foundation and GNP Company.

“GNP Company off-sets all of the energy used to produce our Just BARE®

products by purchasing RECs equal to the

amount of electricity it

takes to produce these

products.” - Paul Helgeson,

Sustainability Manager

FOCUSFORWARD

100% water reclamation

* Scope 1 - Direct greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are emissions from sources that are owned or controlled by the company. For example, emissions from combustion in owned or controlled boilers, furnaces, and vehicles.

* Scope 2 - Accounts for GHG emissions from the generation of purchased electricity by the company.

6.09% reduction in absolute carbon emissions despite a 1.04% increase in the number of chickens processed.• 7.06% reduction in total company-wide

carbon emissions per processed chicken (scopes 1 & 2*) versus the previous year.

Carbon Emissions Intensity

EMISSIONS (scope 1 & 2) / per chicken processedFY

20141.09

FY20131.02 1.01

FY2015

KG of CO2e / Processed chicken

Water Conservation & ReclamationEvery day, our Cold Spring Processing Plant’s water treatment facility, using advanced membrane bioreactor technology, restores and reuses about a third of the plant’s total daily water usage.

400,000 TO 500,000 GALLONS/DAY ARE RECLAIMED

1

Here’s how off-setting works:

MEASURE

2 PURCHASE

3 CERTIFY

We measure the amount of electricity we use in our operations and the amount of carbon emissions generated during the production of our Just BARE® products.

We purchase RECs and VERs (verified emissions reductions) in the same amounts as measured in step 1. This is commonly referred to as off-setting.

Renewable Choice RECs are tracked and certified by the leading national third-party REC auditing organization, Green-e Energy®, a program of the not-for-profit Center for Resource Solutions.

POULTRY8

Third-party and internal audits validate and/or recertify our adherence to the animal welfare standards of the American Humane Certified™ (AHC) Farm Program, the National Chicken Council (NCC), and the American Veterinarian Medical Association (AVMA) on an ongoing basis.

• We drive accountability through rigorous ongoing training at the individual animal caretaker level; and monitoring through regular, systematic internal audits.

• We strictly follow humane slaughter standards of the AHC and NCC, using methods established and approved by the AVMA.

7 Years GNP Company® has supported the Truthful Labeling Coalition and its efforts to ensure truthful labeling of “All Natural” chicken products.

All Natural = Nothing AddedGNP Company does not label ANY of our enhanced/marinated products as “All Natural.” We believe “All Natural” means “Nothing Added.”

All PlantsGlobal Food Safety Initiative (GFSI) Certified

When Recertified, All Facilities Scored Excellent Annually by Safe Quality Foods, Level 2 Program

100% of ProductsProduced in Certified Processing Facilities

Oversees and strengthens our family farm partnerships:

• Through new proprietary technology integration, which automatically tracks and analyzes the health and vitality of our chickens; and

• With weekly on-site evaluations and time-sensitive inspections to ensure welfare and biosecurity measures are in place and working.

We’re acutely aware that consumers entrust us with the health and well-being of their families. That awareness is what drives us to make no compromises when it comes to the care of our chickens and our promise of safe, quality and truthfully labeled products.

American Humane Certified™ Audit ResultsWe continue to see improvement in our independent audit scores against the more than 200 rigorous standards of the respected American Humane Certified™ Farm Program.

With an overall total score of 85% needed to pass, we achieved an overall company high of 92% or better since first becoming certified in 2011. Corrective action and continuous improvement in place for all sites not achieving 100%.

Animal Welfare Commitment & Vision

Truthful & Transparent Labeling

Food Safety Performance & Programs

Active Family Farm Partner Management Program

Family Farm Partners/Grow-out Barns Minnesota and Wisconsin

92% to 98%

Hatcheries Independence, WI

100%

St. Cloud, MN

100%

Primary Processing Plants Cold Spring, MN

95%

Arcadia, WI

98%

– Our Animal Welfare Policy & Promise –

ZERTOLERANCE

POULTRY 9

Insights Lead to InnovationConsumer Segmentation Study Updated our consumer segment research to help us better understand consumers’ meat-buying preferences; product and packaging needs; and shopping and buying behaviors.

“Clean” Ingredient Label Research Consumers have a growing appetite for foods with “clean” ingredient labels that are “simple-to-make.” Through this research, we are developing a consumer-driven definition of “clean” along with an ingredient spectrum to help guide our product development.

Fueling Our Innovation Process & Team Added more product development resources and talent to focus on filling the pipeline with fresh ideas for the chicken category.

Food Safety, Quality & Regulatory: A Renewed Focus & Leadership This year was a year of renewal for our Quality Assurance department. Under its new leader, Sommer Mueller, DVM, Sr. Director Technical Services, the team worked to further define its roles and responsibilities, and renamed itself the Food Safety, Quality & Regulatory Team (FSQR), a name more indicative of the work the team does.

The team added new positions to lead technical, science-driven, data-based implementation and verification of Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) and Food Safety Programs, and to verify adherence to our FSQR supplier requirements. These highly specialized, subject matter experts in food safety and quality proactively address new regulations—working collaboratively with the USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service and the National Chicken Council to focus on the science and technical requirements that ensure success.

Just BARE® expanded distribution nationwide of its new certified organic line.

Gold’n Plump added new Tex Mex option to its popular frozen chicken patties line that includes Original, Mushroom & Swiss, and Bacon & Cheddar.

New Product Launches!

Eliminating Phosphates: A Positive Step Toward a “Clean” Label and Lighter Footprint Sodium phosphate is a highly effective, commonly used FDA-approved food additive that helps deli chickens stay juicy for hours after cooking. Though safe to use, we removed this functional ingredient from our Gold’n Plump® deli rotisserie chicken offerings. This change was in response to increasing health concerns about its use and growing environmental regulation around its discharge through waste water systems.

In 2012, a cross-functional team set out to find a quality replacement: sodium carbonate–

another FDA-approved food additive that helps maintain juiciness and flavor of

rotisserie chickens but is considered more natural and better for the environment.

This is a testament of our commitment to quality and innovation at work.

The first shipment of sodium-phosphate-FREE Gold’n Plump deli rotisserie chickens shipped in late 2014.

FOCUSFORWARD

Game-changing processes, packaging

and product innovations

“Food safety is a top value at GNP Company®, and we are fiercely committed to meet or exceed the high food safety and quality standards of today’s customers and consumers. This requires that we actively be on the cutting-edge of food safety technology and regulatory compliance.”

- Sommer Mueller, DVM, Sr. Director Technical Services

PROGRESS10 When we succeed as a business, we share that prosperity with our team members, family farm and business partners, and communities. We gauge our Progress by our profitability; continuous improvement savings; business growth; brand strength; customer service excellence; and ability to invest in the economies where we live, work and distribute our products.

5 million meals worth of chicken

donations

$166K in Donations• St. Cloud and Cold Spring, MN

Team Members: Donated $111,668 to the United Way via team member pledge cards and special events; $42,000 gifted by the company.

• Arcadia and Independence, WI Team Members: Donated $3,396 to Community Chest via team member pledges and special events, and $2,000 gifted by the company.

• Luverne, MN Team Members: Donated $4,746 to the Red Arrow via team member pledge cards, and $2,500 from the company.

722LBS/$479 Food and money

generated by company-wide food

drive in June

Team Member Giving

19% FINANCIAL

81% CHICKEN PRODUCTS

2015: About $470 million in sales 14% growth rate over previous 3 years 7th consecutive year of profitability

Financial and product donations made in 2015 – a 10% increase over 2014

Of being designated a Minnesota Keystone Company for donating 5% of our pre-tax profits to charitable causes

GNP COMPANY

• St. Cloud Fireworks Fund (donated to Catholic Charities), St. Cloud-area YMCA Community Center Capital and Y Partners Campaigns, CentraCare Generations Capital Campaign, St. Cloud State University Hockey Center, Cold Spring Baseball Association and “Ashley for the Arts” event in Arcadia, WI (3rd year as sponsor)

JUST BARE

• 8 Community Gardens via the brand’s Goodness for Gardens Promotion

• Continued support of Urban Roots, Roots for the Home Team™, and Renewable Choice Energy

GOLD’N PLUMP

• 6th Year of Poultry Prince & Princess Scholarship Program, Labels 2 Learn Program, United Way, Local and High School Sports Teams and Tournaments, Local Fire Departments, and Local Food Shelves like Second Harvest Heartland

Company & Brand Donations

>$1.77 million

29 Years

$35 Million in Local Corn Purchases

95% of the corn in our feed was purchased from farmers within 75 miles of our feed mills, plus small town elevators.

100% of our family farm partner payments were made to farms within 65 miles of our hatcheries and processing plants.

PROGRESS 11

$1.12 Million in Company Savings from 2015 Continuous Improvement (CI) EffortsPLUS greater team member understanding of Quality and 65 CI initiatives.

12-Plus-Year CI Journey ResultsHundreds of team members trained and nearly $10 million in total company savings.

1,020 ideas were submitted by team members as part of our ongoing

Employee Suggestion Program (ESP)–which shares savings generated by the adopted ideas with team members. In 2015, program ideas resulted in $185,500 in savings and $28,700 was paid to team members.

Brand Strength & AdvocacyOur brands maintained or strengthened their performance against key brand measures.

In the brand’s core market of Minneapolis, Gold’n Plump® exceeded all main branded competitors in brand awareness, intent

to buy and brand used most often; exceeded all but one competitor in brand loyalty and advocacy.

In the brand’s core markets of Minneapolis, MN; Madison, WI; St. Louis, MO; and Des Moines, IA, Just BARE® exceeded nearly all key branded competitors in brand awareness, intent to buy and brand used most often. (Study size too small to make brand loyalty and advocacy comparisons.)

Investing in GNP Company® and Our People In 2015, GNP Company began a two-phase expansion plan for our Processing Plant in Cold Spring, MN. “This expansion underscores our continued commitment to investing in the growth of GNP Company’s business and people,” says GNP Company President Steve Jurek.

The first phase of the expansion started in March with the addition of a new building and state-of-the-art equipment in the plant’s First Processing area. The second expansion phase will be in Second Processing and is expected to start sometime in 2016.

The expansion will take about two years to complete, cost $80 million, and focus on increasing production capacity and automation. When done, Steve believes it will make the Cold Spring operation one of the most automated meat processing plants in North America. More specifically, it will:

• Increase annual plant production capacity by 33%, which equates to about 88 million more processed pounds or 352 million meals; and,

• Help make continued improvements in the areas of safety, quality and innovation.

Additional changes and improvements were made to prepare for the Cold Spring expansion. This included:

• At the Cold Spring Plant: Expanding the distribution center and outbound load staging area, adding a new entrance, increasing parking, and starting construction of an additional 28-degree-cooler storage space.

• Purchasing a building for future hatchery growth and adding on to our truck shop for our St. Cloud Live Operations; and

• Outlining plans to add about 72 new barns in the St. Cloud area over the next three years.

The company concurrently made organizational changes that better aligned our systems and services AND added positions to our Human Resources team dedicated to developing our people and getting the right people with the right skills in the right jobs.

Combined, Steve believes these organizational changes will help the company deliver against our long-term strategies. “We’ve moved onto our next stage of growth,” Steve concludes. “Exciting times lie ahead.”

“This expansion helps gives GNP Company the ability to meet increasing sales demand, while supporting advances in our safety processes by reducing physical job demands and improving ergonomics.” - Steve Jurek, President

FOCUSFORWARD

Utilizing “big” data to guide responsible

and profitable growth

Customer Service Excellence: Perfect Order Fulfillment Our ability to fulfill customer orders is assessed against 5 measures, calculated as a “Perfect Order” score, by multiplying results of the 5 scores together. Overall, we achieved a Perfect Order rating of 95.62% – which fell short of our goal and previous-year results.

20142015

ORDER ENTRYACCURACY

99.71%

99.67%

WAREHOUSEPICK ACCURACY

99.51%

99.58%

ON TIMEDELIVERY

99.44%

98.92%

CASE FILLRATE

98.12%

98.72%

ORDERS RECEIVEDWITHOUT DAMAGE

98.06%

98.66%

Exceeded goal

Did not meet goal

GOOD NEWS12

Second Harvest Heartland: GNP Company again named a “Partner in Recognizing Hunger Relief” for our ongoing, annual chicken donations; AND a 2015 Hunger Hero, for being THE largest community donor this year.

Received 2015 Target® Partner Award of Excellence, recognizing GNP Company® as a select vendor partner for showing extraordinary passion for, and dedication to, the Target business and brand.

Named 2015 Friend of Youth by St. Cloud Morning and Central Minnesota Noon Optimist Clubs (Thanks, St. Cloud Boys & Girls Club, for the nomination!)

2015 Winners of Minnesota 4-H & Gold’n Plump® Poultry Prince & Princess Scholarships as painted by 2015 Minnesota State Fair Artist, Adam Turman

We’re honored by what others have said about us and the way we do business. Here are a few of the notable awards we received in 2015 and the community events and promotions of which we’re most proud.

HIGHEST SAFETY HONOR 3rd YEAR RUNNING

Already an industry leader in Safety initiatives, our Arcadia, WI Feed Mill operations achieved the highest honor from the Joint Poultry Industry Safety & Health Council – the Safety Award of Distinction recognition – for the 3rd consecutive year. And for the 4th time in 5 years, our Arcadia Feed Mill was nationally recognized for our team member safety and health programs.

425,000 LBS / 1.7 MILLION MEALS WORTH OF CHICKEN

FOCUS FORWARD 13“Our success in large part is due to the continued dedication and commitment of our team members and family farm partners.” - Steve Jurek, President

People: Creating cultural and values alignment

Planet: 100% water reclamation

Poultry: Game-changing processes, packaging and product innovations

Progress: Utilizing “big” data to guide responsible and profitable growth

FOCUSFORWARD

2016

We invite you to learn more.

SALES & SERVICEp: 800-892-8569 (M-F, 8 am to 4:30 pm, CT)e: TradeCustomer@GNPCompany.com

PR/MEDIALexann Reischl, GNP Company®

p: 320-240-6290e: lreischl@GNPCompany.com

Julie Berling, GNP Companyp: 320-240-6289e: jberling@GNPCompany.com

GNP CompanyP.O. Box 1106St. Cloud, MN 56302-1106p: 320-251-3570w: GNPCompany.com

© 2015-2016 JFC LLC. All rights reserved. Published March 2016.

Tending to What Matters Most SAFETY • QUALITY • RESPECT • INTEGRITY • INNOVATION2015 Farm to Fork Report